there was scarce heat enough to ripen the fruits. As it was about the time when Cæsar was killed. Which was recorded by some of the poets. Thus Virgil speaking of the sun. Ille etiam extincto miseratus Cæsare Romam, Ovid likewise, speaking of his death, Solis quoque tristis imago Lurida sollicitis præbebat lumina terris. † The sun's sad image then Did yield a lowering light to fearful men. Now these appearances could not arise from any lower vapour for then, 1. They would not have been so universal as they were, being seen through all Europe: or else, 2. That vapour must have covered the stars as well as the sun, which yet notwithstanding were then plainly discerned in the day-time. You may see this argument illustrated in another the like case, chap. 12. Hence then it will follow, that this fuliginous matter, which did thus obscure the sun, must needs be very near his body; and if so, then what can we more probably guess it to be than evaporations from it? 2. It is observed, that in the sun's total eclipses, when there is no part of his body discernible, yet there does not always follow so great a darkness as might be expected from his total absence. Now it is probable that the reason is, because these thicker vapours being enlightened by his beams, do convey some light unto us, notwithstanding the interposition of the moon betwixt his body and our earth. * Virgil, Georg. 1. 1. + Metam. lib. 15. 3. This likewise is by some guessed to be the reason of the crepusculum, or that light which we have before the sun's rising. Now if there be such evaporations from the sun, much more then from the moon, which does consist of a more gross and impure substance. The other arguments are taken from several observations in the moon herself, and do more directly tend to the proof of this proposition. 2. It is observed, that so much of the moon as is enlightened, is always part of a bigger circle than that which is darker. The frequent experience of others hath proved this, and an easy observation may quickly confirm it. But now this cannot proceed from any other cause so probable as from this orb of air; especially when we consider how that planet shining with a borrowed light, doth not send forth any such rays as may make her appearance bigger than her body. 3. When the moon being half enlightened, begins to cover any star, if the star be towards the obscurer part, then may it by the perspective be discerned to be nearer unto the center of the moon than the outward circumference of the enlightened part. But the moon being in the full, then does it seem to receive these stars without its limb. 4. Though the moon do sometime appear the first day of her change, when so much as appears enlightened cannot be above the 80th part of her diameter, yet then will the horns seem at least to be of a finger's breadth in extension; which could not be, unless the air about it were illuminated. 5. It is observed in the solary eclipses, that there is sometimes a great trepidation about the body of the moon, from which we may likewise argue an atmosphæra, since we cannot well conceive what so probable a cause there should be of such an appearance as this, Quod radii solares a vaporibus lunam ambientibus fuerint intercisi*, that the *Scheiner Ros. Urs. 1. 4. part. 2. c. 27. sun-beams were broken and refracted by the vapours that encompassed the moon. 6. I may add the like argument taken from another observation which will be easily tried and granted. When the sun is eclipsed, we discern the moon as she is in her own natural bigness; but then she appears somewhat less than when she is in the full, though she be in the same place of her supposed excentrick and epicycle; and therefore Tycho hath calculated a table for the diameter of the divers new moons. But now there is no reason so probable to solve this appearance, as to place an orb of thicker air near the body of that planet, which may be enlightened by the reflected beams, and through which the direct rays. may easily penetrate. But some may object, that this will not consist with that which was before delivered, where I said, that the thinnest parts had least light. If this were true, how comes it to pass then that this air should be as light as any of the other parts, when as it is the thinnest of all? I answer, if the light be received by reflection only, then the thickest body hath most, because it is best able to beat back the rays; but if the light be received by illumination (especially if there be an opacous body behind, which may double the beams by reflexion) as it is here, then I deny not but a thin body may retain much light; and perhaps some of those appearances which we take for fiery comets, are nothing else but a bright cloud enlightened; so that probable it is there may be such air without the moon: and hence it comes to pass, that the greater spots are only visible towards her middle parts, and none near the circumference; not but that there are some as well in those parts as elsewhere, but they are not there perceiveable, by reason of those brighter vapours which hide them. I PROP. XI. That as their World is our Moon, so our World is their Moon. Have already handled the first thing that I promised, according to the method which Aristotle uses in his book De Mundo; and shewed you the necessary parts that belong to this world in the moon. In the next place it is requisite that I proceed to those things which are extrinsical unto it, as the seasons, the meteors, and the inhabitants. 1. Of the seasons ; And if there be such a world in the moon, it is requisite then that their seasons should be some way correspondent unto ours, that they should have winter and summer, night and day, as we have. Now that in this planet there is some similitude of winter and summer, is affirmed by Aristotle himself *; since there is one hemisphere that hath always heat and light and the other that hath darkness and cold. True indeed, their days and years are always of one and the same length; (unless we make one of their years to be 19† of ours, in which space all the stars do arise after the same order.) But it is so with us also under the poles, and therefore that great difference is not sufficient to make it altogether unlike ours; nor can we expect that every thing there should be in the same manner as it is here below, as if nature had no way but one to bring about her purposes. We have no reason then to think it necessary that both these worlds should be altogether alike; but it may suffice if they be correspondent in something only. However, it may be questioned whether it doth not seem to be against the wisdom of Providence, to make the night of so + Golden number. * Degen, anima. I. 4. 12. great a length, when they have such a long time unfit for work? I answer, no; since it is so, and more with us also under the poles; and besides, the general length of their night is somewhat abated in the bigness of their moon, which is our earth. For this returns as great a light unto that planet, as it receives from it. But for the better proof of this, I shall first free the way from such opinions as might otherwise hinder the speed of a clearer progress. Plutarch, one of the chief patrons of this world in the moon*, doth directly contradict this proposition; affirming, that those who live there, may discern our world, as the dregs and sediment of all other creatures; appearing to them through clouds and foggy mists, and that altogether devoid of light, being base and unmoveable; so that they might well imagine the dark place of damnation to be here situate, and that they only were the inhabiters of the world, as being in the midst betwixt heaven and hell. To this I may answer, it is probable that Plutarch spake this inconsiderately and without a reason; which makes him likewise fall into another absurdity, when he says our earth would appear immoveable; whereas questionless, though it did not, yet would it seem to move, and theirs to stand still, as the land doth to a man in a ship; according to that of the poet: Provehimur portu, terræque, urbesque recedunt. And I doubt not but that an ingenious author would easily have recanted, if he had been but acquainted with those experiences which men of later times have found out, for the confirmation of this truth. 2. Unto him assents Macrobius, whose words are these; Terra accepto solis lumine clarescit tantummodo, non relucet +. "The earth is by the sun-beams made bright, "but not able to enlighten any thing so far." And his reason is, because this being of a thick and gross matter, *Plut. de fac. lunæ, + Somm. Scip. 1. 1. c. 19. |