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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144132That the Moon may be a World. of Hell, and that number expreſſes the Dia-
meter of its Concavity, which is 200 Italian
11De Morib.
div. l. 13. c.
24.
Miles;
But Leſſius thinks that this Opinion
gives them too much Room in Hell, and there-
fore he gueſſes that ’tis not ſo wide;
for (faith
he) the Diameter of one League being cubi-
cally multiplyed, will make a Sphere capable
of 800000 Millions of damaed Bodies, allow-
ing to each ſix Foot in the Square;
whereas,
ſays he, ’tis certain, that there ſhall not be
one hundred thouſand Milions in all that ſhall
be damned.
You ſee the bold Jeſuit was care-
ful that every one ſhould have but room enough
in Hell, and by the ſtrangeneſs of the Con-
jecture, you may gueſs that he had rather be
abſurd, than ſeem either uncharitable or igno-
rant.
I remember there is a Relation in Pliny,
how that Dionyſidorous a Mathematician, be-
ing Dead, did ſend a Letter from this place to
ſome of his Friends upon Earth, to certifie
them what diſtance there was betwixt the
Centre and Superficies:
he might have done
well to have prevented this Controverſie, and
inform’d them the utmoſt capacity of the place.
However, certain it is, that that number can-
not be known;
and probable it is, that the place
is not yet determin’d, but that Hell is there
where there is any tormented Soul, which may
be in the Regions of the Air, as well as in the
Centre:
and therefore perhaps it is, that the
Devil is ſtyled the Prince of the Air.
But this
only occaſionally, and by reaſon of Plutarch’s
Opinion concerning thoſe that are round about
the Moon;
as for the Moon it ſelf, he eſteems
22Cur ſilent
eracula.
it to be a lower kind of Heaven, and

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