by Springs And could we see Nature as it is we should see nothing but the hinder part of the Theatre at the Opera By what you say said Madam la Marquiese Philosophy is become very Mechanical So very Mechanical said I that I am afraid men will quickly be ashamed of it for some would have the Universe no other thing in Greeat than a Watch is in Little and that all things in it are ordered by Regular Motion which depends upon the just and equal disposal of its Parts Confess the Truth Madam have not you had heretofore a more sublime Idea of the Universe and have not you honoured it with a better Opinion than it deserved I have known several esteem it less since they believed they knew it better and for my part said she I esteem it more since I knew it is so like a Watch And 't is most surprising to me that the course and order of Nature how ever admirable it appears to be moves upon Principles and Things that are so very easie and simple I know not replied I who has given you so just Idea's of it but 't is not ordinary to have such most People retain in their minds some false Principle or other of Admiration wraped up in obscurity which they adore They admire Nature only because they look on it as a kind of Miracle which they do not understand and 't is certain that those sort of People never despise any thing but from the moment they begin to understand it But Madam I find you so well disposed to comprehend all I have to say to you that without further Preface I need only draw the Curtain and shew you the World. From the Earth where we are that which we see at the greatest distance from us is that Azure Heaven or that vast Vault where the Stars are placed as so many Golden Nails which are called fixt because they seem to have no other motion but that of their proper Sphere which carries them along with it from East to West between the Earth and the last or lowest Heaven are hung at different heights the Sun the Moon and five other Stars which are called Planets Mercury Venus Mars Iupiter and Saturn These Planets not being fixt to any one Sphere and having unequal Motions they are in different Aspects one to another and according as they are in conjunction or at distance they make different Figures whereas the fixt Stars are always in the same Position one towards another As for Example Charles's Wain or the Constellation of the Great Bear which you see and which consists of Seven Stars has always been and will still continue the same but the Moon is sometimes near the Sun and sometimes at a great distance from it and so through all the rest of the Planets It was in this manner that the Celestial Bodies appeared to the Ancient Chaldean Shepherds whose great leisure produced these first Observations which have since been so well improved and upon which all Astronomy is founded For Astronomy had its beginning in Chaldea as Geometry was invented in Egypt where the inundations of the River Nile having confounded and removed the Limits and the Land-marks of the several Possessions of the Inhabitants did prompt them to find out sure and exact Measures by which every one might know his own Field from that of his Neighbours So that Astronomy is the Daughter of Idleness Geometry is the Child of Interest and should we inquire into the Original of Poetry we should in all appearance find that it owes its beginning to Love. I am extreamly glad said the Marquiese that I have learned the Genealogy of the Sciences and I find that I must content my self with Astronomy Geometry according to what you have said requiring a Soul more interested in worldly Concerns than I am and for Poetry 't is most proper for those of a more Amorous Inclination but I have all the leisure and time to spare that Astronomy requires Besides that I live now happily retired in the Fields and Groves and lead a sort of Pastoral Life so very agreeable to Astronomy Do not deceive your self Madam said I 't is not a true Pastoral Life to talk of Planets and fix'd Stars Be pleased to consider that the Shepherds in the Story of Astroea did not pass their time in that kind of divertisement they had business of a softer and more agreeable Nature Oh said she the Life of the Pastorals of Astraea is too dangerous I like that of the Chaldean Shepherds better of whom you spoke but now Go on with them for I will hear nothing from you but Chaldean So soon as that Order and these Motions of the Heavens were discovered what was the next thing to be considered The next thing said I was to guess how the several parts of the Universe were to be disposed and ranged in order and that is what the Learned call The making a System But before Madam I explain to you the first System be pleased to observe that we are all naturally made like a certain Athenian Fool of whom you have heard who fansied that all the Ships that came into the Port of Piraa belonged to him for we are so vain as to believe that all this vast Frame of Nature was destined to our use For if a Philosopher be asked for what all this prodigious number of fixed Stars serve since a very few would supply the business of the whole he will tell you gravely that they were made to please our sight Upon this Principle at first Man believed that the Earth was immoveably fixed in the Centre of the Universe whilst all the Celestial Bodies made only for her were at the pains of turning continually round to give Light to the Earth And that it was therefore above the Earth they placed the Moon above the Moon Mercury then Venus the Sun Mars Iupiter Saturn and above all the Sphere of the fixed Stars The Earth according to this Opinion was just in the middle of the several Circles described by the Planets and the greater these Circles were the further they were distant from the Earth and by consequence they took a longer time in compleating their round which is certainly true I know not said the Marquiese why you should not approve of this Order of the Universe which seems to be so clear and intelligible for my part I am extreamly pleased and satisfied with it Madam said I without Vanity I have very much softned and explained this System Should I expose it to you such as it was first invented by its Author Ptolemy or by those that have followed his Principles it would frighten you The motion of the Planets being irregular they move sometimes fast sometimes slow sometimes towards one side sometimes to another at one time near the Earth at another far from it The Ancients did imagine I know not how many Circles differently interwoven one with another by which they fansy'd
great a matter as you imagine and the Sun only is remarkable for that Quality 't is he alone that is enlightned of himself by virtue of his particular Essence but the other Planets shine only as being enlightned by the Sun The Sun communicates his Light to the Moon which reflects it upon the Earth as the Earth without doubt reflects it back again to the Moon since the distance from the Moon to the Earth is the same as from the Earth to the Moon But said the Marquiese is the Earth as proper for reflecting the Light of the Sun as the Moon You are always for the Moon said I and you cannot rid your self of those Remains of Kindness you have for her Light is compos'd for little Balls which rebound upon any solid Body which is opaque or obscure and are sent back another way whereas they pass through any thing that offers them an Opening or Passage in a streight Line which is Diaplanus or clear such as Air and Glass So that the Moon enlightens us because she is an Opaque solid Body which retorts these little Balls upon us and I believe you will not dispute the same Solidity to the Earth Admire then Madam how advantageous it is to be well posted so that the Moon being at a great distance from us we see it as an enlightned Body only but are ignorant that 't is a gross solid Mass very much like the Earth On the other hand the Earth having the ill luck to be seen by us too near we consider it only as a great massy Body fit only for the producing of Food for living Creatures 'T is just said the Marquiese as when we are struck and surpriz'd with the Splendour of Quality above our own we do not perceive that in the main there 's no difference between them and us 'T is just so said I and we will needs be judging of every thing but we have the mis-fortune still to be plac'd in a false Light Wou'd we judge of our selves we are too near if of others we are too far off Cou'd one be plac'd between the Moon and the Earth that wou'd be a true Station to consider both well To this End we ought only to be Spectators of the World and not Inhabitants I shall never be satisfy'd said the Marquiese with the Injury we do the Earth in being too favourably engag'd for the Inhabitants of the Moon unless you can assure me that they are as ignorant of their Advantages as we are of ours and that they take our Earth for a Star without knowing that the Globe they inhabit is one also Be assur'd of that Madam said I that the Earth appears to them to perform all the Functions of a Star 'T is true they do not see the Earth describe a Circle round 'em but that 's all one I 'll explain to you what it is That side of the Moon which was turn'd towards the Earth at the beginning of the World has continu'd towards the Earth ever since which still represents to us these same Eyes Nose and Mouth which our Imaginations fansie we see compos'd of these Spots Lights and Shadows which are the Surface of the Moon Cou'd we see the other half of the Moon 't is possible our Fancy wou'd represent to us some other Figure This does not argue but the Moon turns however upon her own Axis and takes as much time to perform that Revolution as she does to go round the Earth in a Month. But then when the Moon performs a part of her Revolutions on her own Axis and that she ought to hide from us for Example one Cheek of this imaginary Face and appear to us in another Position she does at the same time perform as much of the Circle she describes in turning round the Earth and tho' she is in a new Point of Sight or Opposition as to us yet she represents to us still the same Cheek So that the Moon in regard to the Sun and the other Planets turns upon her own Axis but does not so as to the Earth The Inhabitants of the Moon see all the other Planets rise and set in the space of fifteen Days but they see our Earth always hanging in the same Point of the Heavens This seeming Immovability does not very well agree with a Body that ought to pass for a Planet but the truth is the Earth is not in such perfection Besides the Moon has a certain trembling Quality which does sometimes hide a little of her imaginary Face and at other times shews a little of her opposite Side and no doubt but the Inhabitants of the Moon attribute this shaking to the Earth and believe we make a certain swinging in the Heavens like the Pendulum of a Clock All these Planets said the Marquiese are like us Mortals who always cast our own Faults upon others Says the Earth It is not I that turn round 't is the Sun Says the Moon It is not I that tremble 't is the Earth There are Errors and Mistakes every where I wou'd not advise you said I to undertake to reform any of 'em 't is better that I make an end in convincing you that the Moon is in all things like the Earth Represent to your self these two great Globes hanging in the Heavens you know that the Sun does always enlighten one half of any Globe and the other half is in the Shadow there is therefore always one half of both Moon and Earth that is enlightned or half Day and the other half is still in the Darkness of Night Be pleas'd besides to consider that a Ball has less force and swiftness after it re-bounds from a Wall against which it was thrown than it had before it touch'd the Wall which sends it another way so Light is not so strong after 't is reflected by any solid Body This pale Light which comes to us from the Moon is the Light of the Sun it self but we have it only by Reflection from the Moon and has lost a great deal of that Strength and Vivacity which it had when 't was receiv'd by the Moon directly from the Sun and that bright and dazling Light which we receive from the Sun must in the same manner appear to the Inhabitants of the Moon after 't is reflected by the Earth on the Moon So that the Surface of the Moon which we see enlightned and which shines upon us in the Night is that half of the Moon that enjoys the Day as that half of the Globe of the Earth which is enlightned by the Sun when 't is turn'd towards the darkned half of the Globe of the Moon does give Light to the Inhabitants there during their Nights All depends upon the different Opposition and Aspects between the Moon and the Earth The first and second Day of the Moon we do not see her because she is betwixt the Sun and us and moves with the Sun by our Day it necessarily follows that
to believe that Corporeal Geniuses inhabit the purest Air do not tell us why these Geniuses visit us so seldom and stay so short a while I do believe 't is because few amongst 'em know how to dive and that even those who are skilful in that Art have great difficulty to penetrate the grosness of the Air which we breath You see therefore that Nature has set many Bars and Fences to hinder us from going out of our World into that of the Moon However for our Satisfaction let us conjecture and guess as much as we can of that world For Example I fansie that the Inhabitants of the Moon must see the Heavens the Sun and the Stars of a different Colour than what they appear to us All these Objects we see through a kind of natural Perspective-Glass which changes them to us this Perspective-glass of ours is mix'd with Vapours and Exhalations which do not ascend very high Some of late pretend that the Air of it self is blew as well as the Water of the Sea and that that Colour is not apparent in the one nor the other but at a great depth The Heavens say they in which are plac'd the fixed Stars has of it self no Light and by consequence ought to appear black But we see it through our Air which is blew and therefore the Heavens appear of that Colour If it be so the Beams of the Sun and Stars cannot pass through the Air without taking a little of its Tincture and at the same time lose as much of their own natural Colour But supposing the Air had no Colour of it self 't is certain that a Flambeau seen at a distance through a thick Fog appears of a reddish Colour tho' that be not natural to it so all our Air which is nothing else but a thick Fog must certainly alter the true natural Colour of the Heavens Sun and Stars to us for nothing but the pure heavenly Substance is capable to convey to us Light and Colours in their Purity and Perfection as they are So that the Air of the Moon is of another nature than our Air or is of it self of an indifferent Colour or at least is another Fog changing in appearance the Colours of the Celestial Bodies In short if there be Inhabitants in the Moon they see all things chang'd through their Perspective-glasses which is their Air. That makes me prefer our place of Habitation said the Marquiese to that of the Moon for I cannot believe that the mixture of the Heavenly Colours is so fine there as it is here Let us suppose if you will the Heavens of a reddish Colour and the Stars of a greenish the Effect wou'd not be half so agreeable as Stars of Gold upon a deep Blue To hear you speak said I one wou'd think you were fitting of Furniture for a Room or chusing a Garniture for a Suit of Cloths Believe me Nature is very ingenious therefore let us leave to her Care the finding out a Mixture of Colours agreeable to the Inhabitants of the Moon and I assure you 't will be perfectly well understood she certainly has not fail'd of changing the Scene of the Universe according to the different Situation and Position of the Beholders and still in a new and agreeable way I know the Skill of Nature perfectly well said Madam the Marquiese and she has spar'd her self the pains of changing her Objects as to the several Points from whence they may be seen and has only chang'd the Perspective-glasses through which they are seen and has the Honour of this great Variety without the Expence She has bestow'd on us a blue Heaven with a blue Air and it may be she has bestow'd upon the Inhabitants of the Moon a Heaven of Scarlet with an Air of the same Colour and yet their Heaven and ours is one and the same And it seems to me that Nature has given every one of us a Perspective-glass or Tube through which we behold Objects in a very different manner one from the other Alexander the Great saw the Earth as a fine place fit for him to form a great Empire upon Celadon only look'd upon it as the Dwelling-place of Astraea A Philosopher considers it as a great Planet all cover'd over with Fools moving through the Heavens And I do not see that the Object changes more from the Earth to the Moon than it does here from one Man to another The Change of Sights is more surprizing to our Imagination said I for they are still the same Objects we see at different Views and it may be in the Moon they see other Objects than we see at least they do not see a part of those we see Perhaps in that Country they know nothing of the Dawning of the Day of the Twi-light before Sun-rising and after Sun-setting for the Beams of the Sun at these two times being oblique and faint have not strength to penetrate the grosness and thickness of the Air with which we are environ'd but are receiv'd and intercepted by the Air before they can fall upon the Earth and are reflected upon us by the Air so that Day-break and Twi-light are Favours of Nature which we enjoy by the by or as it were by chance they not having been destin'd for us but 't is likely that the Air of the Moon being purer than ours is not so proper and fit for reflecting the faint Beams of the Sun before its Rising and after its Setting therefore I suppose the Inhabitants of the Moon do not enjoy the favourable light of the Aurora or Dawning which growing stronger and stronger does prepare us for the glorious Appearance of the Sun at Noon nor the Twi-light which becoming more faint by degrees we are insensibly accustom'd to the Absence of the Sun So that the Inhabitants of the Moon are in profound Darkness when on a suddain a Curtain is drawn as it were and their Eyes are dazl'd with the Rays of the Sun and they enjoy a bright resplendent Light when by a suddain motion as quick as the former down falls the Curtain and instantly they are reduc'd to their former Darkness They want those Mediums or Interstices which join Day and Night together and which participates of both which we enjoy Besides these People have no Rain-bow for as the Dawning is an Effect of the thickness of our Air so the Rain-bow is form'd upon Exhalations and Vapours condens'd into black Clouds which pour down Rain upon us by divers Reflections and Refections of the Sun-beams upon these Clouds So that we owe the Obligation of the most agreeable and pleasant Effects to the ugliest and most dis-agreeable Causes in Nature And since the Purity of the Air of the Moon deprives it of Clouds Vapours and Rain adieu to Rain-bow and Aurora To what then can the Lovers in the Moon compare their Mistresses without these two things I do much regret that loss said the Marquiese for in my Opinion the Inhabitants of
the same bigness that Venus appears to us You afflict me said the Marquiese extreamly I see very well that our Earth is not that happy Planet to the Inhabitants of Venus as she is to us for our Globe of the Earth must appear too big to the Inhabitants of Venus to be the Fountain of Love but the Moon which appears to the World of Venus of the same size that Venus appears to us is exactly cut out to be the Source of their Amours and the lucky Star of their Intrigues which Titles are most agreeable to the pretty clear twinkling Planets which have in 'em a certain Air of Gallantry 'T is certainly a happy Fate for our Moon to give Laws to the Loves of the Inhabitants of Venus No doubt but these People are very soft and have the Art to please extreamly well Without dispute Madam said I the very Mobile of Venus are all made up of Celladons and Silvanders and their most ordinary Conversations excel the finest in Clelia the Climate being more savourable to Love Venus being nearer the Sun than we receives from its Influence a brighter Light and a more enlivening Heat I perceive very well interrupted the Marquiese what kind of People the Inhabitants of Venus are they are like our Moors of Granada a sort of little Sun-burnt Gentlemen always in Love full of Life and Fire given to making Verses and great Lovers of Musick and every Day inventing Feasts Balls and Masquerades to entertain their Mistresses Pray Madam said I you are very ill acquainted with the Inhabitants of Venus for our Moors of Granada are in respect to them as the Inhabitants of Lapland or Greenland for Coldness and Stupidity But what then must the Inhabitants of Mercury be for they are yet more near to the Sun They must certainly be mad by having too much Light and Fire and I believe they have no more Memory than the most part of our Negroes they never think and are void of all Reflection and they only act by Chance and by suddain Impulses In short the Planet Mercury must certainly be the Bethlem of the Universe they see the Sun a great deal bigger than we do because they are so much nearer to it he darts upon 'em so strong a Light that if the Inhabitants of Venus were here they wou'd take our finest Days for the Remains of a saint Twi-light and it may be the Light we enjoy wou'd not serve them to distinguish one Object from another and the Heat they are accustom'd to is so excessive that the greatest warmth enjoy'd by the Inhabitants of the middle of Africk wou'd frieze them to death Their Year casts but three Months the length of their Day is yet unknown Mercury being so little a Planet and so near the Sun in whose Rays he is so continually lost that he is hitherto scarce discoverable by the Art and Skill of Astronomers who cou'd never yet get so much hold of Mercury as to observe the Time in which he performs his Revolution upon his own Axis or Centre but the smallness of his Planet perswades me 't is in a very short time and then by consequence his Days are very short and his Inhabitants must see the Sun as a very great flaming Brasier very near their Heads which to their Apprehension moves with wonderful Rapidity this makes them so earnestly wish for the coming Night which no doubt must be much more grateful to 'em than the Day and during those cooler Hours they are enlightned by Venus and by the Earth which two Planets must appear to them of considerable bigness As for the other Planets since they are remov'd further than Mercury towards the Firmament his Inhabitants must see them less than they appear to us and receive but little Light from 'em it may be none at all the fixed Stars must appear less to 'em also and they lose the sight of some of 'em entirely which in my Opinion is a very great Loss for I shou'd be very sorry to see the vast arch'd Roof of the Heavens adorn'd with fewer Stars or those I do see appear less and not so bright I am not so much concern'd for that Loss said the Marquiese as for their being so extreamly incommoded with excessive Heat and I wish with all my heart we cou'd ease 'em of that Trouble Let us therefore allow 'em long and continued Rain to refresh 'em such as are in some of the hot Countries of our Earth which fall for four Months together during the hottest Seasons That may be done said I but we may find out another Remedy to relieve the Inhabitants of Mercury for there are Countries in China which by their Situation must be very hot yet notwithstanding the Cold is so excessive during the Months of Iuly and August that the Rivers are frozen The Reason is These Climates abound with Salt-Petre whose Exhalations being very cold the force of the Heat draws out of the Earth in great abundance Let us therefore suppose Mercury to be a little Planet made of Salt-Petre and let the Sun extract out of himself a Remedy to his Disease which he gives to the Inhabitants This is certain that Nature produces no Animal but in places where they may live and Custom and Use joined with Ignorance of what is better supplieth all Defects and makes Life agreeable for ought we know the Inhabitants of Mercury want neither Rain nor Exhalations of Salt-Petre After Mercury you know the next Planet we find in our Journey is the Sun and if we judge by the Earth which is inhabited that other Bodies of the same kind may be so too we are mistaken and the Why not will fail us here for the Sun is a Body of a quite different Nature from the Earth and other Planets He is the Source and Fountain of all that Light which the other Planets do only reflect from one to another after having receiv'd it from him and so they can exchange Light one with another but are incapable of producing it The Sun alone draws from it self this precious Substance which he darts a-round him with great Force and Violence and which is intercepted by every Body that is solid so that there is reflected from one Planet to another long streams and streaks of Light which crossing and traversing each other in the Air are interwoven a thousand different Ways and so form a Mixture of the richest substance in Nature For this end the Sun is plac'd in the Centre which is the Situation most proper and commode from whence he may equally dispence and distribute his Light and Heat for the livening and enlightning all things round him The Sun is therefore a Body of a particular Substance but what kind of Body or what kind of Substance is all the difficulty Heretofore 't was believ'd that the Sun was a pure Fire but the Error of this Opinion was found out in the Beginning of this Age by Spots which were discover'd
of their Motions sometimes they see 'em over their Heads directly above one another at other times they see 'em appear above their Horzion at equal distances at another time two of the four are rising when the other two are setting but above all I shou'd be pleas'd to see their constant Eclipsing one another or the Sun for there passes no Day without one of the two and since Eclipses are so familiar to that World they must certainly be a Divertisement to them whereas they frighten the Inhabitants of our Earth And you will not fail I hope says the Marquiese to bestow Inhabitants upon these four Moons though they be little inferior Planets and only made to enlighten the Inhabitants of a greater during their long Nights You need not doubt of it said I Madam these four Planets are no less deserving of Inhabitants because they are so unhappy as to be subject to and turn round a more important Planet I wou'd says the Marquiese have the Inhabitants of these four Moons to be Colonies of Iupiter and receive their Laws and Manners from thence and pay Homage and Respect to Iupiter and not to look upon that great Planet but with Veneration And wou'd you not also said I have these four Moons to send Ambassadors from time to time to the Inhabitants of Iupiter and swear Fealty to him For my part we having no Authority over the Inhabitants of our Moon makes me think that Iupiter has no more over the Inhabitants of his four and I believe one of the Advantages he has most reason to brag of is that he frightens ' em For Example The Inhabitants of that Moon next to Iupiter see him three hundred and sixty times bigger than our one Moon appeareth to us And as I believe that little Moon to be much nearer to Iupiter than Ours is so his greatness must be by that considerably augmented and they must constantly see that monstrous Planet hanging over their Heads at a very small distance And if it be true that the Gauls of old apprehended the falling of the Heavens The Inhabitants of that Moon have more Reason to fear the falling of Iupiter It may be said she they have that fright instead of that of the Eclipses which you told me they are free from and which must be supply'd by some other piece of Folly. It must be so infallibly said I Madam for the great inventer of the third System of which I spoke to you the other Day the Ticho-Brahe one of the greatest Astronomers that ever liv'd was far from fearing Eclipses as the Vulgar do but instead of that he fear'd if the first he met as he went out of his House in the Morning were old or if a Hare happen'd to cross his way he instantly return'd home shut himself up and did believe that day to be unlucky nor wou'd he dare to attempt Business of the smallest Consequence It is not just said the Marquiese that since that great Man was not free from the Fear of Eclipses for nothing that the Inhabitants of that little Moon shou'd come off at an easier rate Let us give 'em no Quarter but force 'em to submit to the common Law of Nature and oblige 'em to yield to some other Folly. But since I will not trouble my self to guess at this time what that may be pray solve me one difficulty which my Fancy has just now suggested if the Earth be so little in respect of Iupiter does the Inhabitants of Iupiter see our Earth I am afraid we are altogether unknown to ' em Really I believe it to be so said I for the Inhabitants of Iupiter must see the Earth ninety times less than Iupiter appears to us which is too small to be perceiv'd by them and all we can imagine for our advantage is to suppose that there are Astronomers in Iupiter who after having taken a great deal of Pains and fitting excellent Telescopes and having chosen a very clear Night for making the Observation they at last discover in the Heavens a little Planet they had never seen before and streight they set it down in the Philosophical Transactions of that Country The rest of the Inhabitants of Iupiter either never hear of it or laugh at it if they do the Philosophers themselves whose Opinion that discovery destroys resolve not to believe it and there are but some very rational People that will trouble themselves with the thoughts of it These Astronomers make new Observations they again look upon this little Planet and they begin to be assur'd that it is no Fancy but a real thing then they begin to conclude this little Planet has a Motion round the Sun and after a thousand Observations they at last find out that this Motion or Revolution is performed in a Years time So that thanks to these learned Men the Inhabitants of Iupiter know our Earth is a Planet and a World The Curious are earnest to look on it through a Telescope tho 't is so little 't is hardly discoverable If it were not said the Marquiese very disagreeable for me to believe that our Earth is not to be perceiv'd by the Inhabitants of Iupiter but by the help of a Telescope I shou'd find an Infinite Pleasure in imagining I shou'd see those Telescopes pointing towards us and ours from a mutual Curiosity are levell'd at them whil'st those two Planets gravely considering one another the Inhabitants of both ask at one and the same time What World is that What People are those Don't go so fast Madam said I suppose the Inhabitants of Iupiter cou'd see our Earth yet they cou'd never see us or so much as suspect our Earth to be inhabited or if any Body were Fool enough to imagine it God knows how he wou'd be laugh'd at and ridicul'd by the rest of the Inhabitants And it may be we are the Cause that some Philosophers in that World have been sued and persecuted for this Opinion However I believe that the Inhabitants of Iupiter are employed enough in the discovery of their own Planet without troubling themselves with the thoughts of us And had Christopher Columbus been of that Country and understanding Navigation so well he cou'd not have wanted employment And the People of that World know not the hundredth part of its own Inhabitants whereas in Mercury which is a very little Planet they are all Neighbours one to another and converse familiarly together and they esteem it as but a Walk to go round their little World and if the Inhabitants of Iupiter do not see us you may easily judge they can far less perceive Venus and Mercury both which are more diminutive Worlds and further distant from it than we But in lieu of this they see Mars and there are four Moons and Saturn with the five that belong to him There are Planets enough to perplex all the Astronomers there And Nature has had the goodness to hide from 'em what remains of the Universe
will suffice but for five or six and I see thousands What wou'd you say Madam said I if I shou'd tell you that there are infinitely more fixed Stars than those you see that by the help of Telescopes an unaccountable number are discover'd which we cannot see with our Eyes alone and that in one Constellation where we counted but twelve or fifteen fixed Stars there have been discover'd more than we see with our Eyes in the whole Heavens I ask your Pardon said she I yield and confess you have over-charg'd me with Worlds and Tourbillions Madam said I I have still a Reserve for you You see that Whiteness in the Hemisphere call'd The Milky Way Can you imagine what it is 'T is nothing but an Infinity of little fixed Stars which cannot be seen by our Eyes because they are so very small and are plac'd so near to one another that they appear to be but one continued Whiteness I wish you cou'd see this Ant-hill or Stars and these Seeds of Worlds they look like the Maldevia-Islands or those twelve thousand little Isles or Banks of Sand separate only by small Canals of the Sea which one may over-leap with as much Ease as a Ditch So that these little Tourbillions of the Milky Way being so near one to another may converse and shake hands with those of their Neighbouring World at least the Birds of one World may fly into another and they may teach Pidgeons to carry Letters as they do in the Levant By which the Sun in his own Tourbillion as soon as he begins to spread his Light he faceth that of all other Stranger-Suns for if you were in one of these little Tourbillions of the Milky Way your Sun wou'd not be so near to you and by consequence wou'd have but little more power force or influence upon your Eyes than a hundred thousand other Suns of the neighbouring Tourbillions you wou'd then see your Heaven shining with an infinite number of Fires very near to one another and not far distant from you and tho' you shou'd lose the sight of your own Sun you wou'd still have Light enough and your Nights wou'd be no less bright than your Days at least you wou'd not be sensible of the difference or to speak more properly you wou'd have no Night at all The Inhabitants of this World accustom'd to perpetual Day wou'd be strangely surpriz'd if one shou'd tell 'em that there are several People in the Universe who are under the Tribulation of dismal real Nights and who fall into long and profound Darknesses and who when the Light returns behold one and the same Sun They wou'd look upon such People as the Out-casts of Nature and the very Thoughts of our sad Condition wou'd sieze them with Horrour I do not ask you said the Marquiese whether there be any Moons in the World of the Milky Way I see very well that they wou'd be of no use to these Planets that have no Night and who besides move in too little Room to be troubled with an Equipage of inferior Planets But do you know that by your multiplying upon me such a multitude of Worlds you have started a great Difficulty to my Fancy which I doubt you will hardly satisfie The Tourbillions whose Suns we see touch the Tourbillions where we are and all the Tourbillions are round how is it possible that so many different Globes can touch one single one This I wou'd willingly understand but find I cannot There 's a great deal of Sense said I Madam in your proposing of this Difficulty and no less in your not knowing how to salve it for 't is very judicious in it self and unanswerable as you understand it and 't is an Argument of very little Wit to answer an Objection that is unanswerable If our Tourbillion were in the shape of a Dy it wou'd have six plain Superficies and wou'd be very far from being round yet upon every one of these six Superficies or flat Sides a Tourbillion might be plac'd being of the same Figure But instead of six flat sides suppose it had twenty fifty or a thousand then it were possible to place a thousand Tourbillions upon it every Side bearing one and you easily understand that the more Superficies or flat Sides any Body has the nearer it approaches to a Globe So a Diamond cut in Fossets on all sides if those Fossets were very small that Diamond wou'd be as round almost as a Pearl of the same bigness the Tourbillions are only round in this sense they are compos'd of an infinite number of flat Sides and every one of 'em carries another Tourbillion The flat Superficies are very unequal here they are big there they are little the smallest Superficies of our Tourbillion for Example answer to the Milky Way and support all those little Worlds but if two Tourbillions that rest upon two neighbouring Sides or Faces have any void space below between 'em as that must fall out very often Nature who will lose nothing and turns all her work to the best advantage instantly fills up that Vacuity with one two or it may be a thousand little Tourbillions which does not at all trouble or incommode the rest and yet every one of these may have a World in it so that there may be more Worlds than our Tourbillion has flat Sides to support And I dare say that although these little Worlds were only made to fill up Chinks of the Universe which otherwise wou'd have been useless and that they are altogether unknown to the other Worlds which touch them yet I doubt not but they are very well contented with their own Condition and 't is they whose little Suns we discover by the helps of Telescopes whose number is so prodigious In fine all these Tourbillions are so rightly adjusted and join'd to one another in so delicate a Form that every one turns round his own Sun without changing his Situation every one takes that way of turning which is most proper and commode to its place They are fixed to one another like the Wheels of a Watch assisting one another in their Motions and yet moving contrary to one another And 't is said that every World is like a Balloon or Foot-ball which swells and fills of it self and which wou'd extend farther if it were not hinder'd by neighbouring Worlds who press it and then it shrinks to its first form after that it swells a-new and is again depress'd And the Philosophers pretend that the fixed Stars transmit to us a trembling Light and an unequal Sparkling because their Tourbillions push against ours and ours against theirs I am extreamly in love said the Marquiese with these Idea's you give me of the Balloons which swell and fall every Moment and those Worlds which are always justling together But above all I am pleas'd to consider that this Strife amongst 'em produces a Commerce of Light which is the only Traffick they can have No no said I
to themselves they understood all the irregular Phaenomena's or Appearances in Nature And the Confusion of these Circles was so great that at that time when men knew no better a King of Arragon a great Mathematician not over devout said That if God had call'd him to his Council when he form'd the Vniverse he could have given him good Advice The thought was impious yet 't is odd to reflect that the confusion of Ptolemy's System gave an occasion for the sin of that King The good Advice he would have given was no doubt for surpassing these different Circles which had so embarrass'd the Celestial Motions and it may be also with regard to the two or three superfluous Spheres which they had plac'd above the fixed Stars The Philosophers to explain one kind of motion of the heavenly Bodies did fansie a Sphere of Christal above that Heaven which we see which set the inferior Heaven on motion and if any one made a new discovery of any other Motion they immediately made a new Sphere of Christal in short these Christalline Heavens cost them nothing But why Spheres of Christal said Madam la Marquiese Would no other Substance serve No said I Madam for there was a necessity of their being transparent that the Light might penetrate as it was requisite for them to be solid Beams Aristotle had found out that Solidity was inherent in the Excellency of their Nature and because he said it no body would adventure to question the truth of it But there have appear'd Comets which we know to have been vastly higher from the Earth than was believed by the Ancients These in their course wou'd have broke all those Christal Spheres and indeed must have ruined the Universe So that there was an absolute necessity to believe the Heavens to be made of a fluid substance at least 't is not to be doubted from the observation of this and the last Age that Venus and Mercury move round the Sun and not round the Earth So that the ancient System is not to be defended as to this particular But I will propose one to you which solves all Objections and which will put the King of Arragon out of a condition of advising and which is so surprisingly simple and easie that that good quality alone ought to make it preferrable to all others Methinks said Madam la Marquiese that your Philosophy is a kind of Sale or Farm where those that offer to do the Affair at the smallest Expence are preferr'd 'T is very true said I and 't is only by that that we are able to guess at the Scheme upon which Nature hath fram'd her Work She is very saving and will take the shortest and cheapest way Yet notwithstanding this Frugality is accompany'd with a most surprising Magnificence which shines in all she has done but the Magnificence is in the Design and the Oeconomy in the Execution And indeed there is nothing finer than a great Design carried on with a little Expence But we are very apt to overturn all these Operations of Nature by contrary Idea's We put Oeconomy in the Design and Magnificence in the Execution We give her a little Design which we make her perform with ten times a greater Charge than is needful I shall be very glad said she that this System you are to speak of will imitate Nature so exactly for this good Husbandry will turn to the advantage of my Understanding since by it I shall have less trouble to comprehend what you have to say There is in this System no more unnecessary difficulties Know then that a certain German named Copernicus does at one blow cut off all these different Circles and Christalline Spheres invented by the Ancients destroying the one and breaks the other in pieces and being inspir'd with a Noble Astronomical Fury takes the Earth and hangs it at a vast distance from the Centre of the World and sets the Sun in its place to whom that Honour does more properly belong the Planets do no longer turn round the Earth nor do they any longer contain it in the Circle they describe and if they enlighten us it is by chance and because they find us in their way All things now turn round the Sun among which the Globe it self to punish it for the long Rest so falsly attributed to it before and Copernicus has loaded the Earth with all those Motions formerly attributed to the other Planets having left this little Globe none of all the Celestial Train save only the Moon whose natural Course it is to turn round the Earth Soft and fair said Madam la Marquiese you are in so great a Rapture and express your self with so much Pomp and Eloquence I hardly understand what you mean You place the Sun unmoveable in the Centre of the Universe Pray what follows next Mercury said I who turns round the Sun so that the Sun is in the Centre of the Circle he describes And above Mercury Venus who turns also round the Sun Next comes the Earth which being more elivated than Mercury or Venus describes a Circle of a greater Circumference that those two Planets Last come Mars Iupiter and Saturn in their order as I have nam'd 'em So that you see easily that Saturn ought to make the greatest Circle round the Sun it is therefore that Saturn takes more time to make his Revolution than any other Planet Ah but said the Marquiese interrupting me you forget the Moon Do not fear said I Madam I shall soon find her again The Moon turns round the Earth and never leaves it and as the Earth moves in the Circle it describes round the Sun the Moon follows the Earth in turning round it and if the Moon do move round the Sun it is only because she will not abandon the Earth I understand you said she I love the Moon for staying with us when all the other Planets have left us and you must confess that your German Copernicus would have taken her from us too had it been in his power for I perceive by his procedure he had no great kindness for the Earth I am extreamly pleas'd with him said I for having humbled the Vanity of mankind who had usurp'd the first and best Situation in the Universe and I am glad to see the Earth under the same Circumstances with the other Planets That 's very fine said the Marquiese Do you believe that the Vanity of Man places it self in Astronomy or that I am any way humbled because you tell me the Earth turns round the Sun I 'll swear I do not esteem my self one whit the less Good Lord Madam said I Do you think I can imagine you can be as zealous for a Precedency in the Universe as you would be for that in a Chamber No Madam the Rank of Place between two Planets will never make such a bustle in the World as that of two Ambassadors Nevertheless the same inclination that makes us endeavour to have
one travels towards the new discovered World of America c. and finds the Inhabitants there to be hardly Men but rather a kind of Brutes in humane shape and that not perfect neither so that could we travel to the Orb of the Moon I do not think we should find Men and Women there What kind of Creatures should we find then said the Marquiese with a very impatient look I swear I cannot tell said I Madam were it possible for us to be rational Creatures and yet not Men and that we inhabited the Moon cou'd it ever enter into our Imagination that there dwelt here below so extravagant an Animal as that of Mankind Could we fansie to our selves any living Creatures with such foolish Passions and so wise Reflections of so small Duration and yet can see so vast a Prospect beyond it of so much knowledge in Trifles and so much Ignorance of important things so earnest for liberty yet so enclin'd to servitude and Slavery so very desirous of Happiness and yet so uncapable of attaining it it wou'd require a great deal of Wit and Judgment in the Inhabitants of the Moon to find the Reason and Mystery of such an odd composition for we that see one another daily have not as yet found out how we are made It was said of old amongst the Heathens that the Gods when they made Man were drunk with Nectar whom when they had consider'd when sober they cou'd not forbear laughing at the ridiculousness of their handy Work. We are then secure enough said the Marquiese that the Inhabitants of the Moon will never guess what we are but I wish we could attain to the knowledge of them for I must confess it makes me uneasie to think there are Inhabitants in the Moon and yet I cannot so much as fansie what kind of Creatures they are And why are you not as uneasie said I upon the account of the Inhabitants under and near the South-Pole which is altogether unknown to us They and we are carried as it were in the same Ship they in the Stern and we in the Head and yet you see there is no communication between the Stern and the Head and that those at the one end of the Ship do not know what kind of People they are on the other nor what they are doing and yet you would know what passes in the Moon in that other great Ship sailing in the Heavens at a vast distance from us Ah said the Marquiese I look upon the Inhabitants under the South-Pole as a People known to us because they are most certainly very like us and that we may see them if we please to give our selves the trouble they will continue still where they are and cannot run away from our knowledge but we shall never know what these Inhabitants of the Moon are 't is that that vexes me If I shou'd answer you seriously said I that we may one day know 'em wou'd not you laugh at me Nay and I shou'd deserve it Yet I cou'd defend my self very well if I shou'd say so there is a certain ridiculous thought in my Head which has some shadow of likelihood which satisfies me tho I do not know on what it is founded it being so impertinent as it is yet I will lay you what you will that I will oblige you to believe against all Reason that there may one day be a correspondence between the Earth and the Moon Reflect a little Madam upon the State and Condition of America before it was discovered by Christopher Columbus it's Inhabitants liv'd in a most profound Ignorance so far from the knowledge of Sciences that they were ignorant of the most simple and useful Art They went stark naked and cou'd not imagine that Men cou'd be cover'd by Skins of Beasts had no other Arms but Bows and who look upon the Sea as a vast space forbidden to mankind joining as they thought to the Sky beyond which they saw nothing 'T is true after having spent several years with hollowing the root of a great Tree with sharp Flints they after ventur'd to go in this kind of Boat which was driven along the Shore by the Winds and the Waves but as this kind of Vessel was very subject to be over-set very often they were necessitated to swim to catch their Boat again and indeed they did swim for the most part except when they were weary If any Body had told them there was a Navigation much more perfect than that they knew and that by it it was easie to cross that vast extent of Water to any side and in what manner we pleas'd and that it was possible to stop and lie still in the midst of the Waves while the Vessel is in Motion that Men cou'd move fast or slow as they pleas'd and that the Sea notwithstanding the vastness of its extent was no hindrance to the commerce of distant Nations provided that there were People on the other shoar surely the Indians wou'd never have believ'd that Man that should have told 'em this to them impossibility nevertheless the day came that the strangest and least expected Sight that ever they saw presented it self to their view huge great Bodies which seem'd to have white wings with which they flew upon the Sea belching Fire from all parts and at last landed upon their shoar a Race of unknown Men all crusted over with pollish'd Steel ordering and disposing at their Pleasure the Monsters that brought 'em thither carrying Thunder in their Hands which destroy'd all that made any resistance while the wondring Indians cried from whence came they who brought them over the Seas who has given 'em the Power of Fire and Thunder are they Gods or the Children of the Sun for certainly they are not Men. I know not Madam whether you conceive as I do the extraordinary surprize of these Americans but certainly there was never any equal to it and after that I will not swear but there may be one day a commerce betwixt the Earth and the Moon Had the Americans any Reason to hope for a correspondence betwixt America and Europe which they did not know It is true there will be a Necessity to cross the vast Extent of Air and Heaven that is betwixt the Earth and the Moon But did these Americans think the Ocean more proper to be crossed and pass'd through Sure said the Marquiese you are mad and looking earnestly on me I do not deny it answer'd I nay said she it is not sufficient to confess it I will prove you to be mad The Americans were so ignorant that the Possibility of making a way or passage through the vast Ocean cou'd never enter into their Thoughts but we that know so much we easily find out that it wou'd be no hard matter to pass through the Air if we cou'd support our selves There are those Men said I who have found out more than a possibility of it for they actually begin to fly a
great Tourbillions remain where they did before and 't is a strange Misfortune that there shou'd be certain fixed Stars which appear to us and after a great deal of time of appearing and dis-appearing entirely vanish and are lost In that time the Half-Suns I spoke of wou'd appear again and Suns that were sunk into the Heavens wou'd dis-appear once and not to appear again for a long time Resolve well what to think Madam and take Courage there is a necessity that these Stars must be Suns which grown obscure enough to be invisible to our sight are afterwards enlightned and in the end must lie extinguished How said the Marquiese Can a Sun be obscur'd or entirely extinguish'd who is himself the Fountain of Light The most easily in the World said I Madam According to the Opinion of Des Cartes our Sun has Spots let 'em be Scum or Vapours or what else you will these Spots may condense and many of 'em may come together and form a kind of Crust which may afterwards augment and then farewel the Sun and all its Light. 'T is said we escap'd once very hardly for the Sun was grown extreamly pale for several Years together and particularly the Year after the Death of Iulius Caesar it was that Crust that began to gather and the Face of the Sun brake and dissipated it but had it continu'd we had been all undone You make me tremble said the Marquiese and now that I understand the Consequences of the paleness of the Sun I shall henceforth every Morning instead of going to my Looking-Glass to consult my own Face go and look up to the Heavens to consider that of the Sun. Madam said I be assur'd there goes a great deal of time to ruin a World. Then said she there is nothing requisite but Time. I acknowledge it Madam said I all this vast Mass of Matter which composes the Universe is in perpetual Motion from which no part of it is entirely exempt and therefore Changes must come sooner or later but always in Time proportionable to the Effect The Ancients were foolish to imagine that the Celestial Bodies were of an unchangeable Nature because they never saw any Change in 'em but they had neither Leisure nor Life long enough to undeceive themselves by Experience but the Ancients were young in respect of us Suppose now Madam that the Roses which last but for a Day shou'd write Histories and leave Memorials from one to another the first wou'd have describ'd the Picture of their Gardener of a certain manner and after fifteen thousand Ages of Roses the others that had follow'd 'em wou'd have alter'd nothing in that Description of the Gardener but wou'd have said We have always seen the same Gardener since the Memory of Roses we have seen but him he has always been as he is he dies not as we do nay he changes not and certainly will never be other than what he is Wou'd this way of arguing of the Roses be good Yet it wou'd be better grounded than that of the Ancients concerning Celestial Bodies and tho' there had never happen'd any Change in the Heavens to this Day and tho' they shou'd seem to last for ever yet I wou'd not believe it but wou'd wait for a longer Experience nor ought we to measure the Duration of any thing by that of our own scanty Life Suppose a thing had a Being a hundred thousand times longer than ours shou'd we therefore conclude it shou'd last for ever Eternity is not so easie a matter and some things must have pass'd many Ages of Men one after another before any sign of Decay had appear'd in ' em I am not so unreasonable said the Marquiese as to consider the Worlds as things eternal nor will I do them the honour to compare 'em to your Gardener who liv'd so many Ages longer than the Roses They are themselves but as a Rose which are produc'd but in a Garden that bud one Day and fall the next and as those Roses die new ones succeed so for some ancient Stars that dis-appear other new ones are born in their places and that Defect in Nature must be so repair'd and no Species can totally perish Some will tell you they are Suns which draw near to us after having been long lost in the depth of Heavens Others will say they are Suns that have cast off the Crust which began to cover them If I cou'd easily believe all this yet I shou'd believe also that the Universe was made in such a manner that new Suns have been and may be form'd in it from time to time and what shou'd hinder the Substance proper to make Suns from gathering together and producing new Worlds And I am the more inclin'd to believe these new Productions since they are more correspondent to the great Idea I have of the glorious Works of Nature And why shou'd not she who knows the Secret to bring forth and destroy Herbs Plants and Flowers in a continu'd Succession practise also the same Secret on the Worlds since one costs her no more Pains and Expence than the other Indeed says the Marquiese I find the Worlds the Heavens and the Celestial Bodies so subject to change that I am altogether returned to my self Let us return yet more said I and if you please make this subject no longer that of our Discourse besides you are arriv'd at the utmost bounds of Heaven and to tell you that there are any Stars beyond that were to make my self a wiser Man than I am place Worlds there or place none there it depends upon your Will. These vast invisible Regions are properly the Empires of Philosophers which it may be are or are not as they themselves shall fansie 'T is sufficient for me to have carried your Understanding as far as your sight can penetrate What cry'd out the Marquiese have I the Systemes of all the Universe in my Head am I become so learned Yes Madam you know enough and with this Advantage that you may believe all or nothing of what I have said as you please I only beg this as a Recompence for my pains that you will never look on the Heavens Sun Moon or Stars without thinking of me FINIS Books lately Printed for W. Canning LA Montre or The Lover's Watch by Mrs. Behn The Lucky Chance or An Alderman's Bargain A Comedy By Mrs. Behn The Island-Princess or Generous Portuguese A Comedy Altered by Mr. Tate An Historical and Geographical Account of the Morea Negropont and the Maritime Places as far as Thessalonica Illustrated with forty two Maps of the Countries Plains and Draughts of the Cities Towns and Fortifications Written in Italian by P. M. Coronelli Geographer to the Republick of Venice Englished by R. W. Gent. Gesta Grayorum or The History of the high and mighty Prince Henry Prince of Purpoole Arch-Duke of Stapulia and Bernardia Duke of High and Nether Holborn Marquis of St. Giles and Tottenham Count Palatine of Bloomsbury and Clerkenwell Great Lord of the Cantons of Islington Kentish-Town Paddington and Knights-bridge Knight of the most Heroical Order of the Helmet and Sovereign of the same Who reigned and died A. D. 1594. Together with a Masque as it was presented by His Highness's Command for the Entertainment of Q. Elizabeth who with the Nobles of both Courts was present thereat Hearing a Translation of the Plurality of Worlds was doing by another Hand the Translator had not the opportunity to supervise and correct the Sheets before they were wrought off so that several Errata have escaped The most material ones are under-written PAge 17. line 26. read Piraeum p. 20. l. 21. for Beams r. Bodies p. 21. l. 6. f. least r. last p. 28. l. 1. f. Circle r. Earth p. 29. l. ult f. Circle r. Earth p. 30. l. 13. f. every r. any p. 32. l. 1. f. as r. it s p. 34. l. 6. f. hands r. heads p. 36. l. 28. for twenty r. two or three p. 37. l. 11. for twenty r. two or three p. 38. l. 17. del to remove p. 44. l. 20. r. Diaphanous p. 48. l. 13. r. hath day p. 50. l. 21. f. certain r. say it is p. 65. l. 17. f. Waves r. Sea. l. 18. f. vessel is r. waves were p. 72. l. ult r. irregularly p. 76. l. 25. f. as a rounded r. around her p. 77. l. 2. f. Air r. one p. 85. l. 13. for Refections r. Refractions ibid. l. 25. after I do add not p. 92. l. 16. f. varieties r. vacuities p. 100. l. 20. f. easts r. lasts p. 106. l. 23. f. effects r. defects p. 109. l. 8. r. or Whirlings p. 125. l. 19. f. flying r. shining p. 147. l. 26. f. braz'd r. embarass'd p. 154. l. 8. f. face r. force or heat