_That there is a world in the Moone, hath beene the direct opinion of many ancient, with some moderne Mathematicians, and may probably be deduced from the tenents of others._ Since this opinion may be suspected of singularity, I shall therefore first confirme it by sufficient authority of divers authours, both ancient and moderne, that so I may the better cleare it from the prejudice either of an upstart fancy, or an absolute errour. This is by some attributed to _Orpheus_, one of the most ancient Greeke Poets, who speaking of the Moone, saies thus, ἡ πολλ᾽ οὔρεα ἔχει, πολλ᾽ ἄστεα, πολλὰ μέλαθρα,[1] That it hath many mountaines and cities, and houses in it. To him assented _Xenophanes_, _Anaxagoras_, _Democritus_, and _Heraclitus_,[2] all who thought it to have firme solid ground, like to our earth,[3] containing in it many large fields, champion grounds, and divers inhabitants, unto these agreed _Pythagoras_, who thought that our earth was but one of the Planets which moved round about the Sunne,[4] (as _Aristotle_ relates it of him) and the _Pythagoreans_ in generall did affirme, that the Moone also was terrestriall, that she was inhabited as this lower world. That those living creatures & plants which are in her, exceed any of the like kind with us in the same proportion, as their daies are longer than ours: _viz._ by 15 times. This _Pythagoras_[5] was esteemed by all, of a most divine wit, as appeares especially by his valuation amongst the _Romans_ who being cõmanded by the Oracle to erect a statue to the wisest _Grecian_, the Senate determined[6] _Pythagoras_ to be meant, preferring him in their judgements before the divine _Socrates_, whom their Gods pronounc’d the wisest. Some think him a _Iew_ by birth, but most agree that hee was much conversant amongst the learneder sort, & Priests of that Nation, by whom he was informed of many secrets, and perhaps, this opinion, which he vented afterwards in _Greece_, where he was much opposed by _Aristotle_ in some worded disputations, but never confuted by any solid reason. [Sidenote 1: _Plut. de plac. phil. l. 2. c. 13._] [Sidenote 2: _Ibid. c. 25._] [Sidenote 3: _Diog. Laert. l. 2. & l. 9._] [Sidenote 4: _De Cœlo. l. 2. cap. 13._] [Sidenote 5: _Plut. ibid. cap. 30._] [Sidenote 6: _Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 34. cap. 6._]