Fol. 2.

ON THE MOSAIC PHILOSOPHY

A personified sun with a face is centered at the top of the page, emitting radiant rays. Below it are two detailed diagrams of scientific instruments, likely early thermoscopes or weather glasses. The left instrument consists of a globe labeled 'A' resting on a pedestal. A curved tube labeled 'B' arches from the globe and descends into a ceramic jug labeled 'C' filled with water. The tube features a numerical scale from 1 to 9. A decorative letter 'I' is placed above the curve of the tube. The right instrument consists of a globe labeled 'A' with a long, vertical straight tube labeled 'B' descending directly into a ceramic jug labeled 'C' filled with water. The tube is marked with a scale numbered 1 to 7 both upwards and downwards from a central point. A decorative letter 'Z' is positioned above the globe. Ornamental scrollwork vignettes are placed between and above the diagrams.

From these examples, it is possible to see that these two instruments differ from one another only in shape and not in nature. For the solar rays, acting by their heat upon the hollow globe of the head (marked A), cause the enclosed air—which is rarefied: made thinner and more expansive through heat by their action—to descend through the pipe A-B into the pot of water and to exit through the surface of the water in the form of bubbles. However, when the sun sets and the cold night approaches, that enclosed air, which the previous day had been rarefied by the sun’s presence and its hot action, is again chilled original: "congelatur," literally frozen, but here meaning thickened or contracted, contracted, and condensed: thickened and reduced in volume. But because there is not enough air in the leaden sphere and the pipe to complete such a condensation in the proper proportion—since a part of it (as was said) had been exhaled the day before—therefore, to avoid a vacuum Fludd follows the traditional Aristotelian belief that "nature abhors a vacuum," meaning physical space must always be filled with some substance., as much water is sucked out of the pot C into the leaden pipe as there was air exhaled during the rarefaction. Again, when the Sun rises on the next day, the air enclosed in the glass globe and pipe will again be rarefied, and then by expanding itself, it will repel the water, which had risen

into the pipe, back to its former place. And thus this alteration in condensation and rarefaction will always behave in the same way, more or less, according as the Sun is nearer or farther from us, or according to either the coldness or heat of the wind blowing in the element: refers to the sphere of air, one of the four classical elements.

The same thing will also happen to the air enclosed in the second glass vessel. For the globe or ball at the top of the glass is full of air, and in every respect corresponds exactly to the leaden ball; so much so that the straight pipe, which rises out of the water and is joined to the head, is exactly comparable to the curved pipe of the first instrument. Indeed, if the leaden ball were raised higher, and the curved pipe were made straight so as to rise from the water pot perpendicularly into the leaden sphere, there would be no difference between the form or shape of the first and second machine or instrument. Thus, anyone may discern that the condition and use of both are the same in effect.

A 2