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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9886That the Moon may be a World.& c. But I reply, if the Superficies betwixt
theſe two enlightened parts, remain dark be-
cauſe of its Opacity, then would it always be
dark, and the Sun could not make it partake of
Light, more than it could of Perſpicuity.
But
this contradicts all Experience, as you may ſee
in Galilæus, who affirms, that when the Sun
comes nearer to his Oppoſition, then, that
which is betwixt them both, is enlightned as
well as either.
Nay, this oppoſes his own Eye-
witheſs, for he confeſſes himſelf, that he ſaw this
by the glaſs.
He had ſaid before, that he came
to ſee thoſe ſtrange Sights diſcovered by Gali-
læus his glaſs, with an intent of Contradiction,
and you may read that confirmed in the weak-
neſs of this anſwer, which rather bewrays an
Obſtinate, then a perſwaded Will;
for other-
wiſe ſure he would never have undertook to
have deſtroyed ſuch certain proofs with ſo
groundleſs a Fancy.
That Inſtance of Galilæus, would have been
11Syſt. mundi
eoll. 1.
a better Evaſion, had this Author been Acquan-
ted with it;
who might then have compared
the Moon to that which we call Mother of
Pearl, which though it be moſt Exactly Poliſhed
in the Superficies of it;
yet will ſeem unto the
Eye as if there were divers Swellings and Ri-
ſings in its ſeveral parts.
But yet this neither
would not well have ſhifted the Experiment
of the Perſpective.
For theſe rugged parts do
not only appear upon one ſide of the Moon, but
as the Sun does turn about in Divers Places, ſo
do they alſo caſt their ſhadow.
When theMoon
is in her Increaſe, then do they caſt their ſha-
dows to the Eaſt.
When ſhe is in the

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