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
If you would know the way that we came to this Knowledge of their
Magnitudes, by knowing the Proportion of their Diſtances from the Sun,
and the Meaſures of their Diameters, you may find it in the Book
before-mentioned: And I cannot yet ſee any Reaſon to make an Alteration
in thoſe I then ſettled, altho’ I will not ſay they are without their
Faults. [The Lamellæ more convenient than Micrometers.] For I can’t yet
be of their Mind, who think the Uſe of Micrometers, as they call them,
is beyond that of our Plates, but muſt ſtill think that thoſe thin
Plates or Rods of which I there taught the Uſe, not to detract from the
due Praiſes of ſo uſeful an Invention, are more convenient than the
Micrometers.
In this proportion of the Planets it is worth while to take notice of
the prodigious Magnitude of the Sun in compariſon with the four
innermoſt, which are far leſs than Jupiter and Saturn. And ’tis
remarkable, that the Bodies of the Planets do not increaſe together
with their Diſtances from the Sun, but that Venus is much bigger than
Mars.
[The Earth juſtly likened to the Planets, and the Planets to it.]
Having thus explained the two Schemes, there’s no Body I ſuppoſe but
ſees, that in the firſt the Earth is made to be of the ſame ſort with
the reſt of the Planets. For the very Poſition of the Circles ſhows it.
And that the other Planets are round like it, and like it receive all
the Light they have from the Sun, there’s no room (ſince the
Diſcoveries made by Teleſcopes) to doubt. Another Thing they are like
it in is, that they are moved round their own Axis; for ſince ’tis
certain that Jupiter and Saturn are, who can doubt it of the others?
Again, as the Earth has its Moon moving round it, ſo Jupiter and Saturn
have theirs. Now ſince in ſo many Things they thus agree, what can be
more probable than that in others they agree too; and that the other
Planets are as beautiful and as well ſtock’d with Inhabitants as the
Earth? Or what ſhadow of Reaſon can there be why they ſhould not?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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