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book_n	good_a	see_v	write_v	2,594	5	4.9676	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39871	A plurality of worlds written in French by the author of the Dialogues of the dead ; translated into English by Mr. Glanvill.; Entretiens sur la pluralités des mondes. English	Fontenelle, M. de (Bernard Le Bovier), 1657-1757.; Glanvill, John, 1664?-1735.	1688 (1688)	Wing F1416; ESTC R26138	59,689	166

A PLURALITY OF Worlds Written in French by the Author of the Dialogues of the Dead Translated into English By Mr. GLANVILL LONDON Printed for R. Bentley and S. Magnes in Russel-street in Covent-Garden MDCLXXXVIII THE PREFACE MY Case is much like Cicero's when he undertook to write of Philosophy in Latine there being then no Books upon that Subject but what were written in Greek When some told Cicero that he would take pains to no purpose because such as studied Philosophy would make use of Greek Authors and not read Latine Books which treated of it but at second hand and others who were no admirers of the Science would never trouble their Heads with either Greek or Latin. Cicero reply'd they were much mistaken for said he the great ease People will find in reading Latin Books will tempt those to be Philosophers who are none and they who already are Philosophers by reading Greek Books will be very glad to see how Philosophy is handled in Latin. Cicero might with good reason answer as he did because the excellency of his Genius and the great Reputation he had acquired warranted the success of all he wrote But in a Design not much unlike his I am far from having those grounds of Confidence which he had My purpose is to discourse of Philosophy but not in a Philosophical manner and to raise it to such a pitch that it shall not be too dry and insipid a Subject to please Gentlemen nor too mean and trifling to entertain Scholars Should I be told as Cicero was that such a Discourse as this would not please the Learned because it can teach them nothing nor the Illiterate because they will have no mind to learn I will not answer as he did It may be endeavouring to please every Body I have pleas'd no Body to keep the middle betwixt two Extreams is difficult and I believe I shall never desire to put my self a second time to the like trouble If this Book have the luck to be read I declare to those who have any knowledge of natural Philosophy that I do not pretend to instruct but only to divert them by presenting to their view in a gay and pleasing Dress that which they already know but they to whom the Subject is new may be both diverted and instructed the first will act contrary to my intention if they look for Profit and the second if they seek for nothing but Pleasure I have chosen that part of Philosophy which is most like to excite Curiosity for what can more concern us than to know how this World which we inhabite is made and whether there be any other Worlds like it which are also inhabited as this is They who have any thoughts to lose may throw them away upon such Subjects as this but I suppose they who can spend their time better will not be at so vain and fruitless an expence In these Discourses I have introduc'd a Woman to be instructed in things of which she never heard and I have made use of this Fiction to render the Book the more acceptable and to give encouragement to Ladies by the Example of one of their own Sex who without any supernatural parts or tincture of Learning understands what is said to her and without any confusion rightly apprehends what Vortex's and other Worlds are And why may not there be a Woman like this imaginary Countess since her Conceptions are no other than such as she could not chuse but have To penetrate into things either obscure in themselves or but darkly express'd requires deep Meditation and earnest Application of the Mind but here nothing more is requisite than to read and to print an Idea of what is read in the Fancy which will certainly be clear enough I shall desire no more of the fair Ladies than that they will read this System of Philosophy with the same application that they do a Romance or a Novel 'T is true that the Ideas of this Book are less familiar to most Ladies than those of Romances are but they are not more obscure for at most twice or thrice thinking will render 'em very perspicuous I have not compos'd an aery System which hath no foundation at all I have made use of some true Philosophical Arguments and of as many as I thought necessary but it falls out very luckily in this Subject that the Physical Ideas are in themselves very diverting and as they convince and satisfie Reason so at the same time they present to the Imagination a Spectacle which looks as if it were made on purpose to please it When I meet with any Fragments which are not of this kind I put them into some pretty strange dress Virgil hath done the like in his Georgicks when his Subject is very dry he adorns it with pleasant digressions Ovid hath done the same in his Art of Loving and tho' his Subject be of it self very pleasing yet he thought it tedious to talk of nothing but Love. My Subject hath more need of digressions than his yet I have made use of 'em very sparingly and of such only as the natural liberty of conversation allows the greatest part of 'em are in the beginning of the Book because the Mind cannot at first be so well acquainted with the principal Ideas which are presented to it they are taken from the Subject it self or are as near to it as is possible I have fancy'd nothing concerning the Inhabitants of the many Worlds which is wholly fabulous I have said all that can be reasonably thought of them and the Visions which I have added have some real foundation what is true and what is false are mingled together but so as to be easily distinguished I will not undertake to justifie so fantastical and odd a Composition that is the principal point of the work and for which I can give no very good reason There remains no more to be said in this Preface but to a sort of People who perhaps will not be easily satisfy'd not but that I have good reasons to give 'em but because the best that can be given will not content 'em they are those scrupulous Persons who imagine that the placing Inhabitants any where but upon the Earth will prove dangerous to Religion I know how excessively tender some are in Religious Matters and therefore I am very unwilling to give any offence in what I publish to People whose opinion is contrary to that I maintain But Religion can receive no prejudice by my System which fills an infinity of Worlds with Inhabitants if a little errour of the Imagination be but rectify'd When 't is said the Moon is inhabited some presently fancy that there are such Men there as we are and Church Men without any more ado think him an Atheist who is of that opinion None of Adam's Posterity ever travel'd so far as the Moon nor were any Colonies ever sent thither the Men then that are in the Moon are not the