and batter and thunder down the strongest places and that in a moment those instruments should execute our will That by printing and the letters we might communicate our thoughts to another and write in a short time a number infinite of books and even write a thousand times faster then we speak transmit and leave to our posterity our exquisite conceptions and get an immortal name And that by the prospective glasses we might approach to objects far distant strengthen our sight and make us distinctly to see things sar remote If these things I say had been proposed to us in a time wherein farther speech and enquire had never more been made of it who had believed them but rather who had not laughed at them and derided the first motioner of them and yet experience daily sheweth the effects of these Inventions to be true So the former Ages did condemne as hereticks those who believed the Antipodes and this belief was a long time held for a false and ridiculous opinion Christophorus Columbus was rejected of divers Kings when he proposed to them the discovery of the West-Indies and yet his propositions have been found very true and have immortalised their Author So likewise do I hope that time will bring forth the truth of this my opinion which I do not produce to the light without many strong Reasons and the authority of the most learned men the holy Scripture it self is not repugnant and contradictory to it but rather leans much towards my opinion And as touching those Philosophers who grant it not some deny not but that this may be others dare not contradict it and others have so ridiculous reasons that I cannot imagine weaker can be found and considering all they no more then I have ascended into Heaven and therefore who ever hath the best Reasons ought to be believed which being doubtlesse on my side my opinion ought not at all to be esteemed ridiculous Democritus King of the Abderitanes constantly smiled because the World could not apprehend the multiplicity of Worlds I like him have also sufficient occasion to smile and laugh at those who are ignorant of the plurality of the Worlds and even to compare them to bruit beasts which eat the fruits of the Earth without considering whence they come to them for Man is lodged in this World to contemplate in it the wonders that God exposes to the sight of his eyes and to which end he hath given him a face looking upward for to look up to Heaven but he will not make use of his gifts nor enquire after the place of their habitation Why open ye not your eyes O ye learned and wise Men and why awake ye not out of your slumber and deep sleep Awake up the eyes of your Understanding and Reason towards the Heavens contemplating the wonderfull things thereof despise the earthly things and as true Philosophers consider the rest of Men in a dunghill having their thoughts low and Earthly Souls which not being able to stretch themselves beyond the limit of their weak activity dare even accuse those who by noble projects desire to lend them their hands for to draw them out of their ignorance Having then so many and so good Reasons and authority on my behalf I shall not longer fear those who scarce can find any for the confirmation of their opinion or what they have is so weak that the building that the edifice is upon tottereth and leans on every side therefore will I not fear those backbiting tongues which envy anothers good repute and fame which I already foresee in great number opened against me but I shall justly say that they accuse God and Nature of weaknesse and insufficiency and their own proper reason of incapacity Can it be possible that so many rare and great persons who in former Ages did believe it and whose memory is by us honoured and reverenced had erroneous opinions and that so many pertinent reasons should have no solid ground Could it be possible that you would not willingly hearken to those who desire to free you from your mistakes nor suffer your eyes to be unfolded when they be folded with the vail of Preoccupation No I hope that some of the most reasonable at least will be found who will adhere to me and take my part against the assaults of the ignorants who endeavour to discredit me thinking to obtain great glory for the endeavouring the overthrow of so great a project for that is their ordinary scope Alta petit livor praestant altissima venti Alta petunt dextrâ fulmina miss a Jovis That is Envy nothing but high things emulates As by the whirlwinds shaken are high States And the thunders of great Jupiter the god of gods Fall upon the Steeples and not upon the Valleys But I shall smile at them in my heart and applaud my self if none can be found to second me hoping that the Ages to come will produce men more reasonable and who better esteeming my conceptions will accuse this present Age of great ingratitude Chap. II. Proving the plurality of the Worlds by a reason taken from the place wherein are ingendred the Comets PRoclus Cardanus Telessius and others have observed That most of the Comets are formed not onely out of the Region of the Meteors but even far above the Moon and Tycho Brabe that great Astrologian who by his exquisite and rare Observations hath gotten an everlasting name discoursing of it hath asserted That all the Comets are formed above the Moon even according to Kepler as high as the Sun Now it 's Impossible for the vapours to pierce and penetrate into the fiery Region there to be changed into Comets even far above it considering that according to all the Philosophers Judgment the fiery Region is under the concavity of the Moon and so these Comets are formed out of the exhalations of other Lands which are the Starres it 's so clear and perspicuous that I cannot believe that any Man is so void of Reason as to deny it If it be objected That it cannot positively and certainly be known that the Comets are above the region of the Moon I shall send them to the School of Astrologie which teaches by true Rules and Demonstrations the way to measure all the bodies and their far distances from the earth the which Galileus a Person of great fame and renown in this our Age hath confirmed by such like Observations Chap. III. Proving the same by another Argument taken from the bignesse and continuancy of the Comets THE same Astrologers have observed That some Comets have so vaste and great bodies that it 's impossible to believe that the exhalations of this Earth could furnish them sufficiently with matter but I shall dare to go beyond and shall say That though all the Earth should be dissolved into vapours and exhalations yet it could not form so great Comets and of such long continuancy as those which sometimes have been seen
its motion in 24. houres be alienated from it It 's also objected That the Towers would fall and that the Clouds and Rivers would all follow the course of the Earth But I answer That the Clowds are agitated by the winds and therefore cannot follow the course of the earth and as for the Towers they cannot fall considering that the Earth's motion is not violent and that the Towers by reason of their ponderosity bend still towards the Center of the earth and are not removed from their situation And as touching the Rivers the earth being as a gall-nut a River may run towards the East by the bending of its Seats towards the center of the earth although the Earth tends towards the West which may easily be apprehended if we conceive that a man walking in a Ship directs his steps towards the East whilest that the Ship sayles to the West Many severall other Reasons are objected which are but weak but because there are divers Discourses touching the Earth's motion which resolve them and reconcile the places of the holy Scripture upon this subject matter amongst whom are Foscarinus and Barantzanus I shall desire the curious Readers to read them and shall content my self with what I have said Chap. XIII Proving the Plurality of the Worlds by the variety of all natural things NAture is various in all its operations and God hath put such variety in all his Works that we can find nothing uniform in this world all things in it are various and different and this great diversity causes us the more to admire the Creator of this whole Fabrick If it be so concerning the earth which is near-upon the smallest of all the Globes what will it not be of the heavenly which are incomparably greater For this cause did Campanella say That though God and Nature do nothing in vain yet such a great number of Stars greater then the earth would be in vain if there was not in them divers demonstrations of the Idea's of God It 's then consonant to reason that not only the four Elements be in every one of the Starres but also that Men Bsasts and Plants and all whatsoever is seen amongst us be in them And thus did this famous Person of our time speak Chap. XIV Of the measures and dimensions of the Stars and their distance from the Earth and proportions with it with an argument taken from those distances for to prove the multiplicity of Worlds BUt because we have often mentioned the bignesse of the Stars and how they exceed the Earth in extension and also spoken of their infinite distances It will not be out of purpose and beyond our present Discourse to insert them in this Chapter These distances are somewhat variously given by divers Authors but the difference being but small is not of great concernment to us Charles Rapineus gives these distances in his book called Nucleus Philosophiae The Moon is lesser then the Earth 39 times and according to Cardan thirty nine times and a half Mercury is lesser then the Earth by 1100 times Venus by 37 times The Sun is greater then the Earth by 166 times Mars by 1 time Jupiter by 95 times Saturn by 91 times The fixt Stars are innumerable but those that are observed by the Astrologians are 1022 and are of proportions of bignesse Those of the first magnitude are 15 in number and are bigger then the Earth by 117 times Those of the second magnitude are 45 and are bigger then the Earth by 90 times Those of the third are 208 and are bigger then the earth by 70 times Those of the fourth are 472 and are bigger then the Earth by 54 times Those of the fifth are 17 and are bigger then the Earth by 37 times Those of the sixth are 49 and 5 dark and 9 bright ones and are all bigger then the Earth by 18 times The concavity of the Moon is distant from the Center of the Earth 14291 leagues which are 28541 miles From the Center of the Earth to Venus there is 542749 miles To the Sun 3640000 miles To Mars 3965000 miles To Jupiter 28845000 miles To Saturn 46816250 miles To the Concavity of the Firmament 65357500 miles The thicknesse of the Moons round is of 99504 miles Mercury's round is of 334208 miles That of Venus of 3097251 miles That of the Sun 32500 miles That of Mars 248820000 miles That of Jupiter 17969250 miles That of Saturn 18541250 miles That of the Firmament 55357500 miles The diameter of the Earth is of ten thousand and eight hundred miles But Cardanus saith of 10000 miles It s circumference is of 32400 miles and according to Cardanus of 31000 miles and a half It s semidiameter or half diameter is of 5000 miles These things being thus is it not very like that so huge and vaste bodies so distant one from the other should hide and contain in themselves something as well as the Earth at least those that move and are Planets as It is and that turn round the bright body of the Sun which communicates his light to them all Chap. XV Wherein the plurality of Worlds is proved by a Reason drawn from the colour of the Stars IF we see and punctually discern not onely with Jacob's staffe but also with our own sight without the help of any instrument a great diversity in the Stars in their bignesse colour light and other circumstances Shall we not say That those various colours do testifie their various nature and their bodily mixtures and that they may consequently be bodies as well as the Earth Chap. XVI Proving the same because that there is nothing empty nor vain in nature WE cannot remark any thing empty in the whole Nature this passes for a sure Maxim therefore did Hermes in his Asclepe say That all the parts of the World are very full the whole World is full of Globes or Stars these Stars and especially the Earth which we inhabit is filled with Seas Rivers four-footed Beasts Men Birds Minerals the waters are filled with Fishes these things have yet in themselves and unto their very Center so great a variety that their anatomy drawes us to admiration In a word we may lose our selves in the subdividing of them And why may not the Stars be so too seeing that as it hath already been proved in the foregoing Chapter we may see and observe in them some certain variety especially in the Moon where Mountains and Waters evidently appear and may very well be discerned with a good Prospective glasse with which Instrument is a notable Mountain discerned in Mars Chap. XVII Proving the plurality of Worlds by the plurality of Men and because things above are as things below GReat Mercurius Trismegistus who for his eximious Learning hath obtained the name of Thrice most Great hath left us this notable Aphorism That things below are as things above and vice versa those above as them below the meaning is That this World is an example to
now As concerning the new Stars Galileus relates that in the yeares 1572 and 1604 were seen some new Stars that were higher then any one of the Planets whereof the first was in Cassiopeia as Tycho Brahe and Campanella declare so likewise did Hipparchus observe a new Starre 100 years before Christ's Birth And as touching the Spots of the Sun I shall content my self to say hat Galileus asserts That these Spots are bigger then all Asia and Africk some there are who believe them to be onely vapours and some impressions of the Ayr because that their figures are irregular and that they are seen in great number disappearing and again appearing but they onely hide themselves in the Sun or to say more congruously they onely disappear by reason of their too nigh approach to the light of the Sun and besides they have a regulated course according to which they fail not to return at a certain time and therefore they are some Stars touching which I send the Reader to Tardus's book who calls them the Stars of Bourbon after the name of the King of France under whose reign these new Stars were first discovered Chap. XLI Containing divers Reasons drawn from several places of Scripture AS it is said in divers places of the holy Scripture That the Earth is full of corruption or that it sings out the miracles of God by a figure of Rhetorick that puts the continent for the thing contained several Texts of the Scripture do also say as in Job 25. v. 5 6. that the Stars are not clean before God that they sing his praises and are his Armies These are things that very hardly enter into the heart of Men and very likely part of them that Paul saw in his extasie but being he saith that it never entred into the heart of man he might mean unto his time no body had believed it or at least hath not had the full and particular knowledg of them wherefore Job saith chap. 38. v. 37 38. Who can number the clouds in wisdom or who can stay the bottles of Heaven And Solomon in the book of Wisdome ch. 9. v. 16. And hardly do we guesse aright at things that are upon Earth and with labour do we find the things that are before us but the things that are in Heaven who hath searched out And Esdras in his second book chap. 4. v. 21. They that dwell upon the Earth may understand nothing but that which is upon the Earth and he that dwells above the Heavens may onely understand the things that are above the heighth of the Heavens It may be replyed That these Texts are to be understood of the Angels But the Texts alledged in the following Chapter will make it clear that it 's to be understood of Men onely for Campanella hath even observed that Paul to the Colossians Chap. 1. verse 20. saith That by Jesus Christ's blood all things are reconciled to God whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven and consequently it will follow that there are men in Heaven who have need of Redemption as well as we Chap. XLII Containing the Reasons drawn from the Word of God IF then there be divers Worlds and that the Stars be inhabited those worlds may have been created some before the others and so shall end at divers times and perhaps some are ended already and some are created of new the believers of those former Worlds seem to speak in Psal. 90. ver. 1 2. saying Lord thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations before the Mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the Earth and the World And God seems to be angry against the men of those worlds in 2. of Esdras c. 9. v. 18 19. because those who were before were better in these terms And now when I prepared the World which was not yet made even for them to dwell in that now live no man spake against me for then every one obeyed but now the manners of them which are created in this World that is made are corrupted by a perpetuall seed but there is yet one Text more pregnant for to prove that there were other Worlds before this that are ended and have been judged as we shall be one day he speaks in these terms in the 2. Book of Esdras c. 7. v. 34. And the World shall be turned into the old silence 7. dayes like as in the former Judgments so that no man shall remain And if it be thus might we not say that those great Comets that remain so long above the Region of the meteor are the burnings and consummations of some Stars that are ending and which we had not perceived by reason of their far distance For as in former ages new ones have often been seen yea even in this our own so likewise may some others end and to all this we may adde that of the Revelations viz. that the Stars shall fall that is to say shall end Many ancient Authours were of this Judgment believing not only that there are divers Worlds at one and the same time but that there had already been some before Origenes was of this belief and that ours shall last seaven thousand years and that many of the others shall last forty nine thousand years Campanella differs not much from this judgment the Wisedome of God speaking in the Proverbs saith ch. 8. v. 23. 31. Before the Earth was I was with God rejoycing in the habitable part of his Earth and my delights were with the Sons of Men And in the 26. v. While as yet he had not made the Earth nor the Fields nor the highest part of the dust of the World Chap. XLIII which is a sequell of the Texts of the Holy Scripture THough we have divided these places of Scripture into two chapters for to confirm this opinion yet I will not omit some few others which may in some respects sit this same subject Paul to the Ephesians c. 1. v. 10. speaking of Christ Jesus saith That in the dispensation of the fullnesse of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in Heaven and which are on Earth even in him And to the Colos. 1. v. 20. God having made peace through the bloud of Christs Crosse reconciled all things to himself whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven How may these two Texts be expounded if we do not understand them of these men who are in the Heavens or Stars whom God hath gathered to himself and redeemed For if it be said that they are those that died before Christ It cannot stand with reason because their Souls were already in Paradise or in Hell but where the Soul is thither also shall the body go after the Resurrection David speaks thus in the Psal. 112. v. 6. God humbles himself to behold the things that are in Heaven and in Earth for he dwells on high This Text indicates that God is beyond the