Wilkins, John, A discovery of a new world : or a discourse tending to prove, that 'tis probable there may be another Habitable World in the Moon ; with a discourse concerning the Probability of a Passage thither; unto which is added, a discourse concerning a New Planet, tending to prove, that 'tis probable our earth is one of the Planets

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163151That the Moon may be a World. worms that are bred & nouriſh’d by the Snow,
11Subtil. l. 9. from which being once ſeparated, they dye.
Thus alſo is it with the Air, which we may
well
conceive does chiefly concur to the nou-
22The Air. riſhing of all Vegitables.
For if their Food
were
all ſucked out from the Earth, there
muſt
needs be then ſome ſenſible decay in the
ground
by them;
eſpecially, ſince they do eve-
ry
year renew their Leaves and Fruits:
which
being
ſo many, and ſo often, could not be produ-
ced
without abundance of nouriſhment.
To
this
purpoſe is the experiment of Trees cut
down
, which will of themſelves put forth
Sprouts
.
As alſo that of Onyons, and the Sem-
per-vive
, which will ſtrangely ſhoot forth,
and
grow as they hang in the open Air.
Thus
likewiſe
is it with ſome Senſible Creatures;
the Camelion (ſaith Pliny and Solinus) 33Hiſt. li. 8
cap
. 33.
Polyhiſter
.
cap
. 53.
meerly nouriſhed by this:
And ſo are the
Birds
of Paradiſe, Treated of by many;
which reſide conſtantly in the Air, Nature
44Lop. hiſt.
Ind
. Occid.
cap
. 96.
Majolus

Colleq
. 3.
baving not beſtowed upon them any Legs, and
therefore
they are never ſeen upon the ground,
but
being dead.
If you ask, how they multi-
ply
?
’tis anſwer’d, they lay their Eggs on the
55’Tis likely
that
theſe
Birds
do
chiefly
re-
ſide
in the
Æthereal

Air
, where
they
are
nouriſhed

and
up-
held
.
backs of one anather, upon which they ſit till
their
Young Ones be fledg’d.
Rondoletius from the Hiſtory of Hermolaus Barbarus tells
us
of a Prieſt (of whom one of the Popes had
the
cuſtody) that lived Forty years upon meer
Air
.
As alſo of a Maid in France, and another
in
Germany, that for divers years together did
feed
on nothing but this:
Nay, he affirms, that
he
himſelf had ſeen one, who lived till Ten
66De Piſ-
cibus
. lib. 1.
cap
. 13.
years of Age without any nouriſhment.

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