Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A35530
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The comical history of the states and empires of the worlds of the moon and sun written in French by Cyrano Bergerac ; and newly Englished by A. Lovell ...; Histoire comique des états et empires du soleil. English
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Cyrano de Bergerac, 1619-1655.; Lovell, Archibald.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing C7717; ESTC R20572
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161,439
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382
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The truth is that Motion which you attribute to the Earth is a pretty nice Paradox and for my part I 'll frankly tell you That that which hinders me from being of your Opinion is That though you parted yesterday from Paris yet you might have arrived to day in this Country without the Earth's turning For the Sun having drawn you up by the means of your Bottles ought he not to have brought you hither since according to Ptolemy and the Modern Philosophers he marches obliquely as you make the Earth to move And besides what great Probability have you to imagine that the Sun is immoveable when we see it go And what appearance is there that the Earth turns with so great Rapidity when we feel it firm under our Feet Sir replied I to him These are in a manner the Reasons that oblige us to think so In the first place it is consonant to common Sense to think that the Sun is placed in the Center of the Universe seeing all Bodies in nature standing in need of that radical Heat it is fit he should reside in the heart of the Kingdom that he may be in a condition readily to supply the Necessities of every Part and that the Cause of Generations should be placed in the middle of all Bodies that it may act there with greater Equality and Ease After the same manner as Wise Nature hath placed the Genitals in Man the Seeds in the Center of Apples the Kernels in the middle of their Fruits and in the same manner as the Onion under the cover of so many Coats that encompass it preserves that precious Bud from which Millions of others are to have their being for an Apple is in it self a little Universe the Seed hotter than the other parts thereof is its Sun which diffuses about it self that natural Heat which preserves its Globe And in the Onion the Germ is the little Sun of that little World which vivifies and nourishes the vegetative Salt of that little mass Having laid down this then for a ground I say That the Earth standing in need of the Light Heat and Influence of this great Fire it turns round it that it may receive in all parts alike that Virtue which keeps it in Being For it would be as ridiculous to think that that vast luminous Body turned about a point that it has not the least need of as to imagine that when we see a roasted Lark that the Kitchin-fire must have turned round it Else were it the part of the Sun to do that drudgery it would seem that the Physician stood in need of the Patient that the Strong should yield to the Weak the Superior serve the Inferior and that the Ship did not sail about the Land but the Land about the Ship. Now if you cannot easily conceive how so ponderous a Body can move Pray tell me are the Stars and Heavens which in your Opinion are so solid any way lighter Besides it is not so difficult for us who are assured of the Roundness of the Earth to infer its motion from its Figure But why do ye suppose the Heaven to be round seeing you cannot know it and that yet if it hath not this Figure it is impossible it can move I object not to you your Excentricks nor Epicycles which you cannot explain but very confusedly and which are out of doors in my Systeme Let 's reflect only on the natural Causes of that Motion To make good your Hypothesis you are forced to have recourse to Spirits or Intelligences that move and govern your Spheres But for my part without disturbing the repose of the supreme Being who without doubt hath made Nature entirely perfect and whose Wisdom ought so to have compleated her that being perfect in one thing she should not have been defective in another I say that the Beams and Influences of the Sun darting Circularly upon the Earth make it to turn as with a turn of the Hand we make a Globe to move or which is much the same that the Steams which continually evaporate from that side of it which the Sun shines upon being reverberated by the Cold of the middle Region rebound upon it and striking obliquely do of necessity make it whirle about in that manner The Explication of the other Motions is less perplexed still for pray consider a little At these words the Vice-Roy interrupted me I had rather said he you would excuse your self from that trouble for I have read some Books of Gassendus on that subject And hear what one of our Fathers who maintained your Opinion one day answered me Really said he I fancy that the Earth does move not for the Reasons alledged by Copernicus but because Hell-fire being shut up in the Center of the Earth the damned who make a great bustle to avoid its Flames scramble up to the Vault as far as they can from them and so make the Earth to turn as a Turn-spit makes the Wheel go round when he runs about in it We applauded that Thought as being a pure effect of the Zeal of that good Father And then the Vice-Roy told me That he much wondered how the Systeme of Ptolemy being so improbable should have been so universally received Sir said I to him most part of Men who judge of all things by the Senses have suffered themselves to be perswaded by their Eyes and as he who Sails along a Shoar thinks the Ship immoveable and the Land in motion even so Men turning with the Earth round the Sun have thought that it was the Sun that moved about them To this may be added the unsupportable Pride of Mankind who perswade themselves that Nature hath only been made for them as if it were â—ikely that the Sun a vast Body Four â—undred and thirty four times bigger than â—he Earth had only been kindled to ripen â—heir Medlars and plumpen their Cabbage â—or my part I am so far from complying â—ith their Insolence that I believe the Plaâ—…ets are Worlds about the Sun and that â—…e fixed Stars are also Suns which have â—…anets about them that 's to say Worlds which because of their smallness and that their borrowed light cannot reach us are not discernable by Men in this World For in good earnest how can it be imagined that such spacious Globes are no more but vast Desarts and that ours because we live in it hath been framed for the habitation of a dozen of proud Dandyprats How must it be said because the Sun measures our Days and Years that it hath only been made to keep us from running our Heads against the Walls No no if that visible Deity shine upon Man it 's by accident as the King's Flamboy by accident lightens a Porter that walks along the Street But said he to me if as you affirm the fixed Stars be so many Suns it will follow that the World is infinite seeing it is probable that the People of that World which moves about that fixed
there are a Million of things perhaps in the Universe that would require a Million of different Organs in you to understand them For instance I by my Senses know the cause of the Sympathy that is betwixt the Loadstone and the Pole of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea and what becomes of the Animal after Death you cannot reach these high Conceptions but by Faith because they are Secrets above the power of your Intellects no more than a Blind-man can judge of the beauties of a Land-skip the Colours of a Picture or the streaks of a Rain-bow or at best he will fancy them to besomewhat palpable to be like Eating a Sound or a pleasant Smell Even so should I attempt to explain to you what I perceive by the Senses which you want you would represent it to your self as somewhat that may be Heard Seen Felt Smelt or Tasted and yet it is no such thing He was gone on so far in his Discourse when my Juggler perceived that the Company began to be weary of my Gibberish that they understood not and which they took to be an inarticulated Grunting He therefore fell to pulling my Rope afresh to make me leap and skip till the Spectators having had their Belly-fulls of Laughing affirmed that I had almost as much Wit as the Beasts of their Country and so broke up Thus all the comfort I had during the misery of my hard Usage were the visits of this officious Spirit for you may judge what conversation I could have with these that came to see me since besides that they only took me for an Animal in the highest class of the Category of Bruits I neither understood their Language nor they mine For you must know that there are but two Idioms in use in that Country one for the Grandees and another for the People in general That of the great ones is no more but various inarticulate Tones much like to our Musick when the Words are not added to the Air and in reality it is an Invention both very useful and pleasant for when they are weary of talking or disdain to prostitute their Throats to that Office they take either a Lute or some other Instrument whereby they communicate their Thoughts as well as by their Tongue So that sometimes Fifteen or Twenty in a Company will handle a point of Divinity or discuss the difficulties of a Law-suit in the most harmonious Consort that ever tickled the Ear. The second which is used by the Vulgar is performed by a shivering of the Members but not perhaps as you may imagine for some parts of the Body signifie an entire Discourse for example the agitation of a Finger a Hand an Ear a Lip an Arm an Eye a Cheek every one severally will make up an Oration or a Period with all the parts of it Others serve only instead of Words as the knitting of the Brows the several quiverings of the Muscles the turning of the Hands the stamping of the Feet the contorsion of the Arm so that when they speak as their Custom is stark naked their Members being used to gesticulate their Conceptions move so quick that one would not think it to be a Man that spoke but a Body that trembled Every day almost the Spirit came to see me and his rare Conversation made me patiently bear with the rigour of my Captivity At length one morning I saw a Man enter my Cabbin whom I knew not who having a long while licked me gently took me up in his Teeth by the Shoulder and with one of his Paws wherewith he held me up for fear I might hurt my self threw me upon his Back where I found my self so softly seated and so much at my ease that being afflicted to be used like a Beast I had not the least desire of making my escape and besides these Men that go upon all four are much swifter than we seeing the heaviest of them make nothing of running down a Stagg In the mean time I was extreamly troubled that I had no news of my courteous Spirit and the first night we came to our Inn as I was walking in the Court expecting till Supper should be ready a pretty handsome young Man came smiling in my Face and cast his Two Fore-Legs about my Neck After I had a little considered him How said he in French do not you know your Friend then I leave you to judge in what case I was at that time really my surprise was so great that I began to imagine that all the Globe of the Moon all that had befallen me and all that I had seen had only been Enchantment And that Beast-man who was the same that had carried me all day continued to speak to me in this manner You promised me that the good Offices I did you should never be forgotten and yet it seems you have never seen me before but perceiving me still in amaze In fine said he I am that same Demon of Socrates who diverted you during your Imprisonment and who that I may still oblige you took to my self a Body on which I carried you to day But said I interrupting him how can that be seeing that all Day you were of a very long Stature and now you are very short that all day long you had a weak and broken Voice and now you have a clear and vigorous one that in short all day long you were a Grey-headed old Man and are now a brisk young Blade Is it then that whereas in my Country the Progress is from Life to Death Animals here go Retrograde from Death to Life and by growing old become young again So soon as I had spoken to the Prince said he and received orders to bring you to Court I went and found you out where you were and have brought you hither but the Body I acted in was so tired out with the Journey that all its Organs refused me their ordinary Functions so that I enquired the way to the Hospital where being come in I found the Body of a young Man just then expired by a very odd Accident but yet very common in this Country I drew near him pretending to find motion in him still and protesting to those who were present that he was not dead and that what they thought to be the cause of his Death was no more but a bare Lethargy so that without being perceived I put my Mouth to his by which I entred as with a breath Then down dropt my old Carcass and as if I had been that young Man I rose and came to look for you leaving the Spectators crying a Miracle With this they came to call us to Supper and I followed my Guide into a Parlour richly furnished but where I found nothing fit to be eaten No Victuals appearing when I was ready to die of Hunger made me ask him where the Cloath was laid But I could not hear what he answered for at that instant Three or Four young Boys