are now too far ingag'd to retire you must e'en go on But says she according to this Resemblance you make between the fixed Stars and our Sun it must needs be that the people of another great Vortex do not see him but as a little fixed Star which appears to them only in their night No doubt on 't said I our Sun is so near us in comparison of the Suns of other Vortices that his Light must have infinitely more of force upon our Eyes than theirs so that we see him and him only when we see him for he dazles all else But in another great Vortex another Sun prevails and he takes his turn and dazles ours which appears there only in the night with the other forreign Suns that is the fixed Stars The people there seat him with them in the great Arch of Heaven and there he makes a part perhaps of some Bull or Bear. As for the Planets that move about him as our Earth for example they are not discerned so far off and no body dreams of them So all the Suns are Day Suns for the Vortices where they are placed and Night Suns for all the other Vortices In their World they are the only ones of their kind every where else they serve only to make up the number of Stars But yet says she notwithstanding this Equality may not these Worlds differ in a thousand things for a Resemblance in the main may admit of infinite varieties Most certain said I but the difficulty is to guess what or how What know I one Vortex has more Planets that turn about his Sun another has fewer In the one there are subordinate Planets which move about others that are bigger in another ther 's no such thing Here they all crowd together about their Sun and make as it were a little Ball beyond which a great void space extends as far as the neighbouring Vortices In another place they take their course toward the extremities of the Vortex and leave the middle void I doubt not likewise but there may be some Vortices desert and without Planets and others whose Sun not being exactly in the Center has a true motion and carrys his Planets with him Others that rise or fall in respect of their Sun according to the change of the poise that sustains them In fine what more would you have There 's e'en enough for a man that was never out of his own Vortex That 's not much says she for the Quantity of Worlds what you say is not enough for above five or six and I see here a million What would it be then said I if I should tell you that there are many more fixed Stars than those that you see and that wirh a Telescope an infinite number are discover'd that did not appear to the eye and that in one sole Constellation where we usually reckon perhaps twelve or fifteen there are found to be as many as were seen before in the whole Heaven Oh! cry'd the Marchioness give me Quarter I yield you overwhelm me with Worlds and Vortices I know said I what I have in store for you yet You see that White commonly call'd the Milky way Can you imagine what it is 'T is an infinity of little Stars invisible to the eye because of their smalness and so thick set one by the other that they seem to form that continued Whiteness I wish you saw with a Telescope that crowd of Stars like Ants in their Hillock that Grainery of Worlds if I may be permitted the expression they resemble in some sort the Maldivian Isles those twelve thousand little Isles or Banks of Sand separated only by little Chanels of the Sea that a man may leap over as easie as so many Ditches So the little Vortices of the Milky way are so close one to the other that methinks from one World to the other they may hold discourse and even shake hands at least I believe the Birds of one World pass easily to another and Pigeons that are taught to carry Letters may be as useful there as here in the Levant Those little Worlds are evidently an exception from the general Rule by which one Sun when he appears in his Vortex extinguishes all forreign Suns If you are in one of those little Vortices of the Milky way your Sun is hardly nearer to you and consequently has not sensibly more of force upon your Eyes than an hundred thousand other Suns of the neigbouring Vortices You see then your Heaven glittering with an infinite number of Fires very near one to the other and not far distant from you When you have lost sight of your Sun you have still enough remain and your Night is as clear as the Day or at least the difference is not sensible and to speak better you have no Night at all The people of those Worlds us'd as they are to a perpetual Light would be much astonish'd to hear that there are unhappy people that have real Nights that are bury'd in profound Darkness and when they injoy the Light 't is only of one Sun They would look on us as Beings curs'd by Nature and would tremble with Horrour at our Condition I do not ask you said the Marchioness if there be Moons in those Worlds in the Milky way I well see they would be of no use to the principal Planets that have no Night and which moreover move in spaces too straight to incumber themselves with that attendance of subordinate Planets But do you know that your profuse multiplying of Worlds upon me has rais'd in me a real difficulty The Vortices where we see the Suns touch the Vortex where we are The Vortices are round are they not How then can so many Bowls touch one I would imagine this but I am sensible I cannot There 's a great deal of Wit and Judgment said I in having that difficulty and likewise in not being able to resolve it For it is good in it self and in the manner you conceive it 't is unanswerable and there 's but little Wit in finding an Answer for what has none If our Vortex were of the figure of a Dy it would have six flat faces and would be very far from being round but upon every one of those faces might be put a Vortex of the same figure if in stead of six flat faces it had 20 50 1000 there might be 1000 Vortices laid on it every one on a particular face and you apprehend that the more flat faces a body has the nearer it comes to a round figure so as a Diamond cut into flats if the flats be very small will be almost as round as a Pearl of the same bigness The Vortices are not round but after that manner they have an infinity of flats on their outside each of which carrys another Vortex These flats are very unequal some great some small The lesser of our Vortex for example correspond with the Milky way
you have heard spoke of who had a fancy that all the Ships in the Port of Pireum were his 'T is just so our folly to persuade our selves that all Nature was design'd for our use and when we ask our Philosophers to what end is all that prodigious number of fixed Stars when a few would suffice to perform the office of all they 'l answer jejunely that they are to delight the Eye Upon this principle it was believ'd that the Earth rests quiet in the center of the Universe while all the celestial bodies which were made for it take the pains to roll about and inlighten it 'T was then next above the the Earth that they plac'd the Moon above the Moon Mercury next Venus the Sun Mars Iupiter and Saturn and above all these the Orb of the fixed Stars The Earth was seated just in the middle of these Circles describ'd by the Planets and the greater those Circles were the more distant they were from the Earth and consequently the most distant Planets imployed more time in performing their Course which is in effect true But I know not said the Marchioness interrupting me why you should not approve of that Order of the Universe to me it seems as decent as intelligible and for my own share I declare I am well satisfied with it I can boast said I that I have much qualify'd that whole System for should I have represented it to you such as it was at first fram'd by Ptolomy the Author it would have astonish'd you The motions of the Planets being not so regular but that they went sometime faster sometime slower sometime to one side sometime to another sometime farther off sometime near the Earth the Ancients imagin'd a strange Labyrinth of Circles to salve those extravagant Appearances So great was the intricacy of those Circles that then when men knew no better it was said by a King of Arragon a great Mathematician but something irreligious That if he had been of God Almightys Council when he made the World he would have advised him better 'T was the expression of a Libertine but pleasant enough that at that time the great confusion of that System was the occasion of a sin The Advice the King would have given was doubtless the suppressing of all those Circles that had caused so much intricacy in the celestial motions and 't is most certain he meant the same likewise of those three superfluous Heavens that are plac'd beyond the fixed Stars The Philosophers to explicate one sort of motion of the celestial bodies framed beyond the utmost Heaven that we see a Heaven of Crystal which gave the first impulse of motion to the inferiour Orbs. If they discover'd any thing of another motion they had presently another Crystalline Heaven ready at hand for Heavens of Crystal in those days cost them little or nothing But why said the Marchioness did they still make them of Crystal Would not some other material have done as well By no means said I it was requisite they should be transparent to give way to the passage of Light and it was absolutely necessary they should be solid for Aristotle had found that Solidity was a thing affix'd to the Nobility of their Nature and when he once said it it was no longer to be doubted But since Comets have been observed to rise higher than heretofore it was believed it was fear'd that in their passage they might hazard the cracking of those Crystalline Heavens and break the World about our ears therefore it has been thought more convenient to make them of a more fluid matter In fine it is now a thing undoubted by the Observations of later Ages that Venus and Mercury move about the Sun and not about the Earth and that the ancient System is not at all tenable But I am now going to propose another to you which will satisfy in all points and save the King of Arragon the trouble of his Advice it is of a most charming simplicity which alone ought to give it the preference I see says the Marchioness that Philosophy is a kind of Chaffering where they that ask cheapest shall have your Work before another 'T is very true said I and that 's the only way to trace out the Works of Nature she 's hugely provident and whatever she can do in such a way as may cost her little or nothing to be sure she will do it that way rather than another yet this Providence agrees well with a surprizing Magnificence that is illustrious in all her actions that is there is Magnificence in the Design and a sparing Providence in the Execution There is nothing more commendable than a great Design managed with a little Charge but we frame our Idea's wholly to the contrary and place the Frugality of Nature in the Design and the Magnificence in the Execution we represent her carrying on a small inconsiderable Design with ten times more Charge than needs which is ridiculous I shall be very well pleas'd said the Marchioness that the System you tell me of may be a perfect imitation of Nature for that Parcimony will be much in favour of my imagination which will have less trouble in comprehending what you tell me You will there said I meet with no unnecessary difficulties represent only to your self a certain German call'd Copernicus who pull'd down all those different Circles and solid Heavens that were set up by Antiquity he destroys the one and breaks the other in pieces and possess'd with a noble Astronomical fury he takes the Earth and throws it out of the center of the World where it had long been fixt and in the place of it puts the Sun as much more deserving of that Honour the Planets turn no more about the Earth nor circumscribe her in their Circles if they inlighten us 't is in a manner only by chance and as we meet them on the road All turns now about the Sun even the Earth it self and to chastise her for her long idle repose Copernicus charges her as near as he can with all those motions she before impos'd upon the Planets and Heavens And in fine of all that bright Equipage which attended and surrounded this little spot of Earth no more remains but the Moon which still rolls about her Hold a little says the Marchioness you are fallen into an Enthusiasm and explain things in so pompous a manner that I know not whether I rightly understand them The Sun you say is in the Center of the World and there remains immoveable pray what follows next 'T is Mercury says I he turns about the Sun so that the Sun is the Center of that Circle describ'd by Mercury Above Mercury is Venus which likewise turns about the Sun. Next follows the Earth which being above Mercury and Venus describes about the Sun a Circle greater than theirs Then follow Mars Iupiter and Saturn in the order I have told you and you may perceive that Saturn ought to
Perspectives through which we see all and which change the Objects in respect of every particular man. Alexander saw the Earth a fair place fit for the Seat of a great Empire Celadon sees it only as the abode of his Astrea and a Philosopher sees it only as a great Planet moving in the Heavens and throng'd with Fools I do not believe that the prospect is more different between the Earth and the Moon than between Imagination and Imagination The change of the Prospect says I is more surprizing in our Imaginations for they are but the same Objects which we see differently but in the Moon other Objects are to be seen or none of those that are seen here possibly in that Country they know not Aurora nor the Twilight before the Sun rises and after he sets the Air that surrounds us and is rais'd above us receives Rays which cannot fall upon the Earth and being very thick it stops some of them reflects them upon us tho they were not naturally design'd for us So that Aurora and the Twilight is a particular favour of Nature a Light which regularly we ought not to have and which she gives us over and above our due But it may not be so proper in â—he 〈◊〉 where the Air is apparently more pure to beat down the Rays of the Sun before he rises or after he is set You have not there that favourable Light which growing upon you by degrees prepares you easily for the Arrival of the Sun and â—â—â—ch by the same degrees declining prepares you for his absence You are in a profound Darkness and all or a suddain as though a Curtain were dâ—â—â—â— you find your eyes struck with the Light of the Sun again you are in a bright and vigorous Light and all on a suddain you drop into a profound Darkness the day and night are not joined with a middle light that participates both of the one and the other The Rainbow is likewise a thing wanting to the people of the Moon for as the Aurora is an effect of the grossness of the Air and Vapours so the Rainbow is form'd in Clouds from whence falls the Rain so that we are oblig'd for the most beautiful thing in the World to that which is the least so Since then there are no gross Vapours about the Moon nor rainy Clouds farewell Rainbow farewel Aurora to what now must we resemble fhe fair ones of that Country What a fource of comparisons is there lost I am not much concern'd said the Marchioness for those comparisons and I find recompence enough in the Moon for the want of the Rainbow and Aurora for by the same reason there is neither Thunder nor Lightning both which are form'd in the Clouds the days are still fair and serene and the Sun in the day time never out of sight the Stars are visible all night no Storm or Tempest is ever known nor any thing that is an effect of an angry Heaven What reason do you find then of Complaint You represent the Moon to me said I as an inchanted abode but in the mean time I know not whether it be so pleasant to have daily a scorching Sun over a mans head and not a Cloud to moderate the Heat it may be likewise 't is therefore Nature has made certain kind of Pits in the Moon big enough to be discern'd by our Glasses for they are not mountains but hollow places which appear in the midst of certain plains How do we know but the Inhabitants of the Moon shelter themselves there from the extremity of the Heat possibly they live no where else but there and 't is there they build their Towns. We see here that the Subterranean Rome was almost as big as Rome above the Earth there needs no more than to take away this the rest will be a Town like those in the Moon a whole Populace is together in one of those Cavities and from one to another they communicate by subterraneous ways You laugh now at this Vision and I heartily agree you should but in the mean time to tell you seriously you may be deceived sooner than I. You think the people of the Moon ought to inhabit upon the surface of their Planet as we do upon ours 'T is quite contrary though we live upon the surface of our Planet they may not at all live upon the surface of theirs all things ought to be very different here from what they are there 'T is no matter said the Marchioness I cannot resolve to let the Inhabitants of the Moon live in perpetual obscurity But you would be yet more concern'd said I if you knew that an ancient and great Philosopher has made the Moon the abode of blessed Souls All their Happiness consists in hearing there the Harmony which the celestial bodies make in their motions but he pretends that when the Moon falls in the Shadow of the Earth they cannot then hear that Harmony and 't is then those poor Souls cry out desperately and the Moon makes what haste she can to deliver them out of that trouble We may then says she expect to see the happy Souls of the Moon here for 't is certain they are sent likewise to us as to their Paradice and between those two Planets the Moon and Earth 't is thought sufficient provision is made for the happiness of Souls by mutually transporting them into each others World. Seriously said I it would be no small pleasure to see many diffetent Worlds 't is a pleasure to make the Voyage in imagination only 't would surely be much more so in effect It would be much better than to go from hence to Iapan that is to say than to take the pains to run from one corner of the Earth to another and all to see nothing else but men Well says she let us take a Voyage about the Planets as well as we can What should hinder us Let us place our selves in all those different points of sight and from thence consider the World. Have we no more to see in the Moon I think not said I at least I have shewn you all that is within my knowledge Leaving the Moon and bending our Course toward the Sun we meet Venus and in Venus I return again to Saint Denis Venus turns about her self and about the Sun as the Moon doth and it is found by the Telescope that Venus as well as the Moon has her Increases and Decreases and is full according to her diverse scituation in respect of the Earth The Moon according to all appearance is inhabited why not Venus as well But says she in saying still Why not you seem to design Inhabitants for all the Planets Doubt it not said I that Why has a vertue in it sufficient to people all We see that the Planets are all of the same nature all opaque bodies that receive no Light but the Suns which they reflect from one to another have all the same motions
say which have the one half obscure and the other luminous and as they turn upon their own Axis they sometimes present us the luminous side and then we see them sometimes the obscure side and then we see them not I would to oblige you hold this Opinion which is more moderate than the other but I can hold it only in respect of certain Stars which have regulated times of appearing and disappearing as is begun to be discover'd in some otherwise the Demy Suns could not subsist But what shall we say of those Stars that have disappear'd and were never seen since though in all this time they might most certainly have perform'd their Course upon their Axis You are too just to oblige me to believe that they are Demy Suns but yet I 'le make another Essay in your favour Those Suns shall not be extinct they shall be only sunk into the immense profundity of Heaven beyond the reach of our eye In such case the Vortex follow'd its Sun and all 's well 'T is true that the greatest part of the fixed Stars have not that motion by which they remove themselves from us for then at other times they ought to return to us and we should see them sometimes bigger sometimes less which doth not happen But we 'l suppose that there are only some little Vortices lighter and more agil that slip in among the other and having taken certain turns at the end of their Course they return while the great Vortices remain immovable But here 's the mischief there are fixed Stars which come and shew themselves to us and continue long in only appearing and disappearing and at last wholly disappear Demy Suns would appear again at regular times Suns that sunk into the depth of Heaven would disappear but once for a long time Now resolve Madam couragiously those Stars must be Suns that obscure themselves enough not to be visible to our eyes and they afterward take light again and at last are wholly extinct How can a Sun says the Marchioness obscure and extinguish it self a Sun that is in it self a Source and Spring of Light The most easily in the world says I according to Des Cartes Our Sun has Spots which are Froth or Scum or Mists or what ever you please those Spots may condense many of them gather together and close one with another at last they may go so far as to form a kind of a Crust about the Sun and then farewel Sun. We have already fairly escap'd it they say The Sun has been very pale for some whole years together as for example the year after the death of Cesar it was the Crust that began then to grow upon the Sun but by the force of the Sun it was dissipated had it continued we had been undone You make me tremble said the Marchioness I know now the Consequences of the paleness of the Sun I believe in stead of going to see in my Glass in a morning if I am pale I shall look toward Heaven to see if the Sun be so Ah! Madam said I take courage 't will require time to ruine a World. But still says she time will do it I confess it said I all this immense heap of matter which makes up the Universe is in perpetual motion and no part of it wholly exempt since then there is a motion in every part trust it not there must be a change be it slow or be it swift but still in time proportionable to the effect The Ancients had a pleasant fancy that the celestial bodies were unchangeable because they never saw a change in them but had they time enough to confirm their Opinion by experience the Ancients were young in respect of us Should the Roses which live but a day write their own Story and leave their Memoirs from one to another the first would make a Description of their Gardiner after one certain fashion and for more than fifteen thousand Ages of Roses those that should leave their Story to Posterity would make no alteration from whence they would reason thus We have ever seen the same Gardinâ—r our History tells us of no other he was ever made as he is certainly he dyes not as we do nor ever changes Would this be good Reasoning of the Roses and yet they would have better ground for it than the Ancients had for their Opinion of the Celestial bodies And were it so that the Heavens had suffer'd no change to this day had they in themselves any Sign or Character of an eternal duration without change yet I should not believe it but wait for farther satisfaction from a longer experience Ought we to establish our Duration which is but of a moment by the measures of another Can we argue that what has continued a hundred thousand times longer than we will endure for ever Eternity is not so easily acquir'd A thing must have out-liv'd many Ages of Man to begin only to give a sign of its Immortality Truly said the Marchioness I find the World 's very far from any reason of pretending to it I would not do them the honour so much as to compare them to the Gardiner that survives so many Roses they are but even as the Roses themselves that spring up and perish in the same Garden one after another for I observe that if some ancient Stars have disappear'd new ones have succeeded and still there must be a reparation of the Species There is no fear of their perishing said I some will tell you they are only Suns that return after a long time being lost to us in the profundity of Heaven others will say they are Suns that have disingag'd themselves from that obscure Crust that began to inclose them This I easily believe may be but I believe likewise that the Universe is so made that new Suns may be form'd in it from time to time why may not the matter proper to make a Sun after having been long dispers'd in several places at last congregate it self in one certain place and lay the foundations of a new World I am the rather inclin'd to believe these new productions because they agree better with those great Ideas I have of the works of Nature Has not she the secret of causing Herbs and Plants to spring and dye in a continual Revolution I am persuaded and you are so likewise that the practises the same secret in the Worlds and it costs her no more to do it In good Faith says the Marchioness I find the Worlds the Heavens and Celestial bodies so subject to change that I have e'en left them Let us leave them more yet said I if you 'l be persuaded by me and talk no more of them for you are now come to the highest Roof of Heaven and to tell you whether there be Stars beyond that or not will require more knowledge than I have Place Worlds there or place them not 't will depend upon your self The Empire of Philosophers is properly in those great invisible Country's which may be or not be according as they please and be such as they please to make them To me it suffises that I have led your thoughts as far as you can reach with your eyes So says she I have now the whole System of the Universe in my Head I am now a knowing Woman You are said I reasonable enough and you are so with this conveniency that you may believe nothing of all that I have said to you till you please your self I only request as a Recompence for my pains that you will never look upon the Sun Heaven or Stars without thinking on me FINIS
were less curious you would not care two pence to know whether they were so or not but we are willing to know more than we can see and there 's the difficulty Again if we could rightly discern what we see we might be said to be so far knowing but the mischief is we see things otherways than they really are so that true Philosophers spend their days in not believing what they see and in studying to divine of what they see not a condition in my opinion not much to be envyed From hence I frame an Idea to my self that Nature is but a great shew resembling that of an Opera from the place where you are seated at an Opera you see not the Theatre such as it really is 't is disposed to give a delightful prospect at a distance and all the Wheels and Weights that cause the movements are not in view nor do you much concern your self to know how all is perform'd Some Machinist might possibly lurk in the Pit who would beat his brains about a Turn that seem'd extraordinary and would venture absolutely to unriddle the whole contrivance of it and this Machinist you may well resemble to the Philosophers but that which among Philosophers augments the difficulty is that in the Machines which Nature offers to our view the Cords are so wholly and entirely abscond that it has been the study of many days to resolve from whence proceed the motions of the Universe For imagine with your self all those Sages at an Opera those Pythagorases Plato's Aristotles and all that learned crew that at this day make so great a noise in the World that they were Spectators of the flight of Phaeton born upon the Wings of the Wind and that they could not discover the Cords nor know any thing how the back part of the Theatre was disposed One of them would say 'T is some occult quality that bears up Phaeton Another Phaeton is compos'd of certain Numbers that make him mount Another Phaeton has a certain natural Propensity to the top of the Theatre he is not at rest unless he be there Another Phaeton is not made to fly but he had rather fly than a vacuity in the top of the Theatre and a thousand other extravagancies that I admire have not blasted the Reputation of Antiquity at last comes Descartes and some other of later days who say that Phaeton mounts because he is drawn by Cords and that a Weight more heavy than he descends So that 't is no longer believ'd that a body moves unless it be by impulse from another body and as it were drawn by Cords nor that it ascends or descends but by some counterpoise or spring and he that would see Nature such as really she is ought to look behind the Theatre By this Account says the Marchioness Philosophy is become very mechanique So mechanique said I that I fear we shall e're long be asham'd of it Some will have it that the Universe is in great that which a Watch is in little and that all is wrought by regular movements that depend upon the disposal of the several parts Now confess the truth have not you sometimes had Notions of the Universe more sublime than this and have you not done it more honour than it deserv'd I have met with some who after knowing it esteem'd it less And I says the Marchioness esteem it much more since I find it resembled to a Watch. 'T is a thing to me most surprizing that the Order of Nature so admirable as it is should depend upon things so simple I know not said I where you met with Notions so sound but I assure you they are not common We shall daily meet with people that have in their heads a false kind of Wonder involv'd in Clouds which they respect they admire Nature only because they believe it a kind of Magick where nothing is understood and 't is most certain that whatsoever is once comprehended is with them presently disrespected But Madam said I I find you so well dispos'd to enter upon what I am about to discourse to you that I think I need do no more than draw the Curtain and shew you the World. From this Earth where we are that which we behold at the greatest distance is that Blue Sky that great Arch where the Stars are set like so many nailes they are call'd Fixed because they seem not to have any other motion than that of Heaven which wheels them along with it from East to West Between the Earth and that Extreamest Arch of the Heavens are hung at different heights the Sun Moon and five other Stars which are called Planets Mercury Venus Mars Iupiter and Saturn These Planets not being set in one and the same Heaven and having unequal motions have different regards and Aspects one towards the other whereas the fixed Stars have ever in respect of one another the same Situation The Waign for example which you see is form'd of those seven Stars has ever been and ever shall be the same it is but the Moon is sometime nearer sometime farther off from the Sun so it is like wise with the other Planets Thus things appear'd to those antient Shepherds of Chaldea whose great leasure gave them the first observations which have been the foundation of Astronomy for Astronomy was born in Chaldea as Geometry was in Aegypt where the Inundations of Nile confounding the bounds and limits of all their Fields was the cause that every one invented just measures to lay out his own Field from his Neighbours So that Astronomy derives it self from Idleness and Geometry from Interest and if we make the like inquiry into Poetry we shall find it draws its Original from Love. I am very well satisfy'd said the Marchioness that I have learn'd this Geneology of the Sciences and I find I must keep close to Astronomy Geometry and Poetry according to what you say will require the one a more interested and the other a more tender soul than mine is but I have all the leasure that is requisite in Astronomy and happy it is likewise that we are in the country where we lead a kind of Pastoral life agreeable to that study Do not deceive your self Madam said I that 's not the true pastoral life to discourse of Planets and fixed Stars Do you find that the People of Astrea past their time that way Oh! says she that sort of Shepherdise is too dangerous I rather fancy that of the Chaldeans pray if you please begin and speak Chaldee to me When that Order and Disposition of the Heavens which you tell me of is known where 's the Question The Question is said I to find how all the parts of the Universe ought to be ranged and that 's it which the Learned call framing of a System But before I explain to you the first System you must take notice if you please that naturally we are all like that Fool of Athens whom
the Planets give no Light but as they are inlighten'd by him He sends his Light to the Moon she returns it to us and it must needs be likewise that the Earth sends the Light of the Sun to the Moon for 't is no farther from the Earth to the Moon than from the Moon to the Earth But says the Marchioness is the Earth as proper as the Moon to reflect the Light of the Sun I observe said I that you have still a good thought for the Moon which you cannot part with The Light is composed of little Balls that rebound from any thing that is solid whereas they pass in a straight line through any thing that opens to them as the Air or Glass So that hence it is that the Moon gives us Light because she is a hard solid body that reflects those little Balls upon us Now I believe you will not at all contest the solidity of the Earth Admire then what it is to be advantagiously plac'd The Moon being so far distant from us we only behold it as a luminous body and know not that 't is a great mass like the Earth On the contrary because the Earth has the ill luck to be seen by us near at hand she appears to us a great mass fit for nothing but to feed Cattel and cannot discern that she is luminous because we cannot set our selves at distance enough from her Just so said she we are dazl'd with the lustre of Conditions more elevated than our own and never discern that in the bottom they are extremely alike 'T is even so said I we would judge of all but are still ill placed to take our view in judging of our selves we are too near and in judging of others too far off The middle place between the Moon and the Earth is the best to take a right prospect of both and better it would be to be simply a Spectator of the World than an Inhabitant I shall never be comforted says she for the Injustice we do the Earth and our too much partiality to the Moon unless you assure me that the people of the Moon have no more knowledge of their Advantages than we have of ours and that they take our Earth for a Star without knowing that their own Habitation is so likewise I 'le warrant you for that said I we appear to them to perform our function of a Star regularly enough 't is true they do not see us describe a Circle about them but 't is no matter the thing is this The half of the Moon which was turn'd towards us at the beginning of the World has continued so ever since she still shews the same Eyes the same Mouth and all the rest of the Face which those Spots we discern in her frame in our Imagination if we saw the other half other kind of Spots in different posture would doubtless create in our Imagination other kind of Figures 'T is not that the Moon does not turn about her self 't is certain she turns in just so much time as she turns about the Earth that is in a month But when she has made one part of that turn about her self and that she ought to hide for example one Cheek of that pretended Face from us and appear some other thing she makes the like part of her Circle about the Earth and putting her self in a new point of sight shews us still the same Cheek So that the Moon that in respect of the Sun and other Stars turns about her self in respect of us turns not all She sees them all rise and set in the space of fifteen days but our Earth she sees daily hanging in the same place of Heaven This seeming Immobility agrees not well with a body which ought to pass for a Star but 't is true likewise that she her self is not perfect The Moon has a certain wavering motion motus libratorius which is the cause that a little corner of her Face is sometimes hid and a little corner of the opposite side appears Now I 'le undertake that she imputes that wavering to us and imagines that we have a movement to and fro in the Heavens like a Pendulum All these Planets says the Marchioness I find are made like us who are still charging others with what is in our selves the Earth says 'T is not I that turn 't is the Sun The Moon says 'T is not I that waver 't is the Earth there 's faults enough every where I would not advise you said I to attempt a Reformation 'T is better that you fully convince your self of the perfect resemblance of the Earth and Moon Represent to your self those two great Bouls hanging in the Heavens You know that the Sun always enlightens one half of a Spherical body and that the other half is in the Shadow Then the Sun daily enlightens one half both of the Earth and the Moon viz. in one half 't is day in the other night Observe moreover that as a Ball loses its force when reverberated from a Wall so likewise the light grows weak when reflected from another body That pale Light which we receive from the Moon is the very Light of the Sun but it cannot come to us but by Reflection It must therefore lose much much of the force and vivacity it had when it fell directly upon the Moon So that glittering Light which we receive directly from the Sun and is reflected from the Earth to the Moon must needs be but a pale Light when it reaches thither So that which appears to us luminous in the Moon and which enlightens us in our nights is the parts of the Moon where it is then day and the parts of the Earth where it is day being turn'd towards the parts of the Moon where it is night inlightens them likewise all depends upon the manner of the Moon and Earths regarding one another In the first days of a month when the Moon is not seen she is then between the Sun and us and moves by day along with the Sun. It must needs be that the half of her where it is day is turn'd toward the Sun and her other half that is benighted is turn'd towards us We do not look to see that half that has no Light to shew it self but that half of the Moon that is benighted being turn'd toward the half of the Earth where it is day sees us without being seen and sees us in the same figure as we see the full Moon 'T is then with the Inhabitants of the Moon full Earth if I may be permitted the expression Afterward the Moon which advances in her monthly Circle disingages from under the Sun and begins to shew us a little corner of her inlighten'd half and that 's the Crescent and then likewise the parts of the Moon that are benighted begin not to see all the half of the Earth that is inlighten'd and we are running from them 'T is enough said the Marchioness
made It made some say that the Gods were full of Nectar when they made Man and when they came to look upon their Work in a sober temper they could not forbear laughing Well then said the Marchioness I see we are secure of the people of the Moon they 'l not discover us but I should be very glad we could know them for to tell you truth it much disquiets me to know that they are there above in that Moon that we now see and that we cannot at all represent to our selves how they are made And why said I are you not concern'd too for the Inhabitants of that great Terra Australis which is hitherto utterly unknown to us both they and we are carried in one Vessel they in the Proe and we in the Poup you see there is no Communication between the Proe and the Poup and that at one end of the Ship 't is not known what sort of people are in the other yet you would know what 's done in the Moon that other Vessel that sails in the Heavens at so great a distanee from us Oh! says she I reckon the Inhabitants of the Terra Australis as known for 't is certain they must needs resemble us very much and in fine we may know them when ever we take the pains to go see them there they are and cannot avoid us but the people of the Moon we shall never know 't is that I despair of If I should answer you seriously said I that we know not what may come to pass you would laugh at me and I should well deserve it but in the mean time I could defend my self well enough if I pleas'd I have a thought in my head that is very ridiculous which yet I know not how I got it being so impertinent as it is has some appearance of truth I 'le hold a Wager that I 'le bring you to acknowledge against all reason that there may be in time a Commerce between the Moon and the Earth Consider with your self the Circumstances of America before it was discover'd by Christopher Columbus the Inhabitants lived in the extremest Ignorance so great strangers to knowledge that they knew not the most simple and most necessary Arts they went naked had no Arms but the Bow and could never imagine that Men could be carried by Animals they look'd upon the Sea as a great space prohibited to Men that it was joyn'd to the Heavens and that beyond it was nothing 'T is true after spending whole years in making hollow the Trunk of a great Tree with sharp stones they put to Sea in that Trunk and coasted the Shoar with Wind and Tide but as that Vessel was often subject to overset they were as often put to swim to recover it and to speak properly they constantly swam only then when they took breath in their Boats. Whoever should have told them that there was another sort of Navigation incomparably more perfect that men could traverse that vast extent of Waters where and how they pleas'd that they could stop without motion in the midst of the rolling Waves and command the swiftness of their Course and in fine that the Sea vast as it is was no obstacle to the Communication of people provided there were people on the other side you may well imagine they would never have believ'd it Yet you see the time came that the strangest Spectacle in the World and the least expected by them appear'd before them huge enormous Bodies that seem'd to fly upon Sea with white Wings that vomited fire on all sides and cast upon their Shoars an unknown sort of people clad with Iron governing those Monsters that ran upon the Sea as they pleas'd and bearing Thunder in their Hands that beat down all before them From whence come they Who could bring them over Sea Who put the Fire in their power Are they Gods Are they Children of the Sun For certainly these are not Men. I know not Madam whether you conceive as I do the great surprize of the Americans but certainly never any equall'd it After all this I will no more swear that there will not be in time a Commerce between the Moon the Earth Could the Americans believe that ever there should be any between America and Europe and that they alone should not know it 'T is true there is a great space of of Air and Heaven to be travers'd between the Earth and the Moon but did those great Seas appear to the Americans any more fit for passage Seriously and truly says the Marchioness looking upon me you are a Fool. Who says the contrary said I But says she I 'm not content with your Confession I 'le prove it to you The Americans were so ignorant that they never minded whether those vast Seas could be passed or not but we that are so knowing would needs imagine a passage through the Air if it were possible to go there A thing possible said I is more than imagination Men begin already to fly a little several persons have found the secret of fiâ—ting themselves with Wings that support and give them motion in the Air and they can fly over Rivers and from Steeple to Steeple 'T is true 't is not the flight of an Eagle and it has cost those new Birds sometimes a Leg or an Arm but that in the mean time does but represent the first Planks that were set a sloat and were the beginning of Navigation There was a great distance or difference between those Planks and a great Ship that could make a Circuit about the World yet by little and little they are grown up to a great Ship. So the Art of Flying is yet in its infancy it will daily grow towards perfection and sometime or other we shall get up to the Moon Can we pretend to have discover'd all things or to have proceeded so far that nothing is to be added Ah! we must needs allow that there is something yet to do for the Ages to come I will never allow says she that any man can fly without breaking his neck Well said I if you will have it that they fly so ill here they 'l fly better in the Moon the people there are fitter for the Art than we and 't is no matter whether we go to them or they come to us just so the Americans could not dream of the Art of Navigation when at the other end of the World it was well understood Why then says she almost angry the people of the Moon should be already come The Europeans said I ready to laugh did not discover America till after 6000 years so long was requisite to bring Navigation to that perfection as to venture to pass the Ocean the people of the Moon can possibly make little voyages in the Air and at this hour they are exercising when they are grown more knowing and expert we shall see them and God knows what a surprize 't will be You are
should be a body of so equal a solidity in its parts all equally in repose one after the other and all incapable of receiving any change by the action of the Sun upon them We do not know any such body in nature Marble it self is not so Whatever is most solid changes and alters either by a secret and invisible motion in it self or by some that it receives from without it may be then that those Vapours that rise from the Moon do not gather about her in Clouds nor fall back upon her in Rain but only in Dew and for that it is sufficient that the Air with which the Moon is apparently surrounded as our Earth is with hers is somewhat different from our Air and the Vapours of the Moon somewhat different from the Vapours of the Earth which is a thing more than probable Upon this account it will follow that the matter being otherwise dispos'd in the Moon than upon the Earth the effects must be different but it matters not From the moment that we have an interior motion in the parts of the Moon or produc'd found by foreign causes the Inhabitants of the Moon are restor'd and we have a fund necessary for their subsistance This will furnish us with Fruit Corn Water and all that we desire I mean Fruit Corn and Water such as are in the Moon for I profess not to know of what sort they are all fit for the use of the Inhabitants whom I know as little That is to say says the Marchioness that you only know all is well there but know not how 't is indeed a great deal of ignorance with a little knowledge but we must be content I am but too happy that you have restor'd to the Moon her Inhabitants I am likewise well pleas'd that you allow her Air to cover her for otherwise I should think a Planet too naked Those two different Airs said I do much contribute to hinder the Communication of the two Planets If there were no more than flying in the matter who knows as I told you yesterday but that in time we may fly well enough Yet I confess there is no great appearance of it the great distance of the Moon from the Earth would be one difficulty to overcome which is certainly considerable but were there no such difficulty and that the two Planets were very near it would not be possible to pass from the Air of one to the Air of the other Water is the Air of Fishes they never pass into the Air of Birds nor Birds into the Air of Fishes not that the distance hinders them but because each of them is confin'd to his own Air. We find that ours is mixt with Vapours more thick and gross than that of the Moon therefore should an Inhabitant of the Moon venture upon the Confines of our World he 'd be drown'd in our Air at his first arrival and we should see him tumble down dead before us Oh! cry'd the Marchioness how I should rejoyce at a Shipwrack that would lay before us a good number of those people We might then consider those extraordinary Figures at our leisure But said I if they were expert enough to sail upon the exteriour surface of our Air and should lay Nets and Hooks for us as we do for Fishes would that please you Why not says she laughing for my part I would willingly put my self into their Nets only to have the satisfaction of seeing them that caught me But bethink your self said I that you may be ill when you arrive at the top of our Air we cannot breath in all its extent it must needs be so for we cannot breath upon the tops of some Mountains and I much wonder that those that have the folly to believe that certain corporeal Genii inhabit the purest Air do not likewise say that the reason why those Genii come so seldom to us and make such short Visits is because few among them are expert in Diving and those that are cannot dive to the bottom of our thick Air to stay any long time So that here you see three natural Barricades to prevent our going out of our World or entring that of the Moon Yet let us try for our satisfaction to guess what we can of that World. I believe for example that we might see the Heaven Sun and Stars of another colour than we see them here We behold all those Objects here through a kind of natural Perspective which shews them otherwise than they are that Perspective is our Air mixt as it is with Vapours and Exhalations which extend not very high Some Moderns pretend that in it self it is of a blue colour as well as the Sea and that that colour appears not either in the one or the other but in a great depth The Heaven of the fixed Stars say they has of it self no light and consequently it would appear black but we see it through the Air which is blue and represents it blue to us If that be so the Rays of the Sun and Stars cannot pass through the Air. without receiving a little tincture of that colour and losing some of their own but were it so that the Air had no colour of its own it is certain that the Light of a Flambeau seen through a thick mist appears red though it be not its natural colour and our Air is no more than a thick mist that changes the colour of the Heaven Sun and Stars So that the Air of the Moon being of another nature than our Air or having in it self a tincture of another colour or at least being another mist that causes that change of colour in the celestial bodies the Perspective through which all is seen in respect of the people of the Moon is changed That says the Marchioness makes me prefer our abode before that of the Moon sor I cannot believe that the Appearance of the celestial colours is so pleasant there as here Let us suppose a red Sky and green Stars they will not agree so well together as Stars of a pure Gold-colour upon blue Any that heard you says I would think you were dressing up a Suit of Clothes or furnishing a Room but believe me Nature understands well enough what she does leave it to her to invent a mixture of Colours for the Moon and I 'le undertake it shall be well approved She fail'd not to work variety of Prospects in the Universe at every turn of the eye and yet the variety is still pleasing I know her Artifice said the Marchioness she spar'd her self the pains of making variety of Objects and only chang'd the Perspectives so that she has the Honour of that great Diversity without being at the Expence With a blue Air she gives us a blue Sky and possibly with a red Air she gives the Inhabitants of the Moon a red Sky but still 't is the same Sky In my opinion she has likewise plac'd in our imagination certain