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A35530 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 Cyrano de Bergerac, 1619-1655.; Lovell, Archibald. 1687 (1687) Wing C7717; ESTC R20572 161,439 382

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annihilate it but in killing a Man you make him only change his Habitation Nay I 'll go farther with you still since God doth equally cherish all his Works and hath equally divided his Benefits betwixt Us and Plants it is but just we should have an equal Esteem for Them as for our Selves It is true we were born first but in the Family of God there is no Birth-right If then the Cabbage share not with us in the inheritance of Immortality without doubt that Want was made up by some other Advantage that may make amends for the short ness of its Being may be by an universal Intellect or a perfect Knowledge of all things in their Causes and it 's for that Reason that the wise Mover of all things hath not shaped for it Organs like ours which are proper only for a simple Reasoning not only weak but many times fallacious too but others more ingeniously framed stronger and more numerous which serve to manage its Speculative Exercises You 'll ask me perhaps when ever any Cabbage imparted those lofty Conceptions to us But tell me again who ever discovered to us certain Beings which we allow to be above us to whom we bear no Analogy nor Proportion and whose Existence it is as hard for us to comprehend as the Understanding and Ways whereby a Cabbage expresses its self to its like though not to us because our Senses are too dull to penetrate so far Moses the greatest of Philosophers who drew the Knowledge of Nature from the Fountain-Head Nature her self hinted this truth to us when he spoke of the Tree of Knowledge and without doubt he intended to intimate to us under that Figure that Plants in Exclusion to Mankind possess perfect Philosophy Remember then O thou Proudest of Animals I that though a Cabbage which thou cuttest sayeth not a Word yet it pays it at Thinking but the poor Vegetable has no fit Organs to howl as you do nor yet to frisk it about and weep Yet it hath those that are proper to complain of the Wrong you do it and to draw a Judgement from Heaven upon you for the Injustice But if you still demand of me how I come to know that Cabbage and Coleworts conceive such pretty Thoughts Then will I ask you how come you to know that they do not And that some amongst them when they shut up at Night may not Compliment one another as you do saying Good Night Master Cole-Curled-Pate your most humble Servant good Master Cabbage-Round-Head So far was he gone on in his Discourse when the young Lad who had led out our Philosopher led him in again What Supped already cryed my Spirit to him He answered yes almost The Physiognomist having permitted him to take a little more with us Our young Landlord stayed not till I should ask him the meaning of that Mystery I perceive said he you wonder at this way of Living know then that in your World the Government of Health is too much neglected and that our Method is not to be despised In all Houses there is a Physiognomist entertained by the Publick who in some manner resembles your Physicians save that he only prescribes to the Healthful and judges of the different manner how we are to be Treated only according to the Proportion Figure and Symetry of our Members by the Features of the Face the Complexion the Softness of the Skin the Agility of the Body the Sound of the Voice and the Colour Strength and Hardness of the Hair. Did not you just now mind a Man of a pretty low Stature why ey'd you he was the Physiognomist of the House Assure your self that according as he observed your Constitution he hath diversified the Exhalation of your Supper Mark the Quilt on which you lie how distant it is from our Couches without doubt he judged your Constitution to be far different from ours since he feared that the Odour which evaporates from those little Pipkins that stand under our Noses might reach you or that yours might steam to us at Night you 'll see him chuse the Flowers for your Bed with the same Circumspection During all this Discourse I made Signs to my Landlord that he would try if he could oblige the Philosophers to fall upon some head of the Science which they professed He was too much my Friend not to start an Occasion upon the Spot But not to trouble the Reader with the Discourse and Entreaties that were previous to the Treaty wherein Jest and Earnest were so wittily interwoven that it can hardly be imitated I 'll only tell you that the Doctor who came last after many things spake as follows It remains to be proved that there are infinite Worlds in an infinite World Fancy to your self then the Universe as a great Animal and that the Stars which are Worlds are in this great Animal as other great Animals that serve reciprocally for Worlds to other People Such as we our Horses c. That we in our turns are likewise Worlds to certain other Animals incomparably less than our selves such as Nits Lice Hand-worms c. And that these are on Earth to others more imperceptible ones in the same manner as every one of us appears to be a great World to these little People Perhaps our Flesh Blood and Spirits are nothing else but a Contexture of little Animals that correspond lend us Motion from theirs and blindly suffer themselves to be guided by our Will which is their Coachman or otherwise conduct us and all Conspiring together produce that Action which we call Life For tell me pray is it a hard thing to be believed that a Louse takes your Body for a World and that when any one of them travels from one of your Ears to the other his Companions say that he hath travelled the Earth from end to end or that he hath run from one Pole to the other Yes without doubt those little People take your Hair for the Forests of their Country the Pores full of Liquor for Fountains Buboes and Pimples for Lakes and Ponds Boils for Seas and Defluxions for Deluges And when you Comb your self forwards and backwards they take that Agitation for the Flowing and Ebbing of the Ocean Doth not Itching make good what I say What is the little Worm that causes it but one of these little Animals which hath broken off from civil Society that it may set up for a Tyrant in its Country If you ask me why are they bigger than other imperceptible Creatures I ask you why are Elephants bigger than we And the Irish-men than Spaniards As to the Blisters and Scurff which you know not the Cause of they must either happen by the Corruption of their Enemies which these little Blades have killed or which the Plague has caused by the scarcity of Food for which the Seditious worried one another and left Mountains of Dead Carcases rotting in the Field or because the Tyrant having driven away on all Hands
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 ●ikely that the Sun a vast Body Four ●undred and thirty four times bigger than ●he Earth had only been kindled to ripen ●heir Medlars and plumpen their Cabbage ●or my part I am so far from complying ●ith their Insolence that I believe the Pla●…ets are Worlds about the Sun and that ●…e fixed Stars are also Suns which have ●…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
covenanted with our Body that as soon as he should receive a prick with a Sword in the Heart a Bullet in the Brain or a Musket-shot through the Chest she should pack up and be gone and if that Soul were Spiritual and of her self so Rational that being separated from our Mass she understood as well as when Clothed with a Body why cannot Blind Men born with all the fair advantages of that intellectual Soul imagine what it is to see Is it because they are not as yet deprived of Sight by the Death of all their Senses How I cannot then make use of my Right Hand because I have a Left. And in fine to make a just comparison which will overthrow all that you have said I shall only alledge to you a Painter who cannot work without his Pencil And I 'll tell you that it is just so with the Soul when she wants the use of the Senses O yes but added he In the mean time they 'l have this Soul which can only act imperfectly because of the loss of one of her Tools in the course of Life to be able then to work to Perfection when after our death she hath lost them all If they tell me over and over again that she needeth not these Instruments for performing her Functions I 'll tell them e'en so That then all the Blind about the Streets ought to be Whipt at a Carts-Arse for playing the Counterfeits in pretending not to See a bit He would have gone on in such impertinent Arguments had not I stopt his Mouth by desiring him to forbear as he did for fear of a quarrel for he perceived I began to be in a heat So that he departed and left me admiring the People of that World amongst whom even the meanest have Naturally so much Wit whereas those of ours have so little and yet so dearly bought At length my Love for my Country took me off of the desire and thoughts I had of staying there I minded nothing now but to be gone but I saw so much impossibility in the matter that it made me quite peevish and melancholick My Spirit observed it and having asked me What was the reason that my Humor was so much altered I frankly told him the Cause of my Melancholy but he made me such fair Promises concerning my Return that I relied wholly upon him I acquainted the Council with my design who sent for me and made me take an Oath that I should relate in our World all that I had seen in that My Pass ports then were expeded and my Spirit having made necessary Provisions for so long a Voyage asked me What part of my Country I desired to light in I told him that since most of the Rich Youths of Paris once in their life time made a Journey to Rome imagining atter that that there remained no more worth the doing or seeing I prayed him to be so good as to let me imitate them But withal said I in what Machine shall we perform the Voyage and what Orders do you think the Mathematician who talked t'other day of joyning this Globe to ours will give me As to the Mathematician said he let that be no hinderance to you for he is a Man who promises much and performs little or nothing And as to the Machine that 's to carry you back it shall be the same which brought you to Court. How said I will the Air become as solid as the Earth to bear your steps I cannot believe that And it is strange replied he that you should believe and not believe Pray why should the Witches of your World who march in the Air and conduct whole Armies of Hail Snow Rain and other Meteors from one Province into another have more Power than we Pray have a little better opinion of me than to think I would impose upon you The truth is said I I have received so many good Offices from you as well as Socrates and the rest for whom you have so great kindness that I dare trust my self in your hands as now I do resigning my self heartily up to you I had no sooner said the word but he rose like a Whirl-wind and holding me between his Arms without the least Uneasiness he made me pass that vast space which Astronomers reckon betwixt the Moon and us in a day and a halfs time which convinced me that they tell a Lye who say that a Mill-stone would be Three Hundred Threescore and I know not how many years more in falling from Heaven since I was so short a while in dropping down from the Globe of the Moon upon this At length about the beginning of the Second day I perceived I was drawing near our World since I could already distinguish Europe from Africa and both from Asia when I smelt Brimstone which I saw steaming out of a very high Mountain that incommoded me so much that I fainted away upon it I cannot tell what befel me afterwards but coming to my self again I found I was amongst Briers on the side of a Hill amidst some Shepherds who spake Italian I knew not what was become of my Spirit and I asked the Shepherds if they had not seen him At that word they made the sign of the Cross and looked upon me as if I had been a Devil my self But when I told them that I was a Christian and that I begg'd the Charity of them that they would lead me to some place where I might take a little rest they conducted me into a Village about a Mile off where no sooner was I come but all the Dogs of the place from the least Cur to the biggest Mastiff flew upon me and had torn me to pieces if I had not found a House wherein I saved my self But that hindered them not to continue their Barking and Bawling so that the Master of the House began to look upon me with an Evil Eye and really I think as people are very apprehensive when Accidents which they look upon to be ominous happen that man could have delivered me up as a Prey to these accursed Beasts had not I be thought my self that that which madded them so much at me was the World from whence I came because being accustomed to bark at the Moon they smelt I was come from thence by the scent of my Cloaths which stuck to me as a Sea-smell hangs about those who have been long on Ship-board for sometime after they come ashore To Air my self then I lay three or four hours in the Sun upon a Terrass-walk and being afterwards come down the Dogs who smelt no more that influence which had made me their Enemy left barking and peaceably went to their several homes Next day I parted for Rome where I saw the ruins of the Triumphs of some great Men as well as of Ages I admired those lovely Relicks and the Repairs of some of them made by the Modern At length having stayed there a fortnight in Company of