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

< >
< >
page |< < (125) of 370 > >|
305125That the Earth may be a Planet. that if our Earth had ſuch a Circular Mo-
tion, then any heavy Body, being let fall
from ſome high Tower, or other ſteep
place, would not deſcend unto that point of
Earth which was directly under it at the be-
ginning.
To this we anſwer: That the Air which
moves along with our Earth, is as well li-
mited in certain bounds, as that which is in-
cluded in a Room.
If you ask where theſe
Bounds are terminated:
I anſwer, Neither
by the utmoſt parts of the World, nor yet
by the Concavity of the Moon's Orb, (as
Fromond{us} would have us affirm) but by
the Sphere of vaporous Air that encompaſſes
our Earth;
or which is all one, by the Orb
of Magnetical Vigour, which proceeds from
it.
And beſides, ’tis conſiderable, that all
Earthly Bodies are not only contained with-
in theſe limits, as things are in a cloſe Room,
but alſo as parts in that Whole to which
they belong.
2. Though the carrying along of the Me-
dium, may ſolve the motion of light Bodies
in a Ship, as the Flame of a Candle, Smoke,
or the like, yet this cannot concur to that
which hath been ſaid of heavy Bodies, as a
Man leaping up, a Bullet deſcending, &
c.
ſince it is not the motion of the meer Air
that is able to make theſe partake of the
ſame motion with the Ship.
Unto that
Argument which he urges from the Experi-
ment of a Stone falling in an open Ship:
We
anſwer:

Text layer

  • Dictionary

Text normalization

  • Original

Search


  • Exact
  • All forms
  • Fulltext index
  • Morphological index