some shelter, and instead of the strength of reason, he answers with a multitude of words, thinking (as the Proverbe is) that hee may use haile, when hee hath no thunder, Nihil turpius (saith [1] Seneca) dubio est incerto, pedem modo referente, modo producente. "What can there bee more unseemely in one that should be a faire disputant, then to be now here, now there and so uncertaine, that one cannot tell where to find him". He thinkes that there are not Comets in the heavens, because there may be many other reasons of such appearances, but what he knowes not, perhaps (he saies) that argument from the parallax is not sufficient, or if it be, then there may be some deceit in the observation. To this I may safely say, that hee may justly be accounted a weake Mathematician who mistrusts the strength of this argument, nor can hee know much in Astronomy, who under-
- ↑ Epist. 95.
