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

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 contents

[Item 1.]

[2.] Ex Libris James S. Dearden Rampside

[3.] A DISCOVERY OF A New , OR,

[4.] In Two Parts.

[5.] The Fifth Edition Corrected and Amended. LONDON,

[6.] The Epiſtle to the READER.

[7.] The Propoſitions that are proved in this Diſcourſe. PROPOSITION I.

[8.] PROP. II.

[9.] PROP. III.

[10.] PROP. IV.

[11.] PROP. V.

[12.] PROP. VI.

[13.] PROP. VII.

[14.] PROP. VIII.

[15.] PROP. IX.

[16.] PROP. X.

[17.] PROP. XI.

[18.] PROP. XII.

[19.] PROP. XIII.

[20.] PROP. XIV.

[21.] The Firſt Book. That the MOON May be a WORLD. The Firſt Propoſition, by way of Preface.

[22.] Sed vanus ſtolidis hæc omnia finxerit Error.

[23.] Solis lunæq; labores.

[24.] Cum fruſtra reſonant æra auxiliaria Lunæ.

[25.] Una laboranti poterit ſuccerrere Lunæ.

[26.] Gantus & è cælo poſſunt deducere Lunam.

[27.] Cantus & ſi curru lunam deducere tentant, Et facerent, ſi non æra repulſa ſonant.

[28.] PROP. II. That a Plurality of Worlds doth not contradict any Principle of Reaſon or Faith.

[29.] Æſtuas infelix auguſto limite mundi.

[30.] PROP. III. That the Heavens do not conſiſt of any ſuch pure Matter, which can priviledge them from the like Change and Corruption, as theſe Inferiour, Bodies are liable unto.

128116That the Moon may be a World. by the ſame reaſon, may a brighter Vapour
be the cauſe of theſe appearances.

But how probable ſoever this Opinion may
ſeem, yet if well conſider’d, you ſhall find it
altogether abſurd and impoſſible: for,

1. Theſe Stars were never ſeen there before,
and ’tis not likely, that a Vapour being hard
by us, can ſo multiply that Light, which could
not before be at all diſcern’d.

2. This ſuppos’d Vapour cannot be either
contracted into a narrow compaſs, or dilated
into a broad. 1. It could not be within a little
ſpace, for then that Star would not appear
with the ſame multiplyed Light to thoſe in
other Climates. 2. It cannot be a dilated Va-
pour, for then other Stars which were diſcer-
ned through the ſame Vapour, would ſeem as
big as that; this Argument is the ſame in ef-
fect, with that of the Paralax, as you may ſee
in this Figure.

5[Figure 5]

Suppoſe AB to be a Hemiſphere of one
Earth, CD to be the upper part of the high-
eſt Region, in which there might be either a
contracted Vapour, as G, or elſe a dilated one;

Text layer

Text normalization

Search