Cautions concerning Squares and Trines

[p. 61] But now should any ²⁰think their Skill designsThe Squares aright, and well describes the Trines,And that they hit the Rule when e're they giveFour Signs to Squares, to Trines allotting Five;And thence presume to guess what mutual AidThe Signs afford, they'll find their Work betray'd:For though on every side five Signs are foundTo make the several Trines that fill the Round,Yet Births in each Fifth Sign no Fates designTo share th' united Influence of the Trine.They lose the Thing, though they preserve the Name,For Place and Number still oppose their Claim:For since the Round where Phoebus guides his ReinsThree hundred, and thrice twenty parts contains,One third of those, as we the Round divideIn Trines, to every Trine must make one side;But Sign apply to Sign, not Part to Part,This Number's lost; and therefore false the Art.For tho Three Signs appear to interposeBetween the Two in which the Angles close;

[p. 62] Yet take the Scheme as 'tis expos'd to sight,And joyn the utmost parts of Left and Right;Then count the number; on the slightest viewYou'll quickly find it much exceeds the true:Thrice fifty parts it holds, and thus one LineDefrauds the other, and destroys the Trine;And therefore though the several Signs retainThe Name of Trines, they claim the Parts in vain.

The like Mistake, when you design a Square,Thy Art may baffle, and elude thy Care;For as the Round we by Degrees divideTo every Quadrate Ninety make one side:Now from the first from which begins the Line,To th' last degree of the succeeding SignIf you count on, twice sixty parts prepareTo crowd upon thee, and deform the Square:Or from preceding Signs last parts descendTo Signs succeeding, let the Reckoning endI'th' first Degree of those: the space confinesBut Sixty parts, the number of Two Signs;Thus count from Fourth to Fourth, Degrees too few,Or else too many will thy Work pursue,Elude thy Skill, and prove the Scheme untrue.

Then take Advice, nor from my Rules depart,Nor think thy Figures well design'd by Art,'Cause Four in Squares, Three equal Lines in TrinesIn Angles meeting there divide the Signs;For in all Trines the single sides requireSixscore Degrees to make the Scheme intire;Squares ninety ask: but more or less proclaimThe Figure faulty, and destroy the Frame.And where the several Lines in Angles close,They there the Trines, or else the Squares dispose.

[p. 63] These mutual Aid by Nature's Laws convey,And jointly act with an agreeing Ray.And therefore every Birth, that Squares or TrinesEnjoys, not always carries all the Lines;And tho' the Signs the name of Squares may gain,Or Trines, they never shall their Force obtain:They cannot jointly act, their Rays unite,Tho Trines they seem, and shew like Squares to sight:For wide the difference, whether those Degrees,The Line takes up, which to it Art decrees;Or from the Numbers, which the Circle fill,Detracting somewhat, it eludes thy Skill:For then of Signs too many or too fewIt will possess; and make the Scheme untrue.