Unto these _Ptolome_[1] also that learned Egyptian seemed to agree, when he affirmes that the body of the Moone is moister, and cooler than any of the other Planets, by reason of the earthly vapours that are exhaled unto it. You see these ancients thought the Heavens to be so farre from this imagined incorruptibility, that rather like the weakest bodies they stood in need of some continuall nourishment without which they could not subsist. [Sidenote 1: _I{o} Apost._] But _Aristotle_ and his followers were so farre from this,[1] that they thought those glorious bodies could not containe within them any such principles, as might make them lyable to the least change or corruption, and their chiefe reason was, because we could not in so long a space discerne any alteration amongst them; but unto this I answer. [Sidenote 1: _De cœlo. l. 1. cap. 3._] 1. Supposing we could not, yet would it not hence follow[1] that there were none, as hee himselfe in effect doth confesse in another place; for speaking concerning our knowledge of the Heavens, hee sayes ’tis very imperfect and difficult, by reason of the vaste distance of those bodies from us, and because the changes which may happen unto it, are not either bigge enough or frequent enough to fall within the apprehension and observation of our senses; no wonder then if hee himselfe bee deceived in his assertions concerning these particulars. [Sidenote 1: _De Cœlo. l. 2. cap. 3._] 2. Though we could not by our senses see such alterations, yet our reason might perhaps sufficiently convince us of them. Nor can we well conceive how the Sunne should reflect against the Moone, and yet not produce some alteration of heate. _Diogenes_ the Philosopher was hence perswaded that those scorching heates had burnt the Moone into the forme of a Pumice-stone. 3. I answer that there have been some alterations observed there; witnesse those comets which have beene seene above the Moone. So that though _Aristotles_ consequence were sufficient, when hee proved that the heavens were not corruptible, because there have not any changes being observed in it, yet this by the same reason must bee as prevalent, that the Heavens are corruptible, because there have beene so many alterations observed there; but of these together with a farther confirmation of this proposition, I shall have occasion to speake afterwards; In the meane space, I will referre the Reader to that worke of _Scheiner_ a late Jesuit which hee titles his _Rosa Vrsina_,[1] where hee may see this point concerning the corruptibility of the Heavens largely handled and sufficiently confirmed. [Sidenote 1: _lib. 4. p. 2. cy.24, 35._]