Part 6 (1/2)

_Adeo sumus superiores veteribus, ut quam illi carminis magici p.r.o.nunciatu de missam representa.s.se putantur nos non tantum innocenter demittamus, sed etiam familiari quodam intuitu ejus quasi conditionem intueamur._

”So much are wee above the ancients, that whereas they were faine by their magical charms to represent the Moones approach, wee cannot onely bring her lower with a greater innocence, but may also with a more familiar view behold her condition.”

And because you shall have no occasion to question the truth of those experiments, which I shal afterwards urge from it; I will therefore set downe the testimony of an enemy, and such a witnesse hath alwaies beene accounted prevalent: you may see it in the abovenamed _Caesar la Galla_,[2] whose words are these:

_Mercurium caduceum gestantem, clestia nunciare, & mortuorum animas ab inferis revacare sapiens finxit antiquitas. Galilaeum ver novum Iovis interpretem Telescopio caducaeo instructum Sydera aperire, & veterum Philosophorum manes ad superos revocare solers nostra aetas videt & admiratur._

Wise antiquity fabled _Mercury_ carrying a rodde in his hand to relate newes from Heaven, and call backe the soules of the dead, but it hath beene the happinesse of our industrious age to see and admire _Galilaeus_ the new Emba.s.sadour of the G.o.ds furnished with his perspective to unfold the nature of the Starres, and awaken the ghosts of the ancient Philosophers. So worthily and highly did these men esteeme of this excellent invention.

[Sidenote 1: _De macula in sole obser._]

[Sidenote 2: _De phaenom. c. 1._]

Now if you would know what might be done by this gla.s.se, in the sight of such things as were neerer at hand, the same Authour will tell you,[1]

when hee sayes, that by it those things which could scarce at all bee discerned by the eye at the distance of a mile and a halfe, might plainely and distinctly bee perceived for 16 Italian miles, and that as they were really in themselves, without any transposition or falsifying at all. So that what the ancient Poets were faine to put in a fable, our more happy age hath found out in a truth, and we may discerne as farre with these eyes which _Galilaeus_ hath bestowed upon us, as _Lynceus_ could with those which the Poets attributed unto him. But if you yet doubt whether all these observations were true, the same Authour may confirme you,[2] when hee saies they were shewed,

_Non uni aut alteri, sed quamplurimis, neque gregariis hominibus, sed praecipuis atque disciplinis omnibus, necnon Mathematicis & opticis praeceptis, optime instructis sedula ac diligenti inspectione_.

”Not to one or two, but to very many, and those not ordinary men, but to those who were well vers'd in Mathematickes and Opticks, and that not with a meere glance but with a sedulous and diligent inspection.”

And least any scruple might remaine unanswered, or you might thinke the men who beheld all this though they might be skilfull, yet they came with credulous minds, and so were more easie to be deluded. He addes that it was shewed,[3]

_vius qui ad experimenta haec contradicendi animo accesserant_.

”To such as were come with a great deale of prejudice, and an intent of contradiction.”

Thus you may see the certainety of those experiments which were taken by this gla.s.se. I have spoken the more concerning it, because I shall borrow many things in my farther discourse, from those discoveries which were made by it.

[Sidenote 1: _ibid. c. 5._]

[Sidenote 2: _Cap. 1._]

[Sidenote 3: _Cap. 5._]

I have now cited such Authors both ancient and moderne, who have directly maintained the same opinion. I told you likewise in the proposition that it might probably be deduced from the tenent of others: such were _Aristarchus_, _Philolaus_ and _Copernicus_, with many other later writers who a.s.sented to their hypothesis, so _Ioach. Rlelicus_, _David Origa.n.u.s_, _Lansbergius_, _Guil. Gilbert_, and (if I may believe _Campanella_[1]) _Innumeri alii Angli & Galli_. Very many others both English and French, all who affirmed our Earth to be one of the Planets, and the Sunne to bee the Centre of all, about which the heavenly bodies did move, and how horrid soever this may seeme at the first, yet is it likely enough to be true, nor is there any maxime or observation in Opticks (saith _Pena_) that can disprove it.

[Sidenote 1: _Apologia pro Galilaeo._]

Now if our earth were one of the Planets (as it is according to them) then why may not another of the Planets be an earth?

Thus have I shewed you the truth of this proposition: Before I proceede farther, 'tis requisite that I informe the Reader, what method I shall follow in the proving of this chiefe a.s.sertion, that there is a World in the Moone.

The order by which I shall bee guided will be that which _Aristotle_[1]

uses in his booke _De mundo_ (if that booke were his.)

[Sidenote 1: _a 1. cap. ad 10m._]

First, pe?? t?? ?? a?t? of those chiefe parts which are in it; not the elementary and aethereall (as he doth there) since this doth not belong to the elementary controversie, but of the Sea and Land, &c. Secondly, pe?? a?t?? pa???, of those things which are extrinsecall to it, as the seasons, meteors and inhabitants.