Where A B is a perpendicular from the cloud, C the station of him that measures, D the place where the shadow of the cloud does fall. The instrument being directed from the station C, to the cloud at A, the perpendicular will shew the angle BAC. Then letting the sun shine through the sights of your instrument, the perpendicular of it will give the angle BAD. Afterwards having measured the distance CD by paces, you may according to the common rules, find the heighth BA*. But if without making the observation, you would know of what altitude the highest of these are found by observation; Cardant answers, not above two miles; Keplart not above 16000 paces or thereabouts. 3. Another way to find the height of this vaporous air, is, by knowing the difference of altitude which it causeth in refracting the beams of any star near the horizon. And from this observation also, it is usually concluded to bę about two or three miles high. But now you must not conceive, as if the orb of magnetical vigour were bounded in an exact superficies, or as if it did equally hold out just to such a determinate line, and no farther. But, as it hath been said of the first region, which is there terminated where the heat of reflexion does begin to languish; so likewise is it probable, that this magnetical vigour does remit of its degrees proportionally to its distance from the earth, which is the cause of it: and therefore Epit. Cop. 1. 1. p. 3. * Pitisc. Trigon. + Subt. 1. 17. though the thicker clouds may be elevated no higher, yet this orb may be continued in weaker degrees a little beyond them. We will suppose it (which in all likelihood is the most) to be about twenty miles high. So that you see the former thesis remains probable; that if a man could but fly, or by any other means get twenty miles upwards, it were possible for him to reach unto the moon. But it may be again objected; though all this were true; though there were such an orb of air which did terminate the earth's vigor: and though the heaviness of our bodies could not hinder our passage through the vast spaces of the æthereal air; yet those two other impediments may seem to deny the possibility of any such voyage. 1. The extreme coldness of that air. If some of our higher mountains for this reason be not habitable, much more then will those places be so, which are farther from any cause of heat. 2. The extreme thinness of it, which may make it unfit for expiration. For, if in some mountains (as Aristotle tells us of Olympus, and out of him St. Austin*) the air be so thin, that men cannot draw their breath, unless it were through some moistened spunges; much more then must that air be thin, which is more remotely situated from the causes of impurity and mixture. And then beside, the refraction that is made by the vaporous air encompassing our earth, may sufficiently prove that there is a great difference betwixt the æthereal air and this, in respect of rarity. To the first of these I answer, that though the second region be naturally endowed with so much coldness, as may make it fit for the production of meteors; yet it will not hence follow, that all that air above it, which is not appointed for the like purpose, should partake of the same condition: but it may seem more probable, that this æthereal air is freed from having any quality in the extremes. And this may be confirmed from those common arguments, * In Gen. ad literam, 1. 3. cap. 2. which are usually brought to prove the warmness of the third region; as you may see in Fromundus, and others who treat of that subject. 'Tis the assertion of Pererius+, that the second region is not cold merely for this reason, because it is distant from the ordinary causes of heat, but because it was actually made so at the first, for the condensing of the clouds, and the production of other meteors that were there to be generated; which (as I conceive) might be sufficiently confirmed from that order of the creation observed by Moses, who tells us that the waters above the firmament (by which, in the greatest probability, we are to understand the clouds in the second region) were made the second day, Gen. i, 7, 8. whereas the sun itself (whose reflection is the cause of heat) was not created till the fourth day, ver. 16, 19. To the other objection I answer, that though the air in the second region (where by reason of its coldness there are many thick vapours) do cause a great refraction; yet it is probable that the air which is next the earth, is sometimes, and in some places, of a far greater thinness; nay, as thin as the æthereal air itself; since sometimes there is such a special heat of the sun, as may rarify it in an eminent degree: and in some dry places, there are no gross impure exhalations to mix with it. But here it may be objected: if the air in the second region were more condensed and heavy than this wherein we breath, then that must necessarily tend downwards, and possess the lower place. To this some answer, that the hanging of the clouds in the open air, is no less than a miracle. They are the words of Pliny: quid mirabilius aquis in cælo stantibus? what more wonderful thing is there, than that the waters should stand in the heavens? Others prove this from the derivation of the word pow from new stupescere and DD aquæ; because the waters do hang there after such a stupendous in Meteor. lib. 1. ca. 2. art. 1. ↑ Comment. in Gen. i. 8. conceivable manner: which seems likewise to be favoured by scripture, where it is mentioned as a great argument of God's omnipotency, that he holds up the clouds from falling. He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them*. But that which unto me seems full satisfaction against this doubt, is this consideration; that the natural vigour whereby the earth does attract dense bodies unto it, is less efficacious at a distance; and therefore a body of less density, which is near unto it, as suppose this thin air wherein we breathe, may naturally be lower in its situation, than another of a greater condensity that is farther off; as suppose the clouds in the second region. And though the one be absolutely, and in itself more fit for this motion of descent; yet by reason of its distance, the earth's magnetical virtue cannot so powerfully work upon it. As for that relation of Aristotle, if it were true, yet it does not prove this air to be altogether impassible, since moistened sponges might help us against its thinness: but it is more likely that he took it upon trust, as he did some other relations concerning the height of the mountains, wherein it is evident that he was grosly mistaken: as where he tells us of Caucasus, that it casts its shadow 560 milest. And this relation being of the same nature, we cannot safely trust unto him for the truth of it. If it be here enquired, what means there may be conjectured, for our ascending beyond the sphere of the earth's magnetical vigour. I answer. 1. It is not perhaps impossible that a man may be able to fly by the application of wings to his own body as angels are pictured, as Mercury and Dedalus are feigned, and as hath been attempted by divers; particularly by a Turk in Constantinople, as Busbequius relates. 2. If there be such a great ruck in Madagascar, as Marcus Polust the Venetian mentions, the feathers in whose wings *Job xxvi. 8. + Meteor. 1. 1. c. 11. + Lib. 3. c. 40, are twelve foot long, which can soop up a horse and his rider, or an elephant, as our kites do a mouse, why then it is but teaching one of these to carry a man, and he may ride up thither, as Ganymede does, upon an eagle. 3. Or if neither of these ways will serve: yet I do seriously, and upon good grounds affirm it possible to make a flying-chariot; in which a man may sit, and give such a motion unto it, as shall convey him through the air. And this perhaps might be made large enough to carry divers men at the same time, together with food for their viaticum, and commodities for traffic. It is not the bigness of any thing in this kind, that can hinder its motion, if the motive faculty be answerable thereunto. We see a great ship swims as well as a small cork, and an eagle flies in the air as well as a little gnat. This engine may be contrived from the same principles by which Archytas made a wooden dove, and Regiomontanus a wooden eagle. I conceive it were no difficult matter (if a man had leisure) to shew more particularly the means of composing it. The perfecting of such an invention, would be of such excellent use, that it were enough, not only to make a man famous, but the age also wherein he lives. For besides the strange discoveries that it might occasion in this other world, it would be also of inconceivable advantage for travelling, above any other conveyance that is now in use. So that notwithstanding all these seeming impossibilities, it is likely enough, that there may be a means invented of journeying to the moon; and how happy shall they be, that are first successful in this attempt? Et turpes fumos, plenumque vaporibus orbem, Having thus finished this discourse, I chanced upon a late fancy to this purpose, under the feigned name of Domingo Gonsales, written by a late reverend and learned |