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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        <div xml:id="echoid-div149" type="section" level="1" n="42">
          <pb o="129" file="0141" n="141" rhead="That the Moon may be a World."/>
          <p>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s1870" xml:space="preserve">The Prieſt of Saturn relating to Plutarch
              <lb/>
            (as he feigns it) the nature of theſe Selenites,
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            told him, they were of divers diſpoſitions,
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            ſome deſiring to live in the lower parts of the
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            Moon, where they might look downwards
              <lb/>
            upon us, while others were more ſurely moun-
              <lb/>
            ted aloft, all of them ſhining like the Rays of
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            the Sun, and as being Victorious, are Crow-
              <lb/>
            ned with Garlands made with the Wings of
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            Euſtathia or Gonſtancie.</s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s1871" xml:space="preserve"/>
          </p>
          <p>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s1872" xml:space="preserve">It hath been the Opinion amongſt ſome of
              <lb/>
            the Ancients, that their Heavens and Elyſian
              <lb/>
            Fields were in the Moon where the Air is moſt
              <lb/>
            quiet and pure. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s1873" xml:space="preserve">Thus Socrates, thus Plato, with
              <lb/>
              <note position="right" xlink:label="note-0141-01" xlink:href="note-0141-01a" xml:space="preserve">Nat. Com.
                <lb/>
              l. 3. c. 19</note>
            his Followers, did eſteem this to be the place
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            where thoſe purer Souls inhabit, who are
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            freed from the Sepulcher, and Contagion of
              <lb/>
            the Body: </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s1874" xml:space="preserve">And by the Fable of Geres, con-
              <lb/>
            tinually wandring in ſearch of her Daughter
              <lb/>
            Proſerpina, is meant nothing elſe but the long-
              <lb/>
            ing deſire of Men, who live upon Geres Earth,
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            to attain a place in Proſerpina, the Moon Hea-
              <lb/>
            ven.</s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s1875" xml:space="preserve"/>
          </p>
          <p>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s1876" xml:space="preserve">Plutarch alſo ſeems to aſſent unto this; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s1877" xml:space="preserve">but
              <lb/>
            he thinks moreover, that there are two places
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            of happineſs anſwerable to thoſe two parts
              <lb/>
            which he fancies to remain of a Man when he
              <lb/>
            is Dead, the Soul and the Underſtanding; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s1878" xml:space="preserve">the
              <lb/>
            Soul he thinks is made of the Moon; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s1879" xml:space="preserve">and as
              <lb/>
            our Bodies do ſo proceed from the Duſt of this
              <lb/>
            Earth, that they ſhall return to it hereafter;
              <lb/>
            </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s1880" xml:space="preserve">ſo our Souls were generated out of that Pla-
              <lb/>
            net, and ſhall be reſolved into it again; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s1881" xml:space="preserve">where-
              <lb/>
            as the underſtanding ſhall aſcend unto the Sun,
              <lb/>
            out of which it was made, where it ſhall </s>
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