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

Table of handwritten notes

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        <div xml:id="echoid-div155" type="section" level="1" n="43">
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            <s xml:id="echoid-s2357" xml:space="preserve">
              <pb o="158" file="0170" n="170" rhead="That the Moon may be a World."/>
            ters do hang there after ſuch a ſtupendious in-
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            conceivable manner; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2358" xml:space="preserve">which ſeems likewiſe to
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            be favoured by Scripture, where ’tis mentio-
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            ned as a great Argument of Gods Omnipoten-
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            cy, that he holds up the Clouds from falling.
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            </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2359" xml:space="preserve">He binds up the Waters in his thick Glouds, and
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              <note position="left" xlink:label="note-0170-01" xlink:href="note-0170-01a" xml:space="preserve">Job. 26. 8.</note>
            the Glouds is not rent under them.</s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2360" xml:space="preserve"/>
          </p>
          <p>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2361" xml:space="preserve">But that which unto me ſeems full ſatisfacti-
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            on againſt this doubt, is this Conſideration;
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            </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2362" xml:space="preserve">that the natural vigor, whereby the Earth doth
              <lb/>
            attract denſe bodies unto it, is leſs efficacious
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            at a diſtance: </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2363" xml:space="preserve">and therefore a Body of leſs
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            denſity, which is near unto it, as ſuppoſe, this
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            thin Air wherein we breath, may naturally be
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            lower in its Scituation, than another of a grea-
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            ter condenſity that is farther off; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2364" xml:space="preserve">as ſuppoſe,
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            the Clouds in the ſecond Region. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2365" xml:space="preserve">And tho
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            the one be abſolutely, and in it ſelf more fit
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            for this Motion of deſcent; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2366" xml:space="preserve">yet, by reaſon of
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            its diſtance, the Earths magnetical Virtue can-
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            not ſo powerfully work upon it.</s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2367" xml:space="preserve"/>
          </p>
          <p>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2368" xml:space="preserve">As for that Relation of Ariſtotle; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2369" xml:space="preserve">if it were
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            true; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2370" xml:space="preserve">yet it does not prove this Air to be al-
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            together impoſſible, ſince moiſtned Spunges
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            might help us againſt its thinneſs: </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2371" xml:space="preserve">but ’tis more
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            likely, that he took it upon Truſt, as he did
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            ſome other Relations concerning the height of
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            of the Mountains, wherein ’tis evident, that
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            he was groſly miſtaken. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2372" xml:space="preserve">As where he tells us
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            of Gaucaſus, that it caſt its ſhadow 560 Miles.
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            </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2373" xml:space="preserve">
              <note position="left" xlink:label="note-0170-02" xlink:href="note-0170-02a" xml:space="preserve">Meteor.
                <lb/>
              l. 1. c. 11.</note>
            And this Relation being of the ſame nature, we
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            cannot ſafely truſt unto him for the Truth of it.</s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2374" xml:space="preserve"/>
          </p>
          <p>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2375" xml:space="preserve">If it be here enquired; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2376" xml:space="preserve">what means there
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            may be conjectur’d, for our aſcending beyond
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            the Sphere of the Earths Magnetical Vigor.</s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2377" xml:space="preserve"/>
          </p>
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