Earth nor with the Sea and lastly because that our sight holpen by the Prospective-glasses observes in it some Seas and the tops of divers Mountains and such like remarkable things whereof the Maps and figures may be seen in Hevelius Argolius and several others and in our Book de Telescopio These Spots shew that the Moon is partaker of the Elementary and Terrestriall nature and consequently of the rest of the Elements This did move Plato to say That the Stars are composed of fire and earth by reason of their splendour and of their great and lumpish body This plurality of Worlds may again be proved by the variety of the causes that compose it and by the divers combinations that may thence be made which is the argument used by Morodorus in Plutarch in his book of the Philosophers opinion wherein it 's said That where the causes are there the effects ought to be also and the causes of the World being a great many so also ought the Worlds to be many the causes of the world are the four Elements and others that may yet be unknown to us or the infinite number of Democritus Atomes unlesse we had rather say That its God who being infinite so likewise hath created an infinite not onely of Worlds but of all things And indeed as the same Philosopher saith it would be a sad spectacle if there were but an ear of corn in a great field the same would it be of Heaven if it were true that there is no more Earth but one Chap. XXI Wherein is the same proved by certain Reasons drawn from Galileus's Observations and others as of the Stars of Jupiter and of the Spots in the Sun THat great Galileus who seemed onely to be in the World for to resolve the doubts in Astrologie hath discovered with his admirable invention of Prospective-glasses which immortalize his name by the discovery of what is contained in the Stars he is the first who hath directed his Telescopes or Prospective-glasses towards Heaven and by help of them that the milky line were small Stars which by reason of their proximity and great number do confound their light he also hath discovered the Moons superficies not smooth but rugged and full of risings of Hills and hollownesse of Valleys He also hath observed that the Star Venus doth imitate the course of the Moon being now full then half then in the first quarter as a sithe and hath observed the perspicuous change of bignesse in Venus and Mars's diameters things of great concernment and note for the theories of Copernicus and Tycho Brahe He hath ashamed the Sun discovering in him those Spots which for so many Ages he had buried and hid in his bright obscurity and hath discerned that those Spots were not fixed and alwayes lasting as those in the Moon but that they disappear appear again turning round the Sun he hath also discovered four new Planets that had not yet bin observed by some of the ancient Astrologers which he hath called the Planets of Medicis in favour of his Prince these Planets move onely round about Jupiter which hath induced some to believe that Jupiter was another world or another Sun round about which other Planets do run as round about that which in lightens us He hath farther observed that the Planet Saturn hath three bodies having two more at his sides and that the Planet Jupiter is be spotted with girdles or Zones that do girth it the which may plainly and perspicuously be seen by those Telescopes or Prospectives admirably well made by Torricelli the Florentine These are those rare Observations of that illustrious Person who though but little in body yet so great in ingenuity and acuity of spirit that all the World hath suffered by the losse of him He became blind by reason of his too great propensity and labour in these Observations and he who had in these things given light to all this world could not enjoy the light nor his Invention Foscarius adds to all these Observations that Venus hath been seen with three bodies as well as Saturn and that Jupiter hath 4. bodies But Gassendus Fontana Neapolitan hath now the excellentest Telescope in the world with which he hath seen the four Planets which are adjacent to Jupiter as four Moons two about Saturn which make a figure of a pot handle at each side of it In the midst of Mars a little Globe at his brimmes a darkish circle and about Venus two Moons or Stars Chap. XXII Proving the Plurality of Worlds by a Reason taken from the Clouds and the waters above in Heaven WIth the Prospective-glasse we may see some Clouds flying round about the Sun which can arise but from the Moon from other Stars or from the Sun it self because they be beyond the Region of the Meteors Now if the Stars ingender clouds they have water within themselves but if the Element of water is in them the Element of earth and the rest have as great priviledge to be in them as it Now that there is water in them the first Chapter of Genesis proves it clearly when he saith Then God said Let there be a Firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters And God made the Firmament and divided the waters which were under the Firmament from the waters which were above the Firmament he called the Firmament Heaven and the waters under the Firmament Seas Esdras in Chap. 6. of his second Book saith the same in these terms Thou madest the spirit of the Firmament and commandedst it to part asunder and to make a division betwixt the waters that the one part might go up and the other remain beneath Where are these waters above I beseech you if they are not in the Stars For it 's a very weak Reason to say That they are in the Clouds because that besides that they could not contain the Seas It s said in the second Chapter of Genesis that God had not caused it to rain upon the Earth but there went up a mist from the Earth and watered the whole face of the Earth and so consequently there was no vapour raised up to form them and what should have raised them seeing there was yet no Sun created to light the World Let us then lift up our eyes to Heaven and as the new Gymnosophists who daily contemplated the Sun let us observe in them those new Worlds wherewith it is wonderfully enriched which are divers and various in bignesse light and other qualities let us not be as poor simple Countrey fellowes who having seen no farther then the corner of their own chimney cannot apprehend that there can be any Town or City bigger then their Village but let us raise our spirits to the contemplation of the remotest and highest things that are thereby ennobling our selves though it be a very high attempt O how happy is that man who when he pleaseth can spiritually loosen his
because that God is infinite so also ought the Worlds to be infinite For a second Argument it 's objected That if there were more then one World the Divine Scriptures would have communicated it to us but speaking but of one onely it 's not likely there should be any more To this I answer That the holy Scripture speaks clearly of none but of ours though yet in severall places it agreeth in the plurality of Worlds as we shall hereafter demonstrate and that it speaks after the manner of men of all heavenly things condescending to our weaknesse and to the common opinion as when it saith That the Sun and Moon are the great Lights and yet the Moon is one of the smallest Stars and there are some others that are as bigg as the Sun as Canopus Starre and others and an infinite number bigger then the Moon Likewise the Scripture saith That God is angry and doth repent though he is immutable and unchangeable and therefore might the Scripture do the like concerning the motion of the Earth and the plurality of Worlds For a third Argument Plato speaks thus The matter requisite for the composition of the world is but one and heaped up together into one lump or body alone and the Heaven contains within it self all the simple bodies so that no part of the matter can remain for therewith to compose and frame other Worlds To this I answer That it 's not necessary that all the matter be exhausted and spent in the Creation of this our Earth alone yea rather in the Creation of the whole Fabrick but and if it had been all spent at the creation alone of this our Earth God could yet create some new And last of all concedo totum I grant the whole Argument it proving nothing against my assertion for I comprehend all the Worlds or Earths to be in Heaven Plato saith farther against this opinion That the World would be imperfect if it should not contain all and secondly would not be like its pattern if it were not single and onely one and that it would not be incorruptible if there was any thing out of it But we have already answered the Objection touching Unity where we have discovered That God being infinite there must also be infinite Worlds for as Sextus Empiricus saith There is nothing one alone of all whatsoever is numbred in the World And as for the last Plutarch answers it saying thus That it hinders not the World's perfection that there are other Worlds besides for man is perfect and yet contains not every thing And to this answer I adde That by this word World Plato did understand the whole Fabrick of all these Earths or Worlds which make up but one whole world his Arguments cannot at all overthrow my Position Timplerus forms yet this Argument If there were divers Worlds they would have been made in vain and to no purpose because no use of them can be shewed This his Reason is so weak that it will suffice to say for to confute it That though we may not know for what use they are made yet they are not made for nothing for by this same reason the Indies from whence we receive great advantage and profit and the Northern Countreys that yet are unknown to us would also have been created in vain Again there are some who object That if the Stars were inhabited they would have need of the influence of other Stars and Heavens usque ad infinitum without number To this I answer That I am not much perswaded that the Starres are advantageous to us the Sun and Moon excepted it 's not possible that the Stars communicate and serve one another mutually and therefore there is no need of an infinite number of Heavens Last of all Zabarella arguments thus If there were other Worlds what in them should be contained would be either like to what is in this our World or differing from it if it were like it in vain would individuals be multiplyed if differing it could not be found out how it 's disposed To this Objection I answer That men and other things in the Indies would also have been created in vain if his Reason was valid and that though we knew not what was in those new Lands and Countreys yet it was in them notwithstanding so likewise though we be ignorant of what is in the other Worlds yet this our ignorance excludes not their being Chap. XXXIII Answering Pacius's Argument against this Assertion IN this whole Fabrick considered at large may be observed divers Worlds contained within it as the individuals under the species but Pacius labours to oppose this Position thus That the World such as it is comprehends all and that all the matter was spent in the composition of it and that therefore there can be no other bodies out of it for if there were any they would be either simple or composed if simple it would be the Heaven or the Elements But they cannot be the Heaven considering it changes not fully its place but turns round upon it self Nor likewise can it be an Element because it would be beyond nature nor also a mixt body because that if there be not some simple bodies there can be no mixt ones To which I answer That as I have already said by Worlds is to be understood Earths onely and by the general word of World or whole Fabrick are by me understood All the things of the whole Fabrick in the frame and composition of which I yield that all the matter was spent and employed and that out of them there is no other Universe or generall World Chap. XXXIV Answering Melancthon's Objections together with others who say That this Doctrine tends to Introduce new Maxims against Religion BUt there may yet some stand up and say with Melancthon That God ceased from creating and rested himself but Moses in the second of Genesis speaks and meaneth onely the Creation of this our World and truly it 's more consonant that some end and others be created of new as Empedocles did believe it together with Democritus God hath limited his power and he is still the same for to create again as he was afore and as it 's said in the Book of Wisdome ch. 11. v. 18. he wanteth not means to create of new unknown wild beasts Therefore both this and the other Arguments alledged by Melancthon are weak against this our Position which he himself being forced to confesse he saith in his natural Physicks that though his arguments do not fully conclude yet they must be considered and weighed lest that if we believe that there are other worlds we also should believe other Religions and other natures of Men For my part I see no necessity that because there are more Worlds there must also be more Religions the increase of this World through the discovery of the Indies hath not caused any new Religion and it 's very unlike from being capable of introducing
Soul and by his exquisite Meditations rise up to the meditation and contemplation of these Worlds When once we are well acquainted with it and freed from all Preoccupation nothing can be found sweeter pleasanter and more consonant to truth What Patents and particular priviledges have they who believe the contrary that we should adhere to them and our belief should be ruled by them as if it were under their commands Men feign and forge to us five Zones in Heaven and seen other things that are nothing but dreams and foolish fancies as if they had been there above to see it We may say the same to them as Diogenes said to such other creatures How long is it since thou camest from Heaven It 's then as lawful for us to establish new Maxims as for them and to believe in the strength of our reason what we here have attempted and what others say with reason or appearance of truth O that Nature would once open us her bosome and plainly shew us the direction and Government of its motion with what is contained in those great and vaste bodies which sparkle and glister in Heaven What abuses and grosse mistakes should we find in all Sciences Chap. XXIII Wherein the same is proved by an Argument taken from the place where the Clouds stay without going farther WE have here above spoken of the Clouds and thence have drawn an Argument to assert this our opinion we may yet draw this from them viz. that the Clouds and vapours being light should ascend without limitation untill that they were lost from our sight if there were not some other terrestrial Globes in Heaven nor any other attraction then that of the Center of the Earth but we may observe even in the hottest of Summer that the Clouds do not ascend above 3. miles and the strongest vapours that are not above 30 miles whence we must infer that they ascend unto the limit of the activity and attraction of the center of the Earth not being able to go beyond because it would be to bend downward viz. towards the Center of some other terrestriall Globe But that I may better be understood it 's to be observed that as the Loadstone hath a certain inward virtue to draw iron or to move the Needle of the Sea-compasse unto such a distance and no farther so likewise the Earth which by the opinion of some is a great Loadstone whose circumference and activity is extended towards the Moon unto such a certain heighth and the other Stars also have such like circumference wherunto their virtue attraction may reach Insomuch that the Clouds having attained unto that distance which makes a middle between us and the Moon there they are stayed not being suffered to go beyond it because then they would descend towards the Moon or some other Stars which would be contrary to their nature which is to rise upward still so that if a ponderous body as a stone being cast up could go beyond the Earth's attractive point it would not fall back upon the Earth but upon that Star whose attractive Center should reach unto that place whither the stone was cast therefore hath Bacon said in his Book de progressu Scientiarum that Gilbert did not doubt incongruously That the bodies of weight and ponderosity being at a far distance from the Earth would by little and little forsake their motion towards things below Chap. XXIV Containing a Reason drawn from the Bird of Paradise THe new World discovered by our Fathers amongst those infinite riches and rare things it communicates to us makes us partakers of a Bird called by the Indians Manucodiata that is to say the Bird of God or of Paradise This Bird is so beautiful that no one in the Earth is to be compared to it its figure is of so rare a form and so extraordinary that never the like hath been found for it hath neither feet nor wings but is clothed with a skin of feathers made otherwise then that of other birds it 's not found but dead either upon the Earth or in the Sea no body ever saw its eggs nor its nest and it 's asserted that it lives by the Air this Bird never being found upon Earth is it not confonant to Reason that it may come from some other Starre where it lives and breeds and that having flown higher and beyond the attractive Center of that earth or Star where he lived he dyeth by changing his Ayr unto that which is not proper and natural and dying falls upon this Earth Now if birds be found in the Stars there also may other living Creatures be having all the same right of habitation And grant that what some object be true that it hath feet but that they are very short or that its feet are cut that it may appear the rarer yet it hinders not the consequence drawn from it provided that the other circumstances of its nature be true for if it hath feet it must be understood of some of its species onely for Aldrovandus mentions five or six sorts of them whereof some have feet and some none Chap. XXV Wherein is alledged an Argument taken from the Eclipses BEfore the Creation of this whole Fabrick God did inlighten himself and contemplate himself he was a sealed Book which at length is opened and hath set forth to the view that which remained in Himself wherefore the whole World is nothing else then an evident image an Idea of his hidden God-head he is through it all as our soul is throughout all our body and by his will encompasses all the motions of the spheres having spread through them all the Aires as a scrowl which folding it self away at the last day shall be reduced to its former Silence or rather to Nothing This wonderful order thus by him established may be seen in the constant and unchangeable course of the Planets upon which the Astrologians make some certain Almanacks for many years together and foretell the eclipses of Ages to come without missing a moment of time These Stars being all of one and the same nature do eclipse one another the Earth eclipses the Moon the Moon the Sun and so all the rest if their small body is not overcome by the bignesse of those they intend to darken as it s testified by Averroe's Observation who hath seen Mercury in the center of the Sun which seemed to grow in it its light if it hath any being covered and put out Now from these Eclipses or want of light in the Stars we may draw this strong Reason for the assertion of our Position for it sheweth and verifieth that they are of an earthly nature and that their light is borrowed the Moon appears black when the Earth hinders it to receive light from the Sun and divers Philosophers have believed that all the Stars do borrow their light of the Sun they are then obscure and thick of their own nature and consequently earthy and may have
Heavens and that in the Heavens whereunto he humbles himself there are Inhabitants as well as in the Earth And in the Ps. 148. he bids the Angels Stars and Earth c. to praise him That is to say he spoke thus to the Inhabitants thereof by a figure which takes the continent for the thing conteined Ecclesiasticus saith in his 16. chap. and 18 19 20 21. verses Behold the Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens the deep and the Earth and all that therein is shall be moved and the Foundations of the Earth shall be shaken with trembling when he shall visit them and who can conceive his wayes for the most part of his works are hid And in the chap. 43. ver. 32. saith that There are yet hid greater things then these be for we have seen but a few of his works By these two places it plainly appears that those things which we have not seen and are greater then any that we know are somewhere else then in this Earth viz. in the Heavens and that consequently there is more then one World I might yet alledge divers other Scriptures as that of the 2. chap. to the Phillip verse 10. and Psalm 89. verse 7. But that I may not be too tedious I shall not make farther mention of others Chap. XLIV How the naked truth of the plurality of Worlds may be discovered and especially what is in the Moon BUt being we have neither the wings of birds nor the eyes of Eagles or Lynxes nor can heap up Mountains one upon another as Gyants how can we see perspicuously the things that are in the Moon and in the other etherial bodies To this I answer That those ancient Ages have shewed us the way by the Tower of Babel by Pyramides and Phares from the top of which scarce could men be discovered and perceived and from those tops were discovered Countreys of far distance immortalizing the memory of their Authors It would be requisite that a King or great Prince desirous by emulation to immortalize his name would set poor prisoners with other Workmen to the Work that from it being high elevated up into the Ayr we might more distinctly behold by the help of the Prospective-glasses what is within the Stars and chiefly in the Moon no doubt such a Tower would serve much being built upon a very high Hill But if it be objected That there are very high Mountains from which neverthelesse no new thing can be seen I answer That besides that no body went to try it with a Prospect-glasse those Mountains though high by reason of their crookednesse are not very high if we consider them perpendicularly and yet it hath been observed that from the highest Hill of Mount Pyreneus the Sun appears more majesticall then ordinarily which cannot proceed but from the heighth of that Mountain And though nothing could be discovered from such a Tower which I cannot believe yet it would be a work of immortal name to that Prince who would do it And that it may be out of doubt that from a high Mountain or some such place high elevated something may be seen and observed in the Stars Bethancour in his Travels asserts That from the top of Tenerisa a very high Mountain in the Canaries the Sun may be seen to turn round upon himself without the help of any Prospective-glasses Secondly it 's most certain That if the Prospective-glasses can be brought to a full perfection that many things will be discovered new in the Stars and at the first time that they were invented divers things have already been discovered for Galileus and Descartes declare that there may be made Prospective-glasses that shall multiply the object a thousand times in his bignesse If it be so what is there in the Firmament that may not perspicuously be seen Lastly some have imagined that as Man hath imitated the Fishes in swimming that he may also find out the Art of flying and that by such an artifice he may without any other help see the truth of this question the Histories relate to us some Examples of men that have flown Many Philosophers think it feasable and amongst others Roger Bacon I might here relate all those Examples and divers Reasons for it yea some instruments and engines for that effect but I shall shew these things in my Book of Naturall Magick and in my discourse de arte volandi because though one could attain the Art of flying yet it would avail him but little for this purpose because that besides by reason of his weight he could not rise very high he could not remain fixt to behold Heaven or to make use of Prospective-glasses but would wholly bend his mind to the guiding of his Engine Chap. XLV Of Scipio's Dream with some new Reason upon this subject-matter VVE read in several Authors that Scipio dreamed a very notable dream wherein he thought that he was carried up high and that he saw other Worlds in the Stars whence he perceived the Roman Empire and seeing it from very far found that it took so little room in this our Terrestrial Globe that upon that he conceived an exceeding great contempt of those who despising their life did venture it for to get a famous name though but vain in that little corner of the Earth Both Cicero and Macrobius have composed Books concerning this Dream and have doubted under what sort of dreams this was to be entred For my part I think that it must be called a Vision being he saw things that are reall viz. the airy Lands and the Stary and Planeticall people Or it may be that having such a belief he was desirous to propose it as many others in such like case have done thereby to see how it would be received And truly if this was his scope he hath had no bad successe for it hath been embraced by many illustrious Persons who have found it consonant to Reason Besides all this Is it not beyond all reason and appearance that so many huge and vaste bodies as the Stars are should remain barren and fruitlesse I think that if I should discourse orderly and gradually with the most opinionative man that is that I should obtain of him that those bodies whereof some are three hundred times bigger then the Earth do at least bear some plants and if this were granted how could these plants be there if they were not for the use of some living Creatures and if it could be granted that there be some creatures may it not also be granted that there are Men for to make use of them being they are made for them And lastly is it not lawfull and equall that there be men whither soever their dominion reaches but Man rules the Stars as well as the Earth and Sea the whole World is made for him and consequently there must needs be some Inhabitants in the Stars Chap. XLVI Answering the Objection of those who believe that the Spots of the Moon are the figure of