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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361181That the Earth may be a Planet.
Brevem replere non valentis ambitum,
# Pudebit aucti nominis.
He that to Honour only ſeeks to mount,
# And that his chiefeſt end doth count;
Let him behold the largeneſs of the Skies,
# And on the ſtrait Earth caſt his Eyes;

He will deſpiſe the glory of his Name,
# Which cannot fill ſo ſmall a Frame.
Why ſhould any one be taken up in the
admiration of theſe lower out-ſides, theſe
earthly Glories?
Reſpicite Cœli ſpatium, fir-
11Idem l. 3. mitudinem, celeritatem, &
aliquando deſinite
vilia mirari.
He that rightly underſtands
the Nature of the Heavens, will ſcarce e-
ſteem any other thing worth his notice, much
leſs his wonder.
Now when we lay all this together, that
he who hath moſt in the World, hath almoſt
nothing of it;
That the Earth it ſelf, in
compariſon to the Univerſe, is but an incon-
ſiderable Point:
And yet that this whole
Univerſe does not bear ſo great proportion
to the Soul of Man, as the Earth does unto
that:
I ſay, when a Man, in ſome retired
thoughts, ſhall lay all this together, it muſt
needs ſtir up his spirits to a contempt of
theſe earthly Things, and make him place
his love, and endeavour upon thoſe Com-
forts that may be more anſwerable to the
excellency of his Nature.
Without this Science, what Traffick could
we have with Forreign Nations?

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