Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
hand_n	air_n	face_n	great_a	119	3	2.0810	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39865	A discovery of new worlds from the French, made English by A. Behn.	Fontenelle, M. de (Bernard Le Bovier), 1657-1757.; Behn, Aphra, 1640-1689.	1688 (1688)	Wing F1412; ESTC R27986	79,769	206

but for the Earth that does not seem to be very portable And wou'd you believe it said I Madam if you had never seen the Experiment that a First-Rate Ship of a hundred and twenty Guns with fifteen hundred Men and proportionable Provision with all her Ammunition and Tackle a-board were a very portable thing Notwithstanding a gentle Breeze will move this Ship on the Sea because the Water is liquid and yielding easily makes no resistance to the motion of the Vessel So the Earth notwithstanding of as vast bulk and weight is easily mov'd in the Celestial Matter which is a thousand times more fluid than the Water of the Sea and which fills all that vast Extent where the Planets swim as it were And to what wou'd you fix or grapple the Earth to hinder it from being carry'd along with the Current of this Celestial Matter or Substance It wou'd be just as if a little wooden Ball shou'd not follow the Current of a rapid River But said she how does the Earth support its vast weight on your Heavenly Substance which ought to be very light since it is so fluid That does not follow answered I Madam that a thing must be light because it is fluid What say you to the First-Rate Ship I spoke of with all its Lading Yet 't is lighter than the Water because it swims upon it As long as you command your First-Rate Frigat said she angrily I will not argue with you but can you assure me that I am in no danger by inhabiting such a little Humming-Top as you have made the World to be Well Madam said I the Earth shall be supported by four Elephants as the Indians fansie it is Here 's a new System indeed cry'd Madam la Marquiese yet I love those Men for providing for their own security by resting upon a solid Foundation whereas we that follow Copernicus are so inconsiderate as to swim at a venture upon your Celestial Matter And I dare say if these Indians thought the Earth in any danger of falling they wou'd quickly double the number of their Elephants They wou'd have all the reason in the World to do so said I Madam laughing at her fancy and wou'd not spare Elephants to sleep in quiet without fear of falling And Madam we will add as many as you please to our System for this Night and take them away by degrees as you get more Assurance Really said she I do not think they are needful at present for I feel I have Courage sufficient to turn round You must go a step further said I and you shall turn round with delight upon this System you will form to your self very pleasant and agreeable Idea's As for Example Sometimes I fansie I am hanging in the Air and that I stay there without moving while the Earth turns round under me in four and twenty Hours time and that I see beneath me all those different Faces some white some black some tawny others of an Olive-colour first I see Hats then Turbants there Hands cover'd with Wool there shav'd Heads sometimes Towns with Steeples some with their long small-pointed Pyramids and Half-moons on their tops sometimes Towns with Porcelane Towers after them spacious Fields without Towns only Tents and Huts here vast Seas frightful Desarts in short all the Variety that is to be seen upon the Face of the Earth Indeed said she such a sight wou'd be very well worth twenty four Hours of ones Time So that by this System through the same place where we now are I do not mean this Park but that space of Air which our Bodies fill several other Nations must successively pass and we return hither in twenty four hours to our own place again Copernicus himself said I Madam did not understand it better At first will be here the English discoursing it may be upon some politick Design with more Gravity but less Pleasure than we talk of our Philosophy Next will come a vast Ocean in which there will be sailing some Ships perhaps not so much at their Ease as we are Then will appear the Canibals eating some Prisoners of War alive they seeming very unconcern'd at what they suffer After them the Women of the Country of Iesso who spend all their time in preparing their Husbands Meals and in painting their Lips and Eye-brows with Blew to please the ugliest Fellows in the World Next will succeed the Tartars who go with great Devotion on Pilgrimage to that great Priest who never comes out of an obscure place where he has no other Light but Lamps by which they adore him After them the beautiful Circassian Women who make no difficulty of granting any Favour to the first Comer except what they essential know does belong to their Husbands Then the Crim or Little Tartars who live by stealing of Wives for the Turks and Persians And at last our selves again perhaps talking as we do now I am mightily taken said the Marquiese with the Fancy of what you say but if I cou'd see all these things from above I wou'd wish to have the power to hasten and stop the Motion of the Earth according as I lik'd or dis-lik'd the several Objects that pass under me I wou'd make the Polititians and those that eat their Enemies to move very fast But there are others that I shou'd be very curious to observe and particularly the fine Cercassian Women who have one so peculiar a Custom That is said I their Husbands who finding so many Charms in their Embraces as more than satisfie them do freely abandon their fair Wives to Strangers The Women of our Country said the Marquiese must be very ugly if compar'd to the Circassians for our Husbands will part with nothing That is the reason said I that the more is taken from 'em whereas No more of these Fooleries said the Marquiese interrupting me there 's a serious Difficulty come into my head If the Earth turn round then we change Air every Moment and must breath still that of another Country By no means Madam said I the Air which encompasses the Earth extends it self to a certain heighth it may be about twenty Leagues and turns round with us You have no doubt seen a thousand times the business of the Silk-worm where the Balls which these little Creatures do work with so much Art for their own Imprisonment are compact and wrought together with Silk which is very closely join'd but they are cover'd with a kind of Down that is very light and soft Thus it is that the Earth which is very solid is wrapp'd in a Covering of soft Down of twenty Leagues thickness which is the Air that is carried round at the same time with it Above the Air is that Celestial Matter I spoke of incomparably more pure more subtile and more agitated than the Air. You represent the Earth to me said the Marquiese as a very contemptible thing by the despicable Idea's you give me of it 'T is

great a matter as you imagine and the Sun only is remarkable for that Quality 't is he alone that is enlightned of himself by virtue of his particular Essence but the other Planets shine only as being enlightned by the Sun The Sun communicates his Light to the Moon which reflects it upon the Earth as the Earth without doubt reflects it back again to the Moon since the distance from the Moon to the Earth is the same as from the Earth to the Moon But said the Marquiese is the Earth as proper for reflecting the Light of the Sun as the Moon You are always for the Moon said I and you cannot rid your self of those Remains of Kindness you have for her Light is compos'd for little Balls which rebound upon any solid Body which is opaque or obscure and are sent back another way whereas they pass through any thing that offers them an Opening or Passage in a streight Line which is Diaplanus or clear such as Air and Glass So that the Moon enlightens us because she is an Opaque solid Body which retorts these little Balls upon us and I believe you will not dispute the same Solidity to the Earth Admire then Madam how advantageous it is to be well posted so that the Moon being at a great distance from us we see it as an enlightned Body only but are ignorant that 't is a gross solid Mass very much like the Earth On the other hand the Earth having the ill luck to be seen by us too near we consider it only as a great massy Body fit only for the producing of Food for living Creatures 'T is just said the Marquiese as when we are struck and surpriz'd with the Splendour of Quality above our own we do not perceive that in the main there 's no difference between them and us 'T is just so said I and we will needs be judging of every thing but we have the mis-fortune still to be plac'd in a false Light Wou'd we judge of our selves we are too near if of others we are too far off Cou'd one be plac'd between the Moon and the Earth that wou'd be a true Station to consider both well To this End we ought only to be Spectators of the World and not Inhabitants I shall never be satisfy'd said the Marquiese with the Injury we do the Earth in being too favourably engag'd for the Inhabitants of the Moon unless you can assure me that they are as ignorant of their Advantages as we are of ours and that they take our Earth for a Star without knowing that the Globe they inhabit is one also Be assur'd of that Madam said I that the Earth appears to them to perform all the Functions of a Star 'T is true they do not see the Earth describe a Circle round 'em but that 's all one I 'll explain to you what it is That side of the Moon which was turn'd towards the Earth at the beginning of the World has continu'd towards the Earth ever since which still represents to us these same Eyes Nose and Mouth which our Imaginations fansie we see compos'd of these Spots Lights and Shadows which are the Surface of the Moon Cou'd we see the other half of the Moon 't is possible our Fancy wou'd represent to us some other Figure This does not argue but the Moon turns however upon her own Axis and takes as much time to perform that Revolution as she does to go round the Earth in a Month. But then when the Moon performs a part of her Revolutions on her own Axis and that she ought to hide from us for Example one Cheek of this imaginary Face and appear to us in another Position she does at the same time perform as much of the Circle she describes in turning round the Earth and tho' she is in a new Point of Sight or Opposition as to us yet she represents to us still the same Cheek So that the Moon in regard to the Sun and the other Planets turns upon her own Axis but does not so as to the Earth The Inhabitants of the Moon see all the other Planets rise and set in the space of fifteen Days but they see our Earth always hanging in the same Point of the Heavens This seeming Immovability does not very well agree with a Body that ought to pass for a Planet but the truth is the Earth is not in such perfection Besides the Moon has a certain trembling Quality which does sometimes hide a little of her imaginary Face and at other times shews a little of her opposite Side and no doubt but the Inhabitants of the Moon attribute this shaking to the Earth and believe we make a certain swinging in the Heavens like the Pendulum of a Clock All these Planets said the Marquiese are like us Mortals who always cast our own Faults upon others Says the Earth It is not I that turn round 't is the Sun Says the Moon It is not I that tremble 't is the Earth There are Errors and Mistakes every where I wou'd not advise you said I to undertake to reform any of 'em 't is better that I make an end in convincing you that the Moon is in all things like the Earth Represent to your self these two great Globes hanging in the Heavens you know that the Sun does always enlighten one half of any Globe and the other half is in the Shadow there is therefore always one half of both Moon and Earth that is enlightned or half Day and the other half is still in the Darkness of Night Be pleas'd besides to consider that a Ball has less force and swiftness after it re-bounds from a Wall against which it was thrown than it had before it touch'd the Wall which sends it another way so Light is not so strong after 't is reflected by any solid Body This pale Light which comes to us from the Moon is the Light of the Sun it self but we have it only by Reflection from the Moon and has lost a great deal of that Strength and Vivacity which it had when 't was receiv'd by the Moon directly from the Sun and that bright and dazling Light which we receive from the Sun must in the same manner appear to the Inhabitants of the Moon after 't is reflected by the Earth on the Moon So that the Surface of the Moon which we see enlightned and which shines upon us in the Night is that half of the Moon that enjoys the Day as that half of the Globe of the Earth which is enlightned by the Sun when 't is turn'd towards the darkned half of the Globe of the Moon does give Light to the Inhabitants there during their Nights All depends upon the different Opposition and Aspects between the Moon and the Earth The first and second Day of the Moon we do not see her because she is betwixt the Sun and us and moves with the Sun by our Day it necessarily follows that