[242] PAGE 214, LINE 26. Page 214, line 31. _Philolaus Pythagoricus._
"Philolaüs a le premier dit que la terre se meut en cercle; d'autres disent que c'est Nicétas de Syracuse."
"Les uns prétendent que le terre est immobile; mais Philolaüs le pythagoricien dit qu'elle se meut circulairement autour du feu (central) et suivant un cercle oblique, comme le soleil et la lune."--(Chaignet, _Pythagore et la Philosophie pythagoricienne_, Paris, 1873.)
It appears that the first of these _dicta_ is taken from Diogenes Laërt., viii. 85; and the second from Plutarch, _Placit. Philos._, III. 7. The latter { 61} passage may be compared with Aristotle, _De Coelo_, II. 13, who, referring to the followers of Pythagoras, says: "They say that the middle is fire, that the earth is a star, and that it is moved circularly about this centre; and that by this movement it produces day and night."
[243] PAGE 214, LINE 34. Page 214, line 42. _Copernicus._--His work is _De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, libri vi._ (Basil., 1566).
[244] PAGE 215, LINE 27. Page 215, line 24. _quæ ... in cælo varijs distantijs collocata sunt._--This remark appears to be Gilbert's one contribution to the science of Astronomy; the stars having previously been regarded as fixed in the eighth sphere all at the same distance from the central earth, around which it revolved.
[245] PAGE 220, LINE 6. Page 220, line 6. _quem nycthemeron vocamus._--The 1628 and 1633 editions read _nyctemoron_.
[246] PAGE 221, LINE 10. Page 221, line 11. _poli verè oppositi sint._--For _verè_, the 1628 and 1633 editions read _rectæ_. All editions read _sint_, though _sunt_ seems to make better sense.
[247] PAGE 223, LINE 7. Page 223, line 8. _ad telluris conformitatem._--The word _conformitas_ is unknown in classical Latin.
[248] PAGE 223, LINE 16. Page 223, line 17. _Omitto quod Petrus Peregrinus constanter affirmat, terrellam super polos suos in meridiano suspensam, moveri circulariter integrâ revolutione 24 horis: Quod tamen nobis adhuc videre non contingit; de quo motu etiam dubitamus._
This statement that a spherical loadstone pivotted freely with its axis parallel to the earth's axis will of itself revolve on its axis once a day under the control of the heavens, thus superseding clocks, is to be found at the end of chap. x. of Peregrinus's _Epistola De Magnete_ (Augsb., 1537).