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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              <pb o="7" file="0187" n="187" rhead="That the Earth may be a Planet."/>
            than others; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2578" xml:space="preserve">ſince Ariſtotle himſelf, and Pli-
              <lb/>
            ny did deny this as well as they.</s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2579" xml:space="preserve"/>
          </p>
          <p>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2580" xml:space="preserve">I anſwer:</s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2581" xml:space="preserve"/>
          </p>
          <p>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2582" xml:space="preserve">1. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2583" xml:space="preserve">If they did, yet this do’s make more
              <lb/>
            to the preſent purpoſe: </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2584" xml:space="preserve">For if ſuch great
              <lb/>
            Scholars, who were ſo eminent for their
              <lb/>
            knowledge in natural things, might yet not-
              <lb/>
            withſtanding be groſly miſtaken in ſuch
              <lb/>
            matters as are now evident and certain:
              <lb/>
            </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2585" xml:space="preserve">Why then we have no reaſon to depend
              <lb/>
            upon their aſſertions or Authorities, as if
              <lb/>
            they were infallible.</s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2586" xml:space="preserve"/>
          </p>
          <p>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2587" xml:space="preserve">2. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2588" xml:space="preserve">Though theſe great Naturaliſts, for
              <lb/>
            want of ſome experience were miſtaken in
              <lb/>
            that Opinion, whileſt they thought no place
              <lb/>
            was habitable but the temperate Zones; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2589" xml:space="preserve">yet
              <lb/>
            it cannot be from hence inferred, that they
              <lb/>
            denied the poſſibility of Antipodes: </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2590" xml:space="preserve">Since theſe
              <lb/>
            are ſuch Inhabitants as live oppoſite unto us
              <lb/>
            in the other temperate Zone; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2591" xml:space="preserve">and ’twere an
              <lb/>
            abſurd thing to imagin that thoſe who lived
              <lb/>
            in different Zones, can be Antipodes to one a-
              <lb/>
            nother; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2592" xml:space="preserve">and argues that a Man did not un-
              <lb/>
            derſtand, or elſe had forgotten that common
              <lb/>
            diſtinction in Geography, wherein the relation
              <lb/>
            of the Worlds Inhabitants unto one another,
              <lb/>
            are reckoned up under theſe three heads; </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2593" xml:space="preserve">An-
              <lb/>
            tæci, Periæci, and Antipodes. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2594" xml:space="preserve">But to let this
              <lb/>
            paſs:</s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2595" xml:space="preserve">’tis certain, that ſome of the Fathers did
              <lb/>
            deny the being of any ſuch, upon other more
              <lb/>
            abſurd grounds. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2596" xml:space="preserve">Now if ſuch as Chryfoſtom,
              <lb/>
            Lactantius, &</s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2597" xml:space="preserve">c. </s>
            <s xml:id="echoid-s2598" xml:space="preserve">who were noted for great
              <lb/>
            Scholars, and ſuch too as flouriſhed in theſe
              <lb/>
            latter times, when all human Learning </s>
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