Archimedes Texts

500
be) reconciled with it: And since that by it not only the Phœ
nomena of all the Cœlestial Bodies are most readily salved, but
also many Natural Reasons are discovered, which could not o
therwise, (but with extream difficulty) have been found out:
And since it, last of all, doth open a more easy way into Astro
nomy and Phylosophy, and rejecteth all those superfluous and
imaginary inventions produced by Astronomers to the end only,
that they might be able by them to render a reason of the so ma
ny and so various Motions of the Cœlestial Orbs.

And who knows, but that in that admirable composure of the
Candlestick which was to be placed in the Tabernacle of God, he
might out of his extraordinary love to us have been pleased to
shaddow forth unto us the Systeme of the Universe, and more

especially of the Planets? (a) Thou shalt make a Candlestick of

pure Gold, (saith the Text;) of beaten work shall it be made:
his Shaft, and his Branches, his Bowls, his Knops, and his
Flowers (b) shall be of the same. Here are five things described, the
Shaft of the Candlestick in the midle, the Branches on the sides,
the Bowls, the Knops and the Flowers. And since there can be no
more Shafts but one, the Branches are immediatly described in
these (c) words: Six Branches shall come out of the sides of it:
three Branches out of the one side, and three Branches out of the
other side: Happly these fix Branches may point out to us six
(d) Heavens, which are moved about the Sun in this order; Saturn,
the slowest and most remote of all, finisheth his course about the

Sun thorrow all the twelve Signes of the Zodiack in thirty Years:

Jupiter, being nearer than he, in twelve Years: Mars, being yet

nearer than him, in two Years: The Earth, which is still nearer
than he, doth perform the same Revolution, together with
the Orbe of the Moon, in the space of a Year, that is in Twelve
Months: Venus, which is yet nearer than all these, in (e) 9 Months:
And last of all Mercury, whose vicinity to the Sun is the greatest
of all, accomplisheth its whole conversion about the Sun in eighty
Dayes. After the description of the six Branches, the sacred
Text proceeds to the description of the Bowls, the Knops, and
the Flowers, saying, (f) Three Bowls made like unto Almonds,
with a Knop and a Flower in one Branch; and three Bowls made
like Almonds in the other Branch, with a Knop and a Flower: this
shall be the work of the six Branches that come out of the Shaft.
And in the Candlestick shall be four Bowls made like unto Al
monds, with their Knops and their Flowers: there shall be a knop
under two branches of the same, and a Knop under two Branches
of the same, and a Knop under two Branches of the same; which
together are six Branches, proceeding from one Shaft. The truth

is, the shallownesse of my understanding cannot fathome the