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ribus perfusi, terream superficiem clariorem, obscuriorem vero aqueam sese in conspectum daturam. "If any man "have a mind to renew the opinion of the Pythagoreans, "That the moon is another earth; then her brighter parts "may fitly represent the earth's superficies, and the darker

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part the water and for my part, I never doubted but "that our earthly globe being shined upon by the sun, and "beheld at a great distance, the land would appear bright"est, and the sea more obscurely." The reasons may be,

1. That which I urged about the foregoing chapter; because the water is the thinner part, and therefore must give less light.

Since the stars and planets, by reason of their brightness, are usually concluded to be the thicker parts of their orb.

2. Water is in itself of a blacker colour (saith Aristotle*), and therefore more remote from light than the earth. Any part of the ground being moistened with rain, does look much more darkly than when it is dry.

3. It is observed that the secondary light of the moon (which afterwards is proved to proceed from our earth) is sensibly brighter unto us, for two or three days before the conjunction, in the morning when she appears eastward, than about the same time after the conjunction, when she is seen in the west. The reason of which must be this, because that part of the carth which is opposite to the moon in the east, has more land in it than sea. Whereas on the contrary, the moon when she is in the west, is shined upon by that part of our earth where there is more sea than land; from whence it will follow with good probability, that the earth does cast a greater light than the water.

4. Because observation tells us, that the spotted parts are always smooth and equal, having everywhere an equality of light, when once they are enlightened by the sun; whereas the brighter parts are full of rugged gibbositics

In lib. de coloribus.

and mountains, having many shades in them, as I shall shew more at large afterwards.

That in this planet there must be seas, Campanella * endeavours to prove out of Scripture, interpreting the waters above the firmament, spoken in Genesis, to be meant of the sea in this world. For (saith he) it is not likely that there are any such waters above the orbs to moderate that heat which they receive from their swift motion (as some of the fathers think). Nor did Moses mean the angels, which may be called spiritual waters, as Origen and Austin† would have it, for both these are rejected by the general consent: nor could he mean any waters in the second region, as most commentators interpret it. For first there is nothing but vapours, which though they are afterwards turned into water, yet while they remain there, they are only the matter of that element, which may as well be fire, or earth, or air. 2. Those vapours are not above the expansum, but in it. So that he thinks there is no other way to salve all, but by making the planets several worlds with sea and land, with such rivers and springs as we have here below: especially since Esdras speaks of the springs above the firmament +. But I cannot agree with him in this, nor do I think that any such thing can be proved out of scripture.

Before I proceed to the next position, I shall first answer some doubts which might be made against the generality of this truth, whereby it may seem impossible that there should be either sea or land in the moon: for since she moves so swiftly as astronomers observe, why then does there nothing fall from her, or why doth she not shake something out by the celerity of her revolution? I answer, You must know that the inclination of every heavy body to its proper centre, doth sufficiently tie it unto its place; so that suppose any thing were separated, yet must it ne

*

Apologia pro

Galilæo.

+ Vide leron. Epist. ad Pammachium. Confession. 1. 13. c. 32Retracted lib. 2. Retr. cap. 6.

+ 2 Esdr. iv. 7.

cessarily return again. And there is no more danger of their falling into our world, than there is fear of our falling into the moon.

But yet there are many fabulous relations of such things as have dropped thence *. There is a tale of the Nemean lion that Hercules slew, which first rushing among the herds out of his unknown den in the mountain of Cytheron in Boeotia, the credulous people thought he was sent from their goddess the moon. And if a whirlwind did chance to snatch any thing up, and afterwards rain it down again, the ignorant multitude were apt to believe that it dropt from heaven. Thus Avicenna relates the story of a calf which fell down in a storm, the beholders thinking it a moon-calf, and that it fell thence. So Cardan travelling upon the Apennine mountains, a sudden blast took off his hat, which if it had been carried far, he thinks the peasants, who had perceived it to fall, would have sworn it had rained hats. After some such manner many of our prodigies come to pass, and the people are willing to believe any thing which they may relate to others as a very strange and wonderful event. I doubt not but the Trojan Palladium, the Roman Minerva, and our lady's church at Loretto, with many sacred relics preserved by the papists, might drop from the moon as well as any of these.

But it may be again objected, Suppose there were a bullet shot up in that world, would not the moon run away from it before it could fall down, since the motion of her body (being every day round our earth) is far swifter than the other, and so the bullet must be left behind, and at length fall down to us? To this I answer,

1. If a bullet could be shot so far till it came to the circumference of those things which belong to our centre, then it would fall down to us.

2. Though there were some heavy body a great height in that air, yet would the motion of that magnetical globe to which it did belong, by an attractive virtue still hold it within its convenient distance, so that whether their earth

* Vide Guli. Nubrigens. de rebus Anglica. lib. 1,

moved or stood still, yet would the same violence cast a body from it equally far. That I may the plainer express my meaning, I will set down this diagram.

F

B

D

Suppose this earth were A, which was to move in the circle C, D, and let the bullet be supposed at B, within its proper verge; I say, whether this earth did stand still, or move swiftly towards D, yet the bullet would still keep at the same distance, by reason of that magnetic virtue of the centre (if I may so speak) whereby all things within its sphere are attracted with it. So that the violence to the bullet, being nothing else but that whereby it is removed from its centre, therefore an equal violence can carry a body from its proper place but at an equal distance, whether or to this earth where its centre is, does stand still or

move.

The impartial reader may find sufficient satisfaction for this and such other arguments as may be urged against the motion of that earth, in the writings of Copernicus and his followers unto whom, for brevity sake, I will refer them.

PROP. IX.

That there are high mountains, deep vallies, and spacious plains in the body of the Moon.

HOUGH there are some who think mountains to be a deformity to the earth, as if they were either beat up by the flood, or else cast up like so many heaps of rubbish left at the creation; yet if well considered, they will be found as much to conduce to the beauty and conveniency of the universe, as any of the other parts. Nature (saith Pliny *) purposely framed them for many excellent uses; partly to tame the violence of greater rivers, to strengthen certain joints within the veins and bowels of the earth, to break the force of the sea's inundation, and for the safety of the earth's inhabitants, whether beasts or men. That they make much for the protection of beasts, the Psalmist testifies +; The highest hills are a refuge for the wild goats, and the rocks for conies. The kingly prophet had likewise learned the safety of these by his own experience, when he also was fain to make a mountain his refuge from the fury of his master Saul, who persecuted him in the wilderness.

True indeed, such places as these keep their neighbours poor, as being most barren, but yet they preserve them safe, as being most strong; witness our unconquered Wales and Scotland, whose greatest protection hath been the natural strength of their country; so fortified with mountains, that these have always been unto them sure retreats from the violence and oppression of others. Wherefore a good author doth rightly call them nature's bulwarks, cast up at God Almighty's own charges, the scorns and curbs of victorious armies. Which made the Barbarians in Curtius so confident of their own safety, when they

*Nat. Hist. 1. 36. c. 5.

+ Psal. civ. ver. 18.

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