The Celestial Worlds Discover'd: Conjectures Concerning The Inhabitants, Plants And Productions of The Worlds In The Planets
9781465680709
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
A Man that is of Copernicus’s Opinion, that this Earth of ours is a Planet, carry’d round and enlighten’d by the Sun, like the reſt of the Planets, cannot but ſometimes think, that it’s not improbable that the reſt of the Planets have their Dreſs and Furniture, and perhaps their Inhabitants too as well as this Earth of ours: Eſpecially if he conſiders the later Diſcoveries made in the Heavens ſince Copernicus’s time, viz. the Attendants of Jupiter and Saturn, and the champaign and hilly Countries in the Moon, which are a ſtrong Argument of a Relation and Kin between our Earth and them, as well as a Proof of the Truth of that Syſtem. This has often been our Talk, I remember, good Brother, over a large Teleſcope, when we have been viewing thoſe Bodies, a Study that your continual Buſineſs and Abſence have interrupted for many Years. But we were always apt to conclude, that ’twas in vain to enquire after what Nature is doing there, ſeeing there was no likelihood of ever coming to any Certainty of the Enquiry. Nor could I ever find that any Philoſophers, either antient or modern, have attempted any thing upon this Subject. At the very Birth of Aſtronomy, when the Earth was firſt aſſerted to be Spherical, and to Some have already talk’d of the Inhabitants of the Planets, but went no farther. be ſurrounded with Air, even then there were ſome Men ſo bold as to affirm, there were an innumerable Company of Worlds in the Stars. But later Authors, ſuch as Cardinal Cuſanus, Brunus, Kepler, (and if we may believe him, Tycho was of that opinion too) have furniſhed the Planets with Inhabitants. Nay, Cuſanus and Brunus have allowed the Sun and fixed Stars theirs too. But this was the utmoſt of their Boldneſs; nor has the ingenious French Author of the Dialogues aboutthe Plurality of Worlds carried this Matter any farther. Only ſome of them have coined ſome Stories of the Men in the Moon, juſt as probable as Lucian’s true Hiſtory; among which I muſt count Kepler’s, which he has diverted us with in his Aſtronomical Dream. But a while ago thinking ſomewhat ſeriouſly of this matter (not that I count my ſelf quicker-ſighted than thoſe great Men, but that I had the Happineſs to live after moſt of them) the Enquiry appeared not ſo impracticable, nor the Way ſo ſtopt up with Difficulties, but that there was very good room left for probable Conjectures. As they came into my Head, I put them down into common Places, and ſhall now try to digeſt them into ſome Method for your better Conception of them, and add ſomewhat of the Sun and fix’d Stars, and the Extent of that Univerſe of which our Earth is but an inconſiderable Point. I know you have ſuch an Eſteem and Reverence for any thing that belongs to the Heavens, that I perſwade my ſelf you will read what I have written with ſome Pleaſure: I’m ſure I writ it with a great deal; but as often before, ſo now, I find the Saying of Archytas true, even to the Letter, That tho’ a Man were admitted into Heaven to view the wonderful Fabrick of the World, and the Beauty of the Stars, yet what would otherwiſe be Rapture and Extaſie, would be but a melancholy Amazement if he had not a Friend to communicate it to.
