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-div155" type="section" level="1" n="43">
          <p>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2407" xml:space="preserve">
              <pb o="160" file="0172" n="172" rhead="That the Moon may be a World."/>
            later Chapter did unwittingly agree with it) there is de-
              <lb/>
            liver’d a pleaſant and well contriv’d Fancy concerning a
              <lb/>
            Voyage to this other World.</s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2408" xml:space="preserve"/>
          </p>
          <p>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2409" xml:space="preserve">He ſuppoſeth that there is a natural and uſual paſſage
              <lb/>
            for many creatures betwixt our Earth and this Planet. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2410" xml:space="preserve">Thus
              <lb/>
            he ſays; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2411" xml:space="preserve">thoſe great multitudes of Locuſts wherewith
              <lb/>
            divers Countries have been deſtroyed, do proceed from
              <lb/>
            thence. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2412" xml:space="preserve">And if we peruſe the Authors who treat of them,
              <lb/>
            we ſhall find that many times they fly in numberleſs
              <lb/>
            Troops, or Swarms, and for ſundry days together before
              <lb/>
            they fall, are ſeen over thoſe places in great high Clouds,
              <lb/>
            fuch as coming nearer, are of extenſion enough to obſcure
              <lb/>
            the day, and hinder the light of the Sun. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2413" xml:space="preserve">From which,
              <lb/>
            together with divers other ſuch Relations, he concludes, that
              <lb/>
            ’tis not altogether improbable, they ſhould proceed from
              <lb/>
            the Moon. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2414" xml:space="preserve">Thus likewiſe he ſuppoſes the Swallows,
              <lb/>
            Cuckoes, Nightingales, with divers other Fowl, which are
              <lb/>
            with us only half a year, to fly up thither, when they go
              <lb/>
            from us. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2415" xml:space="preserve">Amongſt which kind, there is a wild Swan in
              <lb/>
            the Eaſt Indies, which at certain Seaſons of the year do
              <lb/>
            conſtantly take their flight thither. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2416" xml:space="preserve">Now this Bird being
              <lb/>
            of a great Strength, able to continue for a long Flight;
              <lb/>
            </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2417" xml:space="preserve">as alſo going uſually in Flocks, like our Wild Geeſe; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2418" xml:space="preserve">he
              <lb/>
            ſuppoſeth that many of them together, might be thought
              <lb/>
            to carry the weight of a Man; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2419" xml:space="preserve">eſpecially, if an Engine
              <lb/>
            were ſo contriv’d (as he thinks it might) that each of them
              <lb/>
            ſhould bear an equal ſhare in the burden. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2420" xml:space="preserve">So that by this
              <lb/>
            means, ’tis eaſily conceivable, how once a year a man might
              <lb/>
            finiſh ſuch Voyage; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2421" xml:space="preserve">going along with theſe Birds at the
              <lb/>
            beginning of Winter, and again returning with them at
              <lb/>
            the Spring.</s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2422" xml:space="preserve"/>
          </p>
          <p>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2423" xml:space="preserve">And here, one that had a ſtrong Fancy, were better able
              <lb/>
            to ſet forth the great benefit and Pleaſure to be had by ſuch
              <lb/>
            a Journey. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2424" xml:space="preserve">And that whether you conſider the ſtrangeneſs
              <lb/>
            of the Perſons, Language, Art, Policy, Religion of thoſe
              <lb/>
            Inhabitants, together with the new Traffick that might be
              <lb/>
            brought thence, In brief, do but conſider the pleaſure
              <lb/>
            and profit of thoſe later Diſcoveries in America, and we
              <lb/>
            muſt needs conclude this to be inconceiveably beyond it.</s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2425" xml:space="preserve"/>
          </p>
          <p>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2426" xml:space="preserve">But ſuch Imaginations as theſc, I ſhall leave to the Fancy
              <lb/>
            of the Reader.</s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2427" xml:space="preserve"/>
          </p>
          <p style="it">
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2428" xml:space="preserve">----------- Sic itur ad aſtra.
              <lb/>
            </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2429" xml:space="preserve">Reptet humi quicunque velit -------------</s>
          </p>
          <p style="it">
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2430" xml:space="preserve">Cœlo reſtat iter, cœlo tentabimus ire.</s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2431" xml:space="preserve"/>
          </p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="echoid-div183" type="section" level="1" n="44">
          <head xml:id="echoid-head56" xml:space="preserve">FINIS.</head>
        </div>
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    </echo>
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