text:  I know several learned men have contended that the whole is a cheat; and whoever hath not bent his studies that way may be excused for thinking so when he sees in how wretched a manner that noble art is treated by a few mean illiterate traders between us and the stars; who import a yearly stock of nonsense lies folly and impertinence which they offer to the world as genuine from the planets though they descend from no greater height than their own brains