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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4937That the Moon may be a World. one Medium, and thereſore between thoſe
two Oppoſite Elements of Earth and Water,
it may ſeem more convenient to place only
the Air, which ſhall partake of Middle Qua-
lities different from both.
5. Fire does not ſeem ſo properly and di-
115 rectly to be oppos'd to any thing as Ice;
and
if the one be not an Element, why ſhould the
other?
If you object that the Fire which we com-
monly uſe, does always tend upwards.
I an-
ſwer, This cannot prove that there is a natu-
ral place for ſuch an Element, ſince our Ad-
verſaries do grant, that culinary and elementary
Fire are of different kinds.
The one does
Burn, Shine, and Corrupt its Subjects;
the
other diſagrees from it in all theſe reſpects:
And therefore from the Aſcent of the one, we
cannot properly infer the Being or Scituation
of the other.
But for your further Satisfaction herein,
you may peruſe Gardan;
Foannes Pena that
Learned Frenchman, the Noble Tycho, with
divers others, who have purpoſely Handled
this Propoſition.
3. I might add a Third, viz. that there is no
223 Muſick of the Spheres;
for if they be not
Solid, how can their Motion cauſe any ſuch
Sound as is Conceiv'd?
I do the rather meddle
with this, becauſe Plutarch ſpeaks as if a Man
might very conveniently hear that Harmony,
if he were an Inhabitant in the Moon.
But I
gueſs that he ſaid this out of Incogitancy, and
did not well conſider theſe neceſſary Conſe-
quences which depend upon his Opinion.

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