Now to true reasoning turn your mind, I pray; For a new theme is struggling urgently To reach your ears, a new aspect of things Would now reveal itself. But there is naught So easy, that at first it will not seem Difficult of belief, and likewise naught So mighty, naught so wondrous, but that all Little by little abate their wonder at it. Consider first the colour of the heavens, So bright and pure, and all that they contain, The stars wandering everywhere, the moon And the surpassing radiance of the sun; If all these sights were now for the first time To be revealed to mortals suddenly And without warning, what could have been described That would have seemed more marvellous than such things, Or that humanity could less have dared Beforehand to believe might come to pass? Nothing, I think: so wonderful had been This spectacle. Yet think how no one now, Wearied to satiety at the sight, Deigns to look up at the sky’s shining quarters. Cease therefore to cast reason from your mind Terrified by mere novelty, but rather Weigh facts with eager judgment; and if then They appear true, surrender; if they seem A falsehood, gird yourself to prove them so. For since the sum of space outside, beyond This world’s walls, must be infinite, the mind seeks To reason as to what may else exist Yonder in regions whither the intellect Is constantly desiring to prospect, And whither the projection of our thought Reaches in free flight of its own accord.