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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

* Degen, anima. 1. 4. 12.

+ Golden number.

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. l. 1. c. 19.

the light is terminated in its superficies, and cannot penetrate into the substance; whereas the moon doth therefore seem so bright to us, because it receives the beams within itself. But the weakness of this assertion may be easily manifest by a common experience; for polished steel (whose opacity will not give any admittance to the rays) reflects a stronger heat than glass, and so consequently a greater light.

3. It is the general consent of philosophers, that the reflection of the sun-beams from the earth doth not reach much above half a mile high, where they terminate the first region; so that to affirm they might ascend to the moon, were to say, there were but one region of air, which contradicts the proved and received opinion.

Unto this it may be answered:

That it is indeed the common consent, that the reflection of the sun beams reach only to the second region; but yet some there are, and those too, philosophers of good note, who thought otherwise. Thus Plotinus is cited by Cælius, Si concipias te in sublime quopiam mundi loco, unde oculis subjiciatur terre moles aquis circumfusa,

solis syderumque radiis illustrata, non aliam profecto visam iri probabile est, quam qualis modo visatur lunaris globi species*. "If you conceive yourself to be in some "such high place, where you might discern the whole t globe of the earth and water, when it was enlightened "by the sun's rays, it is probable it would then appear to 66 you in the same shape as the moon doth now unto us." So Paulus Foscarinus. Terra nihil aliud est quam altera luna, vel stella, talisque nobis appareret, si ex convenienti elongatione eminus conspiciretur, in ipsaque observari possent eadem aspectuum varietates, quæ in Luna apparent †. "The earth is nothing else but another moon or star, and "would appear so unto us if it were beheld at a conve"nient distance, with the same changes and varieties as "there are in the moon." Thus also Carolus Malaper

* Ant. lect. 1. 1. c. 4.

VOL. 1.

G

+ In ep. ad Sebast. fantonum.

tius, whose words are these: Terra hæc nostra, si in lund constituti essemus, splendida prorsus quasi non ignobilis planeta, nobis appareret*. "If we were placed in the moon, "and from thence beheld this our earth, it would appear "unto us very bright, like one of the nobler planets." Unto these doth Fromondus assent, when he says, Credo equidem quod si oculus quispiam in orbe lunari foret, globum terræ & aquæ instar ingentis syderis à sole illustrem conspicerett. "I believe that this globe of earth and water "would appear like some great star to any one, who "should look upon it from the moon." Now this could not be, nor could it shine so remarkably, unless the beams. of light were reflected from it. And therefore the same Fromondus expressly holds, that the first region of air is there terminated, where the heat caused by reflection begins to languish, whereas the beams themselves do pass a great way further. The chief argument which doth most plainly manifest this truth, is taken from a common observation which may be easily tried.

If you behold the moon a little before or after the conjunction, when she is in a sextile with the sun, you may discern not only the part which is enlightened, but the rest also to have in it a kind of a duskish light; but if you chuse out such a situation, where some house or chimney (being some seventy or eighty paces distant from you) may hide from your eye the enlightened horns, you may then discern a greater and more remarkable shining in those parts unto which the sun-beams cannot reach; nay, there is so great a light, that by the help of a good perspective you may discern its spots. In so much that Blancanus the Jesuit speaking of it, says, Hæc experientia ita me aliquando fefellit, ut in hunc fulgorem casu ac repente incidens, existimarim novo quodam miraculo tempore adolescentis lunæ factum esse plenilunium 1. "This experiment "did once so deceive me, that happening upon the sight

*Præfat. ad Austriaca Syd. De mundi fab. p. 3. c. 3.

† Meteor. l. 1. c. 2. art. 2.

"of this brightness upon a sudden, I thought that by some "new miracle the moon had been got into her full a little "after her change."

But now this light is not proper to the moon; it doth not proceed from the rays of the sun which doth penetrate her body, nor is it caused by any other of the planets and stars. Therefore it must necessarily follow, that it comes from the earth. The two first of these I have already proved, and as for the last, it is confidently affirmed by Cœlius, Quod si in disquisitionem evocet quis, an lunari syderi lucem fænerent planetæ item alii, asseverantur astruendum non fœnerare*. "If any should ask whether the "other planets lend any light to the moon? I answer, "they do not." True indeed, the noble Tycho discussing the reason of this light, attributes it to the planet Venus†; and I grant that this may convey some light, to the moon; but that it is not the cause of this whereof `we now discourse, is of itself sufficiently plain; because Venus is sometimes over the moon, when as she cannot convey any light to that part which is turned from her.

It doth not proceed from the fixed stars; for then it would retain the same light in eclipses, whereas the light at such times is more ruddy and dull. Then also the light of the moon would not be greater or lesser, according to its distance from the edge of the earth's shadow, since it did at all times equally participate this light of the stars.

In brief, this is neither proper to the moon, nor does it proceed from any penetration of the sun's rays, or the shining of Venus, or the other planets, or the fixed stars. Now because there is no other body in the whole universe, save the earth, it remains that this light must necessarily be caused by that, which with a just gratitude repays to the moon such illumination as it receives from her.

And as loving friends equally participate of the same joy and grief, so do these mutually partake of the same light from the sun, and the same darkness from the eclipses,

Ant Lect. 1. 20. c. 5.

↑ Progym. 1.

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