The Discovery of a World in the Moone | Page 3

consent of others. But how ever, I am
resolved that this shall not be any discouragement, since I know that it
is not the common opinion of others that can either adde or detract
from the truth. For,
1. Other truths have beene formerly esteemed altogether as ridiculous
as this can be.

2. Grosse absurdities have beene entertained by generall opinion.
I shall give an instance of each, that so I may the better prepare the
Reader to consider things without a prejudice, when hee shall see that
the common opposition against this which I affirme cannot any way
derogate from its truth.
1. Other truths have beene formerly accounted as ridiculous as this, I
shall specifie that of the Antipodes, which have beene denied and
laught at by many wise men and great Schollers, such as were
Herodotus, St. Austin, Lactantius, the Venerable Bede, Lucretius the
Poet, Procopius, and the voluminous Abulensis with others. Herodotus
counted it so horrible an absurdity, that hee could not forbeare laughing
to thinke of it. +Gelô de horôn gês periodous grapsantas, pollous êdê
kai oudena noon echontas exêgêsamenon hoi Ôkeanon te rheonta
graphousi, perix tên te gên eousan kukloterea hôs apo tornou.+
"I cannot choose but laugh, (saith he) to see so many men venture to
describe the earths compasse, relating those things that are without all
sense, as that the Sea flowes about the World, and that the earth it selfe
is round as an Orbe."
But this great ignorance is not so much to be admired in him, as in
those learneder men of later times, when all sciences began to flourish
in the World. Such was Saint Austin who censures that relation of the
Antipodes to be an incredible fable,[1] and with him agrees the
eloquent Lactantius,[2]
quid illi qui esse contrarios vestigiis nostris Antipodes putant? num
aliquid loquuntur? aut est quispiam tam ineptus, qui credat esse
homines, quorum vestigia sunt superiora quàm capita? aut ibi quæ
apud nos jacent inversa pendere? fruges & arbores deorsum versus
crescere, pluvias & nives, & grandinem sursum versus cadere in
terram? & miratur aliquis hortor pensiles inter septem mira narrari,
quum Philosophi, & agros & maria, & urbes & montes pensiles faciunt?
&c.
"What (saith he) are they that thinke there are Antipodes, such as walke

with their feet against ours? doe they speake any likelyhood? or is there
any one so foolish as to believe that there are men whose heeles are
higher than their heads? that things which with us doe lie on the ground
doe hang there? that the Plants and Trees grow downewards, that the
haile, and raine, and snow fall upwards to the earth? and doe wee
admire the hanging Orchards amongst the seven wonders, whereas here
the Philosophers have made the Field and Seas, the Cities and
Mountaines hanging."
What shall wee thinke (saith hee in Plutarch) that men doe clyng to
that place like wormes, or hang by their clawes as Cats, or if wee
suppose a man a little beyond the Center, to bee digging with a spade?
is it likely (as it must bee according to this opinion) that the earth which
hee loosened, should of it selfe ascend upwards? or else suppose two
men with their middles about the center, the feete of the one being
placed where the head of the other is, and so two other men crosse them,
yet all these men thus situated according to this opinion should stand
upright, and many other such grosse consequences would follow (saith
hee) which a false imagination is not able to fancy as possible. Upon
which considerations, Bede[3] also denies the being of any Antipodes,
Neque enim Antipodarum ullatenus est Fabulis accommodandus
assensus,
"Nor should wee any longer assent to the Fable of Antipodes." So also
Lucretius the Poet speaking of the same subject, sayes:
Sed vanus stolidis hæc omnia finxerit error.[4]
[Sidenote 1: De civit. Dei. lib. 16. cap. 9.]
[Sidenote 2: Institut. l. 3. c. 24.]
[Sidenote 3: De ratione temporum, Cap. 32.]
[Sidenote 4: De nat. rerum, lib. 1.]
That some idle fancy faigned these for fooles to believe. Of this

opinion was Procopius Gazæus,[1] but he was perswaded to it by
another kinde of reason; for he thought that all the earth under us was
sunke in the water, according to the saying of the Psalmist,[2] Hee hath
founded the Earth upon the Seas, and therefore hee accounted it not
inhabited by any. Nay Tostatus a man of later yeeres and generall
learning doth also confidently deny that there are any such Antipodes,
though the reason which hee urges for it bee not so absurde as the
former, for the Apostles, saith hee,[3] travelled through the whole
habitable world, but they never passed the Equinoctiall; and if you
answer that they