"But whether thus these things, or whether not, Whether the Sun predominant in Heaven Rise on the Earth, or Earth rise on the Sun, Hee from the East his flaming robe begin, Or Shee from West her silent course advance With inoffensive pace that spinning sleeps On her soft axle, while she paces ev'n And bears thee soft with the smooth Air along, Solicit not thy thoughts with matters hid, Leave them to God above, him serve and feare; Of other Creatures, as him pleases best, Wherever plac't, let him dispose; joy thou In what he gives to thee, this Paradise And the fair Eve: Heaven is for thee too high To know what passes there: be lowlie wise." (1667) [Footnote 364: Milton: _Paradise Lost_, Bk. VIII, lines 159 _et seq._ The great Puritan divine, John Owen (1616-1683), accepts the miracle of the sun's standing still without a word of reference to the new astronomy. (_Works_: II, 160.) Farrar states that Owen declared Newton's discoveries were against the evident testimonies of Scripture (Farrar: _History of Interpretation_: xviii.), but I have been unable to verify this statement. Owen died before the _Principia_ was published in 1687.] Whewell thinks[365] that at this time the diffusion of the Copernican system was due more to the writings of Bishop Wilkins than to those of any one else, for their very extravagances drew stronger attention to it. The first, "The Discovery of a New World: or a Discourse tending to prove that there may be another habitable world in the moon," appeared in 1638; and a third edition was issued only two years later together with the second book; "Discourse concerning a New Planet--that 'tis probable our Earth is one of the planets." In this latter, the Bishop stated certain propositions as indubitable; among these were, that the scriptural passages intimating diurnal motion of the sun or of the heavens are fairly capable of another interpretation; that there is no sufficient reason to prove the earth incapable of those motions which Copernicus ascribes to it; that it is more probable the earth does move than the heavens, and that this hypothesis is exactly agreeable to common appearances.[366] And these books appeared when political and constitutional matters, and not astronomical ones, were the burning questions of the day in England. [Footnote 365: Whewell: I, 410.] [Footnote 366: Wilkins: _Discourse Concerning a New Planet_.] The spread of the doctrine was also helped by Thomas Salusbury's translations of the books and passages condemned by the Index in 1616 and 1619. This collection, "intended for gentlemen," he published by popular subscription immediately after the Restoration,[367] a fact that indicates that not merely mathematicians (whom Whewell claims[368] were by that time all decided Copernicans) but the general public were interested and awake.[369] [Footnote 367: Salusbury: _Math. Coll._: To the Reader.] [Footnote 368: Whewell: I, 411.]