The celestial worlds discover'd : $b or, conjectures concerning the inhabitants, plants and productions of the worlds in the planetsHuygens, Christiaan
Science
The celestial worlds discover'd : $b or, conjectures concerning the inhabitants, plants and productions of the worlds in the planets
Huygens, Christiaan
Cosmology -- Early works to 1800; Life on other planets -- Early works to 1800; Plurality of worlds -- Early works to 1800
is an Account given of the Riſings of the Sun above the Ring,
throughout all the Saturnian Year.
With Saturn in this Scheme you have the Globes of the Earth and Moon
drawn in their true proportion, to put you in mind again of a Thing
worth remembring, viz. how very ſmall our Habitation is when compar’d
with that Globe or the Ring about it. And now any one, I ſuppoſe, can
frame to himſelf a Picture of the Night in Saturn, with two Arches of
the Ring, and five Moons ſhining about, and adorning him. This then is
what I had to ſay to the primary Planets.
We are now come a little lower, to make an enquiry into the Attendants
of theſe Planets, eſpecially our own. And here we ſhall not only
conſider their Aſtronomy, but ſhall alſo ſearch into their Furniture
and Ornament, if they are found to have any ſuch thing, which we have
deferred conſidering till now.
[Very little to be ſaid of the Moon.]
And here one would think that when the Moon is ſo near us, and by the
Means of a Teleſcope may be ſo nicely and exactly obſerv’d, it ſhould
afford us Matter for more probable Conjectures than any of the other
remote Planets. But it is quite otherwiſe, and I can ſcarce find any
thing to ſay of it, becauſe I have not a Planet of the ſame Nature
before my Eyes, as in all the primary ones I have. For they are of the
ſame kind with our Earth; and ſeeing all the Actions, and every thing
that is here, we may make a reaſonable Conjecture at what we cannot ſee
in thoſe Worlds.
[The Guards of Jupiter and Saturn of the ſame nature with our Moon.]
But this we may venture to ſay, without fear, that all the Attendants
of Jupiter and Saturn are of the ſame Nature with our Moon, as going
round them, and being carried with them round the Sun juſt as the Moon
is with the Earth. Their Likeneſs reaches to other Things too, as
you’ll ſee by and by. Therefore whatſoever we can with reaſon affirm or
conjecture of our Moon (and we may ſay a little of it) muſt be ſuppos’d
with very little Alteration to belong to the Satellites of Jupiter and
Saturn, as having no reaſon to be at all inferior to that.
[The Moon hath Mountains.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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