I Have already handled the first thing that I promised, according to the Method which Aristotle uses in his Book de Mundo, and shew’d you the necessary parts that belong to this world in the Moone. In the next place ‘tis requisite that I proceed to those things which are extrinsecall unto it, as the Seasons, the Meteors, and the Inhabitants.
- Of the Seasons;
And if there be such a world in the Moone, ‘tis requisite then that their seasons should bee 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 himselfe,1 since there is one hemispheare that hath alwayes heate and light, and the other that hath darknesse and cold. True indeed, their dayes and yeares are always of one and the same length (unlesse we make one of their yeares to be 19 of ours,2 in which space all the Starres doe arise after the same order.) But tis 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 thinke it necessary that both these worlds should be altogether alike, but it may suffice if they be correspondent in something only. However, it may bee questioned whether it doth not seeme to bee against the wisedome of Providence, to make the night of so great a length, when they have such a long time unfit for worke? I answer, no; since tis so, and more with us also under the poles; and besides, the generall length of their night is somewhat abated in the bignesse of their Moone which is our earth. For this returnes as great a light unto that Planet, as it receives from it. But for the better proofe of this, I shall first free the way from such opinions as might otherwise hinder the speed of a clearer progresse.
Plutarch one of the chiefe patrons of this world in the Moone,3 doth directly contradict this proposition; affirming, that those who live there, may discerne our world, as the dreggs 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 darke place of damnation to bee here situate, and that they onely were the inhabiters of the world, as being in the midst betwixt Heaven and Hell.
To this I may answer, ‘tis probable that Plutarch spake this inconsiderately, and without a reason; which makes him likewise fall into another absurditie, when hee says our earth would appeare immoveable; whereas questionlesse, though it did not, yet would it seeme to move, and theirs to stand still, as the Land doth to a man in a Shippe; according to that of the Poët: Provehimur portu, terraeque urbesque recedunt.
And I doubt not but that ingenuous Author would easily have recanted, if hee had beene but acquainted with those experiences which men of latter times have found out, for the confirmation of this truth.
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Unto him assents Macrobius, whose words are these; Terra accepto solis lumine clarescit tantummodò,4 non relucet. The earth is by the Sunne-beames made bright, but not able to enlighten any thing so farre. And his reason is, because this being of a thick and grosse matter, the light is terminated in its superficies, and cannot penetrate into the substance; whereas the Moone doth therefore seeme so bright to us, because it receives the beames within it selfe. But the weaknesse of this assertion, may bee easily manifest by a common experience; for polished steele (whose opacity will not give any admittance to the rayes) reflects a stronger heate than glasse, and so consequently a greater light.
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‘Tis the generall consent of Philosophers, that the reflection of the Sunne-beames from the earth doth not reach much above halfe a mile high, where they terminate the first region, so that to affirme they might ascend to the Moone, were to say, there were but one region of aire, which contradicts the proved and received opinion.
Unto this it may be answered:
That it is indeed the common consent, that the reflexion of the Sunne-beames reach onely to the second region; but yet some there are, and those too, Philosophers of good note, who thought otherwise. Thus Plotinus is cited by Caelius,5 Si concipias te in sublimi quopiam mundi loco, unde oculis subjiciatur terrae moles aquis circumfusa, & solis syderumque radiis illustrata, non aliam profecto visam iri probabile est, quam qualis modo visatur lunaris globi species. If you conceive your selfe to bee in some such high place, where you might discerne the whole Globe of the earth and water, when it was enlightned by the Sunnes rayes, ‘tis probable it would then appeare to you in the same shape as the Moone doth now unto us.6 So Paulus Foscarinus. Terra nihil aliud est quàm altera Luna, vel Stella, talisque nobis appareret, si ex convenienti elongatione eminus conspiciretur, in ipsaque observari possent eaedem aspectuum varietates, quae in Lunâ apparent. The earth is nothing else but another Moone or Starre, and would appeare so unto us if it were beheld at a convenient distance with the same changes and varieties as there are in the Moon. Thus also Carolus Malapertius,7 whose words are these, Terra haec nostra, si in luna constituti essemus, splendida prorsus quasi non ignobilis planeta, nobis appareret. If wee were placed in the Moone, and from thence beheld this our earth, it would appeare unto us very bright, like one of the nobler Planets.8 Unto these doth Fromondus assent, when he sayes, Credo equidem quod si oculus quispiam in orbe lunari foret, globum terrae & aquae instar ingentis syderis à sole illustrem conspiceret. I believe that this globe of earth and water would appeare like some great Star to any one, who should looke upon it from the Moone. Now this could not bee, nor could it shine so remarkably, unlesse the beames of light were reflected from it. And therefore the same Fromondus expresly holds, that the first region of ayre is there terminated, where the heate caused by reflexion begins to languish, whereas the beames themselves doe passe a great way further. The chiefe argument which doth most plainely manifest this truth, is taken from a common observation which may bee easily tryed.