[Margin: 1st Argument, from the perpetual wind of the Torrid Zone.]

[I.] The First Argument some take from the breeze or wind blowing almost perpetually from the East within the Tropics; which Galileo and Gassendi ascribe to the motion of the Earth toward the East. But this argument remains sufficiently solved from the things said (ch. 7, num. 4). Mastrius and Bellutus, however (disp. 4 On the heaven, q. 4, num. 111), add that, if the Earth were moved, it would come about that this perpetual wind would be better felt on Land than at sea—inasmuch as the air [is] enclosed within valleys, mountains, and trees.

[Margin: 2nd Argument, from the veins of Metals.]

[II.] The Second Argument others draw from the fibers and veins in mines of metals turned toward the East, which seems to be from nothing else than from the Earth’s perpetual motion into the Eastern region. But this rather, if it is true, indicates that it happens from the illumination and heat of the Sun, which begin from the East; otherwise, if this proceeded from the motion of the earth, why do the rivers, which are more fluid, not bend their course to the East? say Mastrius and Bellutus, in the place indicated a little before. I said “if this is true,” because the veins of stones and of trees are found rather turned toward the poles of the world.

[Margin: 3rd Argument, from an iron lamina turned to the poles.]

[III.] Thirdly, some say, let an iron lamina be suspended in a small and well-closed chamber by a brazen thread, to equilibrium, so that one of its extremities verge to the East, the other to the West; for a little after it will so bend that it verges to the Poles: this, therefore, they think to be an argument of the Earth’s motion to the East—whereas they ought rather to recognize the magnetic force of the iron, turning itself to the unmoved axis of the earth.

[Margin: 4th Argument, from the danger of corruption.]

[IV.] Fourthly, others say, [things] which are not perpetually agitated either tend frequently, little by little, to corruption; therefore, lest the Earth, the nurse of all things, be corrupted, it was necessary that it be perpetually agitated toward the East: they add also a soul to the Earth, as salt [is added to a thing] lest it putrefy. But if the discourse is of partial corruption on the surface, that cannot be avoided by the motion of the earth; but if of total [corruption], there is no danger, since it [the earth] is not easily alterable, except about the more humid parts of the surface.

[V.] The Fifth Argument, from the motions of the sea and the flux and reflux, has need of a longer examination; and therefore it is to be proposed in a separate and following chapter, and to be called back to the balance [scrutiny].