were consumed by the Fire the Rain that fell calcined their Ashes so that the congealed Juyce was petrified in the same manner as the sap of burnt Fern is changed into Glass Hence it is that in all Climates of the Earth two Metallick Stones are formed of the ashes of those Twin-Trees that now adays are called the Iron and Load-stone which because of the Sympathy of the Fruits of Pylades and Orestes the virtue whereof they have still retained always aspire to embrace one another and observe that if the piece of the Load-stone be the bigger it attracts the Iron or if the piece of Iron exceed in quantity it attracts the Load-stone as formerly it happened in the miraculous Effects of the Apples of Pylades and Orestes of the one of which whosoever had eaten most was the most beloved of him who had eaten the other Now Iron feeds so visibly upon the Loadstone and the Load-stone upon the Iron that the one rusts and the other loses its force unless they be put together for the reparation of what substance they lose Have you never observed a piece of Loadstone laid upon the File-dust of Iron you 'll see the Load-stone cover it self in a trice with these metallick Atoms and the amorous Heat wherewith they cling together is so sudden and impatient that when they have embraced one another in all places you would say that there is not one grain of the Load-stone that would not kiss a grain of the Iron nor a grain of the Iron that would not be united to a grain of the Load-stone for the Iron or Load-stone being separated continually send out from their Mass some most agile little Bodies in quest of that which they love But when they have found that having got their desire every one puts an end to their Progress and the Load-stone takes its rest in possessing the Iron as the Iron wholly contents its self in the enjoyment of the Load-stone From the Sap then of these two Trees the humour which hath given Being to those two Metals has been derived Before that they were unknown and if you have a mind to know of what matter Arms were made for the War Sampson armed himself against the Philistines with the Jaw-bone of an Ass Jupiter King of Crete with Artificial Fire-works whereby he imitated the Thunder in subduing of his Enemies and in a word Hercules with a Club overcame Tyrants and crushed Monsters But these two Metals have another more specifick relation to our two Trees You must know that though that Couple of Life-less Lovers incline towards the Pole yet they never tend thither but in Company and I 'll tell you the Reason of it after I have discoursed to you a little about the Poles The Poles are the Mouths of Heaven by which it sucks up again the Light Heat and Influences that it hath shed upon the Earth Otherwise if all the Treasures of the Sun remounted not to their source all its Brightness being only a dust of inflamed Atoms which are detached from its Globe it would have been long ago extinguished and shone no more Or that abundance of little igneous Bodies heaping together upon the Earth when they could not get out again would have already consumed it There must then as I have told you be breathing Holes in Heaven by which the Repletions of the Earth are discharged and others by which Heaven may repair its losses to the end the eternal Circulation of these little bodies of Life may successively pass through all the Globes of this vast Universe Now the breathing holes of Heaven are the Poles through which it retakes the Souls of all that die in the other Worlds without it and all the Stars are its Mouths and the Pores through which again it exhales its Spirits But to shew you that this is not so new an Imagination when your Ancient Poets to whom Phylosophy discovered the most hidden secrets of Nature spake of an Hero whose Soul they would have said was gone to live with the Gods they expressed it in this manner He is gone up to the Pole he is seated on the Pole he hath past through the Pole because they knew that the Poles where the only Avenues through which Heaven receives again all that is gone out from thence If the Authority of these great Men be not sufficient to convince you the Experience of your modern Navigators who have sailed towards the North may perhaps give you satisfaction They have found that the nearer they drew towards the Bear during the Six Months of Night when it was thought that Climate lay under a black Darkness a great Light cleared the Horizon which could not proceed but from the Pole because the more one drew near to it and by consequence removed from the Sun that Light became greater It is very probable then that it proceeds from the Beams of day and a great heap of Souls which as you know are only made of Luminous Atoms that are returning to Heaven by their wonted Doors This being so it is no difficult matter to comprehend wherefore the Iron rubbed with the Load-stone or the Load-stone rubbed with the Iron turns towards the Pole for they being an Extract of the Body of Pylades and Orestes and having still retained the Inclinations of the two Trees as the two Trees have those of the Two Lovers they ought to aspire to be rejoined to their Soul and therefore they skip towards the Pole through which they perceive that it hath mounted but with this Reserve still that the Iron never turns that way unless it be touched by the Load-stone nor the Load-stone unless it be rubbed with the Iron by reason that the Iron will not quit a World leaving his Friend the Load-stone behind nor the Load-stone leaving its Friend the Iron and that the one cannot resolve to perform this Voyage without the other This voice as I think was about to go on with another Discourse but the noise of a great Alarm that happened hindred it All the Forest in an uproar resounded with nothing but these Words The Plague the Plague stand upon your Guard look about ye I adjured the Tree that had so long entertained me in discourse to tell me the Cause of so great a Disorder Friend said he to me we are not in these quarters sufficiently as yet informed of all the Particulars of the Evil I 'll only tell you in Three Words that the Plague wherewith we are threatned is that which Men call a Fire we may very well call it so because amongst us there is no such contagious Distemper The remedy we are about to use against it is to force our breath and blow altogether towards the place from whence the Inflamation comes to the end we may drive back that bad Air. I believe that burning Feaver is occasioned us by a fiery Beast that for some days has been roaming about our Woods for seeing they never go without Fire and
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 â—ikely that the Sun a vast Body Four â—undred and thirty four times bigger than â—he Earth had only been kindled to ripen â—heir Medlars and plumpen their Cabbage â—or my part I am so far from complying â—ith their Insolence that I believe the Plaâ—…ets are Worlds about the Sun and that â—…e fixed Stars are also Suns which have â—…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
yet in the Cradle being but newly Born and its Young and smooth Face shews not the least Wrinkle The large Compasses it fetches in circling within it self demonstrate its unwillingness to leave its native Soyl And as if it had been ashamed to be caressed in presence of its Mother with a Murmuring it thrust back my hand that would have touched it The Beasts that came to drink there more rational than those of our World seemed surprised to see it day upon the Horizon whilst the Sun was with the Antipodes and durst not bend downwards upon the Brink for fear of falling into the Firmament I must confess to you That at the sight of so many Fine things I found my self tickled with these agreeable Twitches which they say the Embryo feels upon the infusion of its Soul My old Hair fell off and gave place for thicker and softer Locks I perceived my Youth revived my Face grow ruddy my natural Heat mingle gently again with my radical Moisture And in a word I grew younger again by at least Fourteen Years I had advanced half a League through a a Forest of Jessamines and Myrtles when I perceived something that stirred lying in the Shade It was a Youth whose Majestick Beauty forced me almost to Adoration He started up to hinder me crying It is not to me but to God that you owe these Humilities You see one answered I stunned with so many Wonders that I knew not what to admire most for coming from a World which without doubt you take for a Moon here I thought I had arrived in another which our Worldlings call a Moon also and behold I am in Paradice at the Feet of a God who will not be Adored Except the quality of a God replied he whose Creature I only am the rest you say is true This Land is the Moon which you see from your Globe and this place where you are is Now at that time Man's Imagination was so strong as not being as yet corrupted neither by Debauches the Crudity of Aliments nor the alterations of Diseases that being excited by a violent desire of coming to this Sanctuary and his Body becoming light through the heat of this Inspiration he was carried thither in the same manner as some Philosophers who having fixed their Imagination upon the contemplation of a certain Object have sprung up in the Air by Ravishments which you call Extasies The Woman who through the infirmity of her Sex was weaker and less hot could not without doubt have the Imagination strong enough to make the Intension of her Will prevail over the Ponderousness of her Matter but because there were very few The Sympathy which still united that half to its whole drew her towards him as he mounted up as the Amber attracts the Straw the Load-stone turns towards the North from whence it hath been taken and drew to him that part of himself as the Sea draws the Rivers which proceed from it When they arrived in your Earth they dwelt betwixt Mesopotamia and Arabia Some People knew them by the name of and others under that of Prometheus whom the Poets feigned to have stolen Fire from Heaven by reason of his Off-spring who were endowed with a Soul as perfect as his own So that to inhabit your World that Man left this destitute but the All-wise would not have so blessed an Habitation to remain without Inhabitants He suffered a few ages after that cloyed with the company of Men whose Innocence was corrupted had a desire to forsake them This person however thought no retreat secure enough from the Ambition of Men who already Murdered one another about the distribution of your World except that blessed Land which his Grand-Father had so often mentioned unto him and to which no Body had as yet found out the way But his Imagination supplied that for seeing he had observed that he filled Two large Vessels which he sealed Hermetically and fastened them under his Arm-pits So soon as the Smoak began to rise upwards and could not pierce through the Mettal it forced up the Vessels on high and with them also that Great Man. When he was got as high as the Moon and had cast his Eyes upon that lovely Garden a fit of almost supernatural Joy convinced him that that was the place where his Grandfather had heretofore lived He quickly untied the Vessels which he had girt like Wings about his Shoulders and did it so luckily that he was scarcely Four Fathom in the Air above the Moon when he set his Fins a going yet het was high enough still to have been hurt by the fall had it not been for the large skirts of his Gown which being swelled by the Wind gently upheld him till he set Foot on ground As for the two Vessels they mounted up to a certain place where they have continued And those are they which now adays you call the Balance I must now tell you the manner how I came hither I believe you have not forgot my name seeing it is not long since I told it you You shall know then that I lived on the agreeable Banks of one of the most renowned Rivers of your World where amongst my Books I lead a Life pleasant enough not to be lamented though it slipt away fast enough In the mean while the more I encreased in Knowledge the more I knew my Ignorance Our Learned Men never put me in mind of the famous Mada but the thoughts of his perfect Philosophy made me to Sigh I was despairing of being able to attain to it when one day after a long and profound Studying I took a piece of Load-stone about two Foot square which I put into a Furnace and then after it was well purged precipitated and dissolved I drew the calcined Attractive of it and reduced it into the size of about an ordinary Bowl After these Preparations I got a very light Machine of Iron made into which I went and when I was well seated in my place I threw this Magnetick Bowl as high as I could up into the Air. Now the Iron Machine which I had purposely made more massive in the middle than at the ends was presently elevated and in a just Poise because the middle received the greatest force of Attraction So then as I arrived at the place whither my Loadstone had attracted me I presently threw up my Bowl in the Air over me But said I interrupting him How came you to heave up your Bowl so streight over your Chariot that it never happened to be on one side of it That seems to me to be no wonder at all said he for the Loadstone being once thrown up in the Air drew the Iron streight towards it and so it was impossible that ever I should mount side-ways Nay more I can tell you that when I held the Bowl in my hand I was still mounting upwards because the Chariot flew always to the Load-stone which I held over it But the
might be made use of to torment it I was by good luck in the Province of the Trees when the disorders of the Salamander began those great Thunder-claps that you must have heard as well as I which guided me to their Field of Battel whither you came soon after but I was upon my return to the Province of Philosophers What said I to him are there Philosophers also then in the Sun Are there replied the good Man yes sure and they are the chief Inhabitants of the Sun and the very same whom Fame in your World doth celebrate with so full Mouth You may shortly converse with them provided you have the Courage to follow me for before Three Days be over I hope to be in their City I don't think you can possibly perceive the manner how these great Spirits are transported hither No certainly cried I for could so many others been hitherto so blind as not to find the way Or that after our Death we fall into the Hands of an Examiner of Spirits who according to our Capacity grants or refuses us our freedom in the Sun Nothing of that replied the old Man It 's by a Principle of Similitude that Souls attain to this mass of Light for this World is made up of nothing else but the Spirits of every thing that dies in the Circumambient Orbs such as Mercury Venus the Earth Mars Jupiter and Saturn Thus so soon as a Plant a Beast or a Man expire their Souls without extinction mount to its Sphere just as you see the flame of a Candle points up thither in spight of the Tallow that holds it by the Feet Now all these Souls being united to the source of Day and purged from the gross matter that pestered them exert far more noble Functions than those of Growing Feeling and Reasoning for they are employed in making the Blood and vital Spirits of the Sun that great and perfect Animal And therefore also you ought not to doubt but that the Sun acts by the Spirit more perfectly far than you do since it is by the heat of a Million of these Souls rectified whereof his own is an Elixir that he knows the secret of Life that he influences the matter of your Worlds with the power of Generation and that he makes Bodies sensible that they have a Being and in short that he renders himself and all things else visible Now it remains that I should clear to you why the Souls of Philosopers do not essentially join to the mass of the Sun as those of other Men. There are three orders of Spirits in all the Planets that is to say in the little Worlds which move about this The grosser serve only to repair the Plumpness of the Sun the subtile insinuate into the place of his Beams but those of Philosophers having contracted no Impurity in their exile arrive entire in the Sphere of Day to become its Inhabitants Now they are not as others a constituent part of its Mass because the matter that composes them in the point of their Generation is so exactly mixed that nothing can again dissolve it Like to that which forms Gold Diamonds and the Stars whereof all the parts are so closely interwoven and knit together that the strongest Dissolvent cannot separate the Mixture Now these Souls of Philsophers are so much in regard of other Souls what Gold Diamonds and the Stars are in respect of other Bodies that Epicurus in the Sun is the same Epicurus who heretofore lived in the Earth The pleasure which I received in hearing that great Man shortned my way and I often started curious Questions about which I importuned his opinion that I might be thereby instructed And really I never found so great goodness in any Man as in him for though by reason of the Agility of his Substance he might in a few Days have arrived in the Kingdom of Philosophers yet he chose rather to take the trouble of Jogging on with me than to leave me amidst vast Solitudes Nevertheless he was in great haste for I remember that having asked him why he returned before he had surveyed all the Regions of that great world He made answer that his Impatience to see one of his Friends who was newly arrived obliged him to break off his Travels I found by the sequel of his discourse that his Friend was that famous Philosopher of our time Monsieur des Cartes and that he made all haste to meet him He made answer also when I asked him what he thought of his natural Philosophy that it ought to be read with the same respect as Men listen to Oracles Not added he but that the Science of natural things hath need as other Sciences have to prepossess our Judgment with Axioms which it proves not But the Principles of his are simple and so natural that being once supposed there is nothing that more necessarily satisfies all Appearances I could not forbear to interrupt him in this place But methinks said I to him that that Philosopher hath always impugned the Vacuum And nevertheless though he was an Epicurean yet that he might have the honour of giving a Beginning to the Principles of Epicurus that 's to say to Atomes he hath supposed for the beginning of things a Chaos of matter throughly solid which God divided into an innumerable number of little Squares to every one of which he gave opposite Motions Now he will have these Cubes by rubbing one against another to have crumbled themselves into pieces of all sorts of Figures But how can he conceive that these square Peices could begin to turn separately without granting a Vacuity betwixt their Angles Must there not be necessarily a Void in the spaces which the Angles of these Squares were forced to leave that they might move And then could these Squares which only possessed a certain Extent before they turned move in a Circle unless in their Circumference they had possessed as much more Geometry tells us That that cannot be one half then of that space ought necessarily to have remained void seeing there were as yet no Atomes to fill it My Philosopher made me answer That Monsieur des Cartes himself would give us a reason for that and that being an obliging Gentleman as well as a Philosopher he would certainly be overjoyed to find a mortal Man in this World that he might clear him of an Hundred Doubts which his unexpected Death had constrained him to leave in the Earth that now he had forsaken That he did not think though there was any great difficulty to answer that objection according to his Principles which I had not examined but as far as the weakness of my Wit could permit me because said he the Works of that great Man are so full and so subtile that to understand them there is need of the attention of the Soul of a true and consummated Philosopher Which is the reason that there is not a Philosopher in the Sun but has a
Policy of that Country when he proceeded in this manner There are others who keep Publick-house after a far different manner When one is about to be gone they demand proportionably to the Charges an Acquittance for the other World and when that is given them they write down in a great Register which they call Doomsday's Book much after this manner Item The value of so many Verses delivered such a Day to such a Person which he is to pay upon the receipt of this Acquittance out of his readiest Cash And when they find themselves in danger of Death they cause these Registers to be Chopt in pieces and swallow them down because they believe that if they were not thus digested they would be good for nothing This Conversation was no hinderance to our Journey for my Four-legged Porter jogged on under me and I rid stradling on his Back I shall not be particular in relating to you all the Adventures that happened to us on our way till we arrived at length at the Town where the King holds his Residence I was no sooner come but they carryed me to the Palace where the Grandees received me with more Moderation than the People had done as I passed the Streets But both great and small concluded That without doubt I was the Female of the Queen 's little Animal My Guide was my Interpreter and yet he himself understood not the Riddle and knew not what to make of that little Animal of the Queen's but we were soon satisfied as to that for the King having some time considered me ordered it to be brought and about half an hour after I saw a company of Apes wearing Ruffs and Breeches come in and amongst them a little Man almost of my own Built for he went on Two Legs so soon as he perceived me he Accosted me with a Criado de vuestra merced I answered his Greeting much in the same Terms But alas no sooner had they seen us talk together but they believed their Conjecture to be true and so indeed it seemed for he of all the By-standers that past the most favourable Judgment upon us protested that our Conversation was a Chattering we kept for Joy at our meeting again That little Man told me that he was an European a Native of old Castille That he had found a means by the help of Birds to mount up to the World of the Moon where then we were That falling into the Queen's Hands she had taken him for a Monkey because Fate would have it so That in that Country they cloath Apes in a Spanish Dress and that upon his arrival being found in that habit she had made no doubt but he was of the same kind It could not otherwise be replied I but having tried all Fashions of Apparel upon them none were found so Ridiculous and by consequence more becoming a kind of Animals which are only entertained for Pleasure and Diversion That shews you little understand the Dignity of our Nation answered he for whom the Universe breeds Men only to be our Slaves and Nature produces nothing but objects of Mirth and Laughter He then intreated me to tell him how I durst be so bold as to Scale the Moon with the Machine I told him of I answered That it was because he had carried a way the Birds which I intended to have made use of He smiled at this Raillery and about a quarter of an hour after the King commanded the Keeper of the Monkeys to carry us back with express Orders to make the Spaniard and me lie together that we might procreate a breed of Apes in his Kingdom The King's Pleasure was punctually obeyed at which I was very glad for the satisfaction I had of having a Mate to converse with during the solitude of my Brutification One Day my Male for I was taken for the Female told me That the true reason which had obliged him to travel all over the Earth and at length to abandon it for the Moon was that he could not find so much as one Country where even Imagination was at liberty Look ye said he how the Wittiest thing you can say unless you wear a Cornered Cap if it thwart the Principles of the Doctors of the Robe you are an Ideot a Fool and something worse perhaps I was about to have been put into the Inquisition at home for maintaining to the Pedants Teeth That there was a Vacuum and that I knew no one matter in the World more Ponderous than another I asked him what probable Arguments he had to confirm so new an Opinion To evince that answered he you must suppose that there is but one Element for though we see Water Earth Air and Fire distinct yet are they never found to be so perfectly pure but that there still remains some Mixture For example When you behold Fire it is not Fire but Air much extended the Air is but Water much dilated Water is but liquified Earth and the Earth it self but condensed Water and thus if you weigh Matter seriously you 'll find it is but one which like an excellent Comedian here below acts all Parts in all sorts of Dresses Otherwise we must admit as many Elements as there are kinds of Bodies And if you ask me why Fire burns and Water cools since it is but one and the same matter I answer That that matter acts by Sympathy according to the Disposition it is in at the time when it acts Fire which is nothing but Earth also more dilated than is fit for the constitution of Air strives to change into it self by Sympathy what ever it meets with Thus the heat of Coals being the most subtile Fire and most proper to penetrate a Body at first slides through the pores of our Skin and because it is a new matter that fills us it makes us exhale in Sweat that Sweat dilated by the Fire is converted to a Steam and becomes Air that Air being farther rarified by the heat of the Antiperistasis or of the Neighbouring Stars is called Fire and the Earth abandoned by the Cold and Humidity which were Ligaments to the whole falls to the ground Water on the other hand though it no ways differ from the matter of Fire but in that it is closer burns us not because that being dense by Sympathy it closes up the Bodies it meets with and the Cold we feel is no more but the effect of our Flesh contracting it self because of the Vicinity of Earth or Water which constrains it toa Resemblance Hence it is that those who are troubled with a Dropsie convert all their nourishment into Water and the Cholerick convert all the Blood that is formed in their Liver into Choler It being then supposed that there is but one Element it is most certain that all Bodies according to their several qualities incline equally towards the Center of the Earth But you 'll ask me Why then does Iron Metal Earth and Wood descend more swiftly to the
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
Sun and were not perceived by the Ancients dayly increase Now who can tell but that it is a Crust formed in its Superfice it 's Mass that extinguishes proportionably as the Light leaves it and if it become not when all these moveable Bodies have abandoned it an obscure Body like the Earth There are very distant Ages beyond which there appears no Vestige of Man-kind perhaps heretofore the Earth was a Sun peopled with Animals proportioned to the Climate that produces them and perhaps these Animals were the Demons of whom Antiquity relates so many Instances Why not Is it not possible that these Animals after the Extinction of the Earth have still lived there for some time and that the Alteration of their Globe had not as yet destroyed all their Race In effect their life continued until the time of Augustus according to the Testimony of Plutarch It would even seem that the prophetick and sacred Testament of our Primitive Patriarchs designed to lead us by the Hand to that truth For we read in it of the Revolt of Angels before mention is made of Man. Is not that Sequel of time which the Scripture observes half of a Proof in a manner that Angels inhabited the Earth before us And that these proud Blades who had lived in out World whilst it was a Sun disdaining perhaps since it was extinct to abide any longer in it and knowing that God had placed his Throne in the Sun had the boldness to adventure to invade it But God who resolved to punish their Audacity banish'd them even from the Earth and created Man less perfect but by consequence less proud to possess their vacant Habitations About the end of four Months Voyage at least as near as one can reckon when there is no Night to distinguish the Day I came upon the Coast of one of those little Earths that wheel about the Sun which the Mathematicians call Spots where by reason that Clouds interposed my Glasses now not uniting so much heat and by consequence the Air not pushing my Shed with so much Force what remained of the Wind could do no more but bear up my fall and let me down upon the top of a very high Mountain to which I gently descended I leave it to you to consider what Joy I felt when I saw my Feet upon firm Ground after I had so long acted the part of a Fowl. Words indeed are too weak to express the Extasie of Gladness I found my self in when at length I perceived my Head Crowned with the Brightness of the Heavens However I was not so far transported yet with that Extasie but that I thought of getting out of my Box and of covering the Capital thereof with my Shirt before I left it because I was apprehensive that if the Air becoming Serene the Sun should again kindle my Glasses as it was likely enough I might find my House no more By Gullies which seemed hollowed by the fall of Water I descended into the Plain where because of the thick Mud that fatned the Earth I had much ado to go However having advanced a little way I arrived in a great Bottom where I rencountred a little Man stark-naked sitting and resting himself upon a Stone I cannot call to mind whether I spoke to him first or if it was he that put the Question to me But it is as fresh in my Memory as if I heard him still that he discoursed to me three long Hours in a Language which I knew very well I had never heard before and which hath not the least resemblance with any of the Languages in this World notwithstanding I comprehended it faster and more intelligibly than my Mother Tongue He told me when I made enquiry about so wonderful a thing that in Sciences there was a true without which one was always far from the easie that the more an Idiom was distant from this truth the more it came short of the Conception and was less easie to be understood In the same manner continued he in Musick one never finds this true but that the Soul immediately rises and blindly aspires after it We see it not but we feel that Nature sees it and without being able to conceive in what manner we are swallowed up by it it still ravishes us tho we cannot observe where it is It 's the very same with Languages he who hits upon that verity of Letters Words and Order in expressing himself can never fall below his thought he speaks always with congruity to his Conception and it is because you are ignorant of this perfect Idiom that you are at a stand not knowing the Order nor the Words which might explain what you imagine I told him that the first Man of our World had undoubtedly made use of that Language because the several Names which he gave to several things declared their Essence He interrupted me and went on It is not absolutely necessary for expressing all the mind conceives but without it we cannot be understood of all Seeing this Idiom is the Instinct or Voice of Nature it ought to be intelligible to all that live under the Jurisdiction of Nature And therefore if you understood it you might Discourse and Communicate all your thoughts to Beasts and the Beasts theirs to you because it is the very Language of Nature whereby she makes her self to be understood by all Living Creatures Be no more surprised then at the faoility wherewith you understand the meaning of a Language which never sounded before in your Ear. When I speak your Soul finds in every Word of mine that Truth which it gropes after and though her Reason understand it not yet she has Nature with her that cannot fail to understand it Ha! without doubt cried I it was by the means of that Emphatick Idiom that our first Father heretofore conversed with Animals and was by them understood for seeing the Dominion over all the kinds of them was given to him they obeyed him because he commanded in a Language that was known to them and it is for that Reason also that this Original Language being lost they come not at present when they are called as heretofore they did seeing now they do not understand us The little Man seemed as if he had no mind to answer me but resuming his discourse he was about to go on if I had not once again interrupted him I asked him then what World it was that we breathed in if it was much inhabited and what kind of Government they lived under I am going replyed he to discover Secrets to you which are not known in your Climate Consider well the Ground whereon we go it is not long since it was an indigested disorderly Mass a Chaos of confused Matter a black and glewy Filth whereof the Sun had purged it self Now after that by the force of the rays which the Sun darted against it he mingled pressed and compacted those numerous Clouds of Atomes After I say that
don 't you imagine when it costs you so much trouble to find one of their Nests that that 's occasioned by the Sagacity wherewith they hide it No it is the Tree it self that hath twisted its Boughs about the nest to secure the Family of his Lodger from the Cruelties of Man And on the contrary consider the Airies of those which are hatched either for the destruction of Birds their fellow Citizens such as Sparrow-Hawks Hobbies Kites Faulcons c. or which only speak to breed Quarrels as Jays and Magpies or that delight to frighten us as Owls and Howlets You shall observe that the Nests of such are exposed to the sight of all People because the Tree removes its Branches from them that it may leave them for a Prey But there is no need of specifying so many things to prove that Trees exert your Functions as well in Mind as in Body Is there any one amongst you who hath not observed that in the Spring when the Sun hath refreshed our Bark with a fertile Sap we thrust out our Branches and extend them loaded with Fruit upon the Breasts of the Earth that we are in Love withal The Earth on her side opens and is warmed with the like heat and makes her approaches towards a Conjunction whilst our Branches discharge into her Lap that which she so ardently desires to conceive She is however Nine Months in breeding and forming that Embrio before she bring it forth but the Tree her Husband fearing that the Winters cold may be prejudicial to her Conception strips himself of his green Garment to cover her and contents himself with an old Fuil-demort Cloak to hide part of his Nakedness Well then O Men you look eternally on these things and never see them Nay more convincing Proofs have presented themselves to your Eyes but none are so Blind as those that will not See. I listened most attentively to the discourse with which that Arboreal Voice entertained me and was expecting the sequel when all of a sudden it broke off with a Tone like to the Whizzing of the shortness of Breath that hinders one to speak When I perceived it obstinately resolved to be silent I adjured it by all which I thought might most affect it that it would vouchsafe to instruct one who had run the Risk of so long and dangerous a Voyage upon the account only of learning At the same time I heard Two or Three Voices which for my sake made the same request to it and one I distinguished that said to it as if in anger Well then since you complain so much of your Lungs repose your self I 'll tell him the Story of the Amorous Trees Whoever you be cried I falling upon my Knees O Wisest of all the Oaks of Dodona who condescendest to take the pains to instruct me know this That you shall not teach an ungrateful Person for I vow that if ever I return to my native Globe I shall publish the Wonders you are pleased to make me a Witness of I had no sooner made this Protestation but I heard the same voice proceed in this manner Look Little Man and you shall see about Fourteen or Fifteen steps to the Right Hand Two Twin-Trees of a middle Stature which confounding their Branches and Roots strive by all possible means to unite and become but one I turned my Eyes towards these Plants of Love and observed that the leaves of both gently stirred as it were by a voluntary Motion excited by their Agitation so delicate a murmur that hardly it grazed upon the Ear and yet one would have said that thereby they mutually asked and answered one another Having spent as much time as was necessary to observe that double Vegetable my good Friend the Oak went on in his discourse after this manner You cannot have lived to this Age and not have heard of the celebrated Friendship of Pylades and Orestes I would describe to you all the Joys of a sweet Passion and tell you the Wonders wherewith these Lovers astonished their Age did I not fear that so much Light might offend the Eyes of your Reason and therefore I shall paint those two young Suns only in their Eclipse Let this then suffice you to know That one day the brave Orestes being engaged in a Battle sought out for his dear Pylades that he might have the Pleasure of overcoming or dying in his Presence When he perceived him amidst an hundred Arms of Iron lifted up over his Head Alas what became of him In despair he threw himself through a Forest of Pikes He cried roared and foamed But how ill do I express the fearful Commotions of that Inconsolable Man he tore his hair bit his Hands rent his Wounds nay and when I have said all I can say I am obliged to confess that the means of expressing his grief died with himself When he thought to cut out a way with his Sword to get to the assistance of Pylades a Mountain of Men withstood his passage Nevertheless he broke through them and having long marched upon the Bloody Trophies of his Victory by little and little he approached to Pylades but Pylades seemed to him already so near Death that he durst hardly resist his Enemies any longer for fear he might survive the thing for which alone he lived To see his Eyes already full of the shades of Death one would have said That he endeavoured by his Looks to poyson the Murderers of his Friend At length Pylades fell down dead and amorous Orestes perceiving his own life to be upon the brink of his Lips still retained it till with a wandring look having sought and found out Pylades amongst the Dead he seemed by joining Mouth to Mouth as if he intended to infuse his Soul into the Body of his Friend The Younger of those two Heroes expired upon the dead Body of his Friend and you must know that from the Corruption of their Trunk which without doubt impregnated the Earth two young Shrubs were seen to sprout out from amongst their dry bones whose Stem and Branches mingling promiscuously together seemed to hasten to grow only that they might be twisted into a closer Contexture It was visible that they had changed their Being without forgetting what they had been for their perfumed Buds leaned one upon another and interchanged the Warmth of their Breathing as it were to make themselves blow the sooner But what shall I say of the loving Distribution that maintained their Society The Juyce wherein the nourishment resides never offered it self to their Stock but they ceremoniously divided it The one was never ill fed but the other decayed for want they both Suckt inwardly the Breasts of their Nurse as ye Men do outwardly the Teats of yours At length these happy Lovers brought forth Apples but such miraculous Apples as wrought greater Wonders than their Sires had done All that eat of the Apples of the one were instantly smitten with a Passionate Love for
Country-men knew what we know that the Remoras live in that Climate they would know as well as we that they proceed from a puff of their Breath whereby they endeavour to blow back the heat of the Sun that draws near them That Stygian-Water wherewith the Great Alexander was poysoned and whose Coldness petrified his Bowels was the Piss of one of these Animals In fine the Remora contains all the principles of Cold in so eminenta degree that passing under a Ship the Vessel is seized with Cold and struck with such a Numness that it cannot wag out of the place And that 's the reason that one half of those who have cruised North-ward for the discovery of the Pole never came back again because it is a Mirracle if the Remoras who are so numerous in that Sea stop not their Vessels And so much for the Animals Frozen-Noses But as to the Fiery Beasts they lodge on Land under Mountains of burning Bitumen such as Aetna Vesuvius and others The Pimples which you see upon the Breast of this Beast that proceed from the Inflamation of his Liver are Hear we put a stop to our Talk that we might be more attentive to that famous Duel The Salamander attacked with much ardour but the Remora defended impenetrably Every dash they gave one another begot a clap of Thunder as it happens in the Worlds there abouts where the Clashing of a hot Cloud with a cold causes the same Report At every glance of Rage which the Salamander darted against its Enemy out of its Eyes flashed a reddish Light that seemed to kindle the Air in flying it sweat boyling Oyl and pissed Aqua-fortis The Remora on the other hand that gross square and heavy Animal presented a Body scaled all over with Ysicles It s large Eyes lookt like two Chrystal-plates whose glances conveyed so chilling a light that on what member of my Body it fixed them I felt a shivering Winter-cold If I thought to put my Hand before me my Fingers ends were nummed nay the very Air about infected with its quality condensed into Snow the Earth hardned under his Steps and I could reckon the Footings of the Beast by the number of the Chil-blanes that welcomed me when I trode upon them In the beginning of the Fight the Salamander by the vigorous activity of its first heat had put the Remora into a Sweat but at length that Sweat cooling again glazed all the Plain with so slippery an Ennamel that the Salamander could not get up to the Remora without falling The Philosopher and I knew very well that the trouble of falling and rising so many times had made it weary for these Thunder-claps so dreadful before that proceeded from the shock he gave its Enemy were no more now but the dull Sound of those little After-claps which denote the end of a Storm and that dull Sound deadned by degrees degenerated into a Whizzing like to that of a hot Iron plunged into cold Water When the Remora perceived that the Fight was near an end by the Weakness of the shock which was hardly felt by it it raised it self upon an Angle of its Cube and with all its weight fell upon the Breast of the Salamander with so good success that the Heart of the Salamander wherein all the rest of its heat was contracted bursting made so fearful a Crack that I know nothing in nature to compare it to Thus died the Fiery Beast under the lazy resistance of the Animal Frozen-Nose Sometime after the Remora was gone we approached the place of Battel and the old Man having daubed his Hands over with the Earth on which it had walked as a Preservative against burning laid hold on the Dead Body of the Salamander Give me but the Body of this Animal said he and I 've no need for Fire in my Kitchen for provided it be hung upon the Pot-hook it will Boyl and Roast all that 's laid upon the Hearth As for the Eyes I 'll carefully keep them if they were cleansed from the Shades of Death you 'd take them for two little Suns The Antients of our World knew well what use to make of them they called them burning-Lamps and never hung them up but in the Pompous Monuments of Illustrious Persons The Moderns have found some of them by digging into these famous Tombs but their ignorant Curiosity made them put them out thinking to find behind the broken Membranes the Fire which they saw shine there The old Man went on still and I followed him listning very attentively to the Wonders he told me But since I have been speaking of the Fight I must not forget the Discourse which we had concerning the Animal Frozen-Nose I don't think said he to me that you have ever seen a Remora for they are Fish that never rise to the brim of the Water nay seldom or never do they leave the Northern Sea But without doubt you have seen a sort of Animals which in some manner may be reckoned of their kind I told you just now that that Sea which reaches towards the Pole is full of Remoras that spawn in the mud as other Fishes do You must know then that that Seed the Extract of all their mass so eminently contains all its Coldness that if a Ship pass over it the Ship contracts one or more Worms which become Birds whose Blood is so destitute of heat that though they have Wings yet they are reckoned amongst Fishes And so the Pope who knows their Original forbids them not to be eaten in Lent and these are the Fowls which in France they call Maquereuses I marched on still without any other design than to follow him but so glad that I had found a Man that I durst not take my Eyes off of him so afraid was I to lose my Man. Mortal Youth said he to me for I well perceive that you have not as yet paid the tribute which we owe to Nature as I have done so soon as I saw you I discovered in your Face somewhat that shews you to be curious and inquisitive If I be not mistaken in the Shape and Conformation of your Body you must be a Frenchman and a Native of Paris That City is the place wherewith I ended my Misfortunes which I had carried about with me all over Europe My name is Campanella and I am a Calabrian by Nation Since my coming into the Sun I have spent my time in visiting the Climates of this great Globe that I may discover the Wonders of them It is divided as the Earth is into Kingdoms Republicks States and Principalities so that Four-footed Beasts Fowl Plants and Stones every one have their own and though some of these allow no entrance amongst them to Animals of a strange kind especially to Men whom the Birds above all others mortally hate yet I can travel over all without any danger because the Soul of a Philosopher is made up of more subtile Parts than the Instruments which
the Old Landlord coming in made our Philosopher think of withdrawing He brought in Christals full of Glow-worms to light the Parlour but seeing those little fiery Insects lose much of their Light when they are not fresh gathered these which were ten days old had hardly any at all My Spirit stayed not till the Company should complain of it but went up to his Chamber and came immediately back again with two Bowls of Fire so Sparkling that all wondred he burnt not his Fingers These incombustible Tapers said he will serve us better than your Week of Worms They are Rays of the Sun which I have purged from their Heat otherwise the corrosive qualities of their Fire would have dazled and offended your Eyes I have fixed their Light and inclosed it within these transparent Bowls That ought not to afford you any great Cause of Admiration for it is not harder for me who am a Native of the Sun to condense his Beams which are the Dust of that World than it is for you to gather the Atomes of the pulveriz'd Earth of this World. Thereupon our Landlord sent a Servant to wait upon the Philosophers home it being then Night with a dozen Globes of Glow-worms hanging at his four Legs As for my Preceptor and my self we went to rest by order of the Phisiognomist He laid me that Night in a Chamber of Violets and Lillies ordered me to be tickled after the usual manner and next Morning about Nine a Clock my Spirit came in and told me that he was come from Court where One of the Queens Maids of Honour had sent for him and that she had enquired after me protesting that she still persisted in her Design to be as good as her Word that is that with all her Heart she would follow me if I would take her along with me to the other World which exceedingly pleased me said he when I understood that the chief Motive which inclined her to the Voyage was to become Christian And therefore I have promised to forward her Design what lies in me and for that end to invent a Machine that may hold three or four wherein you may mount to day both together if you think fit I 'll go seriously set about the performance of my Undertaking and in the mean time to entertain you during my Absence I leave you here a Book which heretofore I brought with me from my Native Countrey the Title of it is The States and Empires of the Sun with an Addition of the History of the Spark I also give you this which I esteem much more it is the great Work of the Philosophers composed by one of the greatest Wits of the Sun. He proves in it that all things are true and shews the way of uniting Physically the Truths of every Contradiction as for Example That White is Black and Black White that one may be and not be at the same time that there may be a Mountain without a Valley that nothing is something and that all things that are are not but observe that he proves all these unheard-of Paradoxes without any Captious or Sophistical Argument When you are weary of Reading you may Walk or Converse with our Landlord's Son he has a very Charming Wit but that which I dislike in him is that he is a little Atheistical If he chance to Scandalize you or by any Argument shake your Faith fail not immediately to come and propose it to me and I 'll clear the Difficulties of it any other but I would enjoin you to break Company with him but since he is extreamly proud and conceited I am certain he would take your flight for a Defeat and would believe your Faith to be grounded on no Reason if you refused to hear his Having said so he left me and no sooner was his back turned but I fell to consider attentively my Books and their Boxes that 's to say their Covers which seemed to me to be wonderfully Rich the one was cut of a single Diamond incomparably more resplendent than ours the second looked like a prodigious great Pearl cloven in two My Spirit had translated those Books into the Language of that World but because I have none of their Print I 'll now explain to you the Fashion of these two Volumes As I opened the Box I found within somewhat of Metal almost like to our Clocks full of I know not what little Springs and imperceptible Engines It was a Book indeed but a Strange and Wonderful Book that had neither Leaves nor Letters In fine it was a Book made wholly for the Ears and not the Eyes So that when any Body has a mind to read in it he winds up that Machine with a great many little Strings then he turns the Hand to the Chapter which he desires to hear and straight as from the Mouth of a Man or a Musical Instrument proceed all the distinct and different Sounds which the Lunar Grandees make use of for expressing their Thoughts instead of Language When I since reflected on this Miraculous Invention I no longer wondred that the Young-Men of that Country were more knowing at Sixteen or Eighteen years Old than the Gray-Beards of our Climate for knowing how to Read as soon as Speak they are never without Lectures in their Chambers their Walks the Town or Travelling they may have in their Pockets or at their Girdles Thirty of these Books where they need but wind up a Spring to hear a whole Chapter and so more if they have a mind to hear the Book quite through so that you never want the Company of all the great Men Living and Dead who entertain you with Living Voices This Present employed me about an hour and then hanging them to my Ears like a pair of Pendants I went a Walking but I was hardly at End of the Street when I met a Multitude of People very Melancholy Four of them carried upon their Shoulders a kind of a Herse covered with Black I asked a Spectator what that Procession like to a Funeral in my Country meant He made me answer that that naughty called so by the People because of a knock he had received upon the Right Knee who being convicted of Envy and Ingratitude died the day before and that Twenty Years ago the Parliament had Condemned him to die in his Bed and then to be interred after his Death I fell a Laughing at that Answer And he asking me why You amaze me said I that that which is counted a Blessing in our World as a long Life a peaceable Death and an Honourable Burial should pass here for an exemplary Punishment What do you take a Burial for a precious thing then replyed that Man And in good earnest can you conceive any thing more Horrid than a Corps crawling with Worms at the discretion of Toads which feed on his Cheeks the Plague it self Clothed with the Body of a Man Good God! The very thought of having even when I
am Dead my Face wrapt up in a Shroud and a Pike-depth of Earth upon my Mouth makes me I can hardly fetch breath The Wretch whom you see carried here besides the disgrace of being thrown into a Pit hath been Condemned to be attended by an Hundred and Fifty of his Friends who are strictly charged as a Punishment for their having loved an envious and ungrateful Person to appear with a sad Countenance at his Funeral and had it not been that the Judges took some compassion of him imputing his Crimes partly to his want of Wit they would have been commanded to Weep there also All are Burnt here except Malefactors And indeed it is a most rational and decent Custom For we believe that the Fire having separated the pure from the impure the Heat by Sympathy reassembles the natural Heat which made the Soul and gives it force to mount up till it arrive at some Star the Country of certain people more immaterial and intellectual than us because their Temper ought to suit with and participate of the Globe which they inhabit However this is not our neatest way of Burying neither for when any one of our Philosophers comes to an Age wherein he finds his Wit begin to decay and the Ice of his years to numm the Motions of his Soul he invites all his Friends to a sumptuous Banquet then having declared to them the Reasons that move him to bid farewel to Nature and the little hopes he has of adding any thing more to his worthy Actions they shew him Favour that 's to say they suffer him to Dye or otherwise are severe to him and command him to Live. When then by plurality of Voices they have put his Life into his own Hands he acquaints his dearest Friends with the day and place These purge and for Four and Twenty hours abstain from Eating then being come to the House of the Sage and having Sacrificed to the Sun they enter the Chamber where the generous Philosopher waits for them on a Bed of State every one embraces him and when it comes to his turn whom he loves best having kissed him affectionately leaning upon his Bosom and joyning Mouth to Mouth with his right hand he sheaths a Dagger in his Heart The Loving Friend parts not his Lips from his Friends Lips till he find him expired and then pulling out the Steel and putting his Mouth close to the Wound he sucks down his Blood till a Second succeed him then a Third Fourth and so all the Company Four or Five Hours after every one has a Young Wench of Sixteen or Seventeen Years of Age brought to him and during Three or Four days whilst they are tasting the Pleasures of Love they seed on nothing but the Flesh of the Deceased which they eat raw to the end that if from an Hundred Embracements any thing Spring they may be assured it is their old Friend Revived I interrupted this Discourse saying to him that told me all That this Manner of Acting much resembled the ways of some People of our World and so pursued my Walk which was so long that when I came back Dinner had been ready Two Hours They asked me why I came so late It is not my Fault said I to the Cook who complained I asked what it was a Clock several times in the Street but they made me no answer but by opening their Mouths shutting their Teeth and turning their Faces awry How cried all the Company did not you know by that that they shewed you what it was a Clock Faith said I they might have held their great Noses in the Sun long enough before I had understood what they meant It 's a Commodity said they that saves them the Trouble of a Watch for with their Teeth they make so true a Dial that when they would tell any Body the Hour of the day they do no more but open their Lips and the shadow of that Nose falling upon their Teeth like the Gnomon of a Sun-Dial makes the precise time Now that you may know the reason why all People in this Country have great Noses assoon as a Woman is brought to Bed the Midwife carries the Child to the Master of the Seminary and exactly at the years end the Skillful being assembled if his Nose prove shorter than the standing Measure which an Alderman keeps he is judged to be a Flat Nose and delivered over to be gelt You 'l ask me no doubt the Reason of that Barbarous Custom and how it comes to pass that we amongst whom Virginity is a Crime should enjoyn Continence by force but know that we do so because after Thirty Ages experience we have observed that a great Nose is the mark of a Witty Courteous Assable Generous and Liberal Man and that a little Nose is a Sign of the contrary Wherefore of Flat Noses we make Eunuchs because the Republick had rather have no Children at all than Children like them He was still a speaking when I saw a man come in stark Naked I presently sat down and put on my Hat to shew him Honour for these are the greatest Marks of Respect that can be shew'd to any in that Country The Kingdom said he desires you would give the Magistrates notice before you return to your own World because a Mathematician hath just now undertaken before the Council that provided when you are returned home you would make a certain Machine that he 'l teach you how to do he 'l attract your Globe and joyn it to this Good now said I to my Landlord when the other was gone tell me why that Messenger carried at his Girdle Privy Members of Brass a thing I have often seen whilst I was in my Cage but durst not ask the Reason because I was always environed by the Queens Maids of Honour whom I feared to offend if in their presence I had talked of such a foul Subject He made me this answer The Females here no more than the Males are not so ungrateful as to blush at the sight of that which Forged them and Virgins are not ashamed to love upon us in Memory of Mother Nature the only thing that represents her best Know then that the Scarf wherewith that Man is Honoured and which for a Medal has the Bauble of a Man hanging at it is the Badg of a Gentleman and the Mark to distinguish the Cavalier from the Clown This seemed to me to be so extravagant a Paradox that I could not forbear Laughing I look upon that replyed I to be a very extraordinary Custom for in our World to wear a Sword is the Badg of a Gentleman But my dear little Man cried my Host without startling what are the great Men of your World Mad then to make ostentation of an Instrument that 's the mark of a Hang man made only to destroy us and in a word the sworn Enemy of all that has Life And on the contrary to hide a Member without which we