Concerning this Edition I can ſay, that I have taken care to have the Cutts exactly done, and have placed each Figure at the Page of the Book that refers to it, which I take to be more convenient to the Reader than putting them all at the End.
I have been careful to procure the beſt Paper, that I might in ſome meaſure come up to the Beauty of the Latin Edition, though this bear but half the Price of it.
And I hope the Tranſlator has expreſſed the Author’s Senſe aright, and has not committed Faults beyond what an ingenuous Reader can pardon. [[1]]
NEW
CONJECTURES
Concerning the
Planetary Worlds,
THEIR
INHABITANTS
AND
PRODUCTIONS.
Written by Christianus Huygens,
and inſcribed to his Brother
Constantine Huygens.
BOOK the Firſt.
A Man that is of Copernicus’s Opinion, that this Earth of ours is a Planet, carry’d round and enlighten’d by the Sun, like the reſt of the Planets, cannot but ſometimes think, that it’s [[2]]not improbable that the reſt of the Planets have their Dreſs and Furniture, and perhaps their Inhabitants too as well as this Earth of ours: Eſpecially if he conſiders the later Diſcoveries made in the Heavens ſince Copernicus’s time, viz. the Attendants of Jupiter and Saturn, and the champaign and hilly Countries in the Moon, which are a ſtrong Argument of a Relation and Kin between our Earth and them, as well as a Proof of the Truth of that Syſtem. This has often been our Talk, I remember, good Brother, over a large Teleſcope, when we have been viewing thoſe Bodies, a Study that your continual Buſineſs and Abſence have interrupted for many Years. But we were always apt to conclude, that ’twas in vain to enquire after what Nature is doing there, ſeeing there was no likelihood of ever coming to any Certainty of the Enquiry. Nor could I ever find that any Philoſophers, either antient or modern, have attempted any thing upon this Subject. At the very Birth [[3]]of Aſtronomy, when the Earth was firſt aſſerted to be Spherical, and to Some have already talk’d of the Inhabitants of the Planets, but went no farther. be ſurrounded with Air, even then there were ſome Men ſo bold as to affirm, there were an innumerable Company of Worlds in the Stars. But later Authors, ſuch as Cardinal Cuſanus, Brunus, Kepler, (and if we may believe him, Tycho was of that opinion too) have furniſhed the Planets with Inhabitants. Nay, Cuſanus and Brunus have allowed the Sun and fixed Stars theirs too. But this was the utmoſt of their Boldneſs; nor has the ingenious French Author of the Dialogues about the Plurality of Worlds carried this Matter any farther. Only ſome of them have coined ſome Stories of the Men in the Moon, juſt as probable as Lucian’s true Hiſtory; among which I muſt count Kepler’s, which he has diverted us with in his Aſtronomical Dream. But a while ago thinking ſomewhat ſeriouſly of this matter (not that I count my ſelf quicker-ſighted than thoſe great Men, but that I had the Happineſs to live after [[4]]moſt of them) the Enquiry appeared not ſo impracticable, nor the Way ſo ſtopt up with Difficulties, but that there was very good room left for probable Conjectures. As they came into my Head, I put them down into common Places, and ſhall now try to digeſt them into ſome Method for your better Conception of them, and add ſomewhat of the Sun and fix’d Stars, and the Extent of that Univerſe of which our Earth is but an inconſiderable Point. I know you have ſuch an Eſteem and Reverence for any thing that belongs to the Heavens, that I perſwade my ſelf you will read what I have written with ſome Pleaſure: I’m ſure I writ it with a great deal; but as often before, ſo now, I find the Saying of Archytas true, even to the Letter, That tho’ a Man were admitted into Heaven to view the wonderful Fabrick of the World, and the Beauty of the Stars, yet what would otherwiſe be Rapture and Extaſie, would be but a melancholy Amazement if he had not a Friend to communicate [[5]]it to. I could wiſh indeed that all the World might not be my Judges, but that I might chuſe my Readers, Men like you, not ignorant in Aſtronomy and true Philoſophy; for with ſuch I might promiſe my ſelf a favourable hearing, and not need to make an Apology for daring to vent any thing new to the World. But becauſe I am aware what weak Hands it’s likely to fall into, and what a ſevere Sentence I may expect from thoſe whoſe Ignorance or Zeal is too great; it may be worth the while to guard my ſelf beforehand againſt the Aſſaults of thoſe ſort of People.
The Objections of ignorant Cavillers prevented. There’s one ſort who knowing nothing of Geometry or Mathematicks, will laugh at it as a whimſical and ridiculous Undertaking. It’s an incredible Thing to them to talk of meaſuring the Diſtance and Magnitude of the Stars: And for the Motion of the Earth, they count it, if not a falſe, at leaſt a precarious Opinion; and no wonder then if they take what’s built upon ſuch a ſlippery Foundation [[6]]for the Dreams of a fanciful Head and a diſtemper’d Brain. What ſhould we anſwer to theſe Men, but that their Ignorance is the Cauſe of their Diſlike, and that if they had ſtudied theſe things more, and viewed the Works of Nature nicely, they would have fewer Scruples? But few People having had an opportunity of proſecuting theſe Studies, either for want of Parts, Learning or Leiſure, we cannot blame their Ignorance; and if they reſolve to find fault with us for ſpending time in ſuch Matters, becauſe they do not underſtand the Uſe of them, we muſt appeal to properer Judges.
Theſe Conjectures do not contradict the holy Scriptures. The other ſort, When they hear us talk of new Lands, and Animals, and Creatures endued with as much Reaſon as themſelves, will be ready to cry out, that we ſet up our Conjectures againſt the Word of God, and broach Opinions directly oppoſite to Holy Writ. For we do not there read any thing of the Production of ſuch Creatures, no not ſo much as that they exiſt; nay rather we [[7]]read the quite contrary. For, That only mentions this Earth with its Animals and Plants, and Man the Lord of them: To ſuch Perſons I anſwer, what has been often urged by others before me: That it’s evident, God had no deſign to make a particular Enumeration in the Holy Scriptures, of all the Works of his Creation. When therefore it is plain that under the general Name of Stars or Earth at the Creation, are comprehended all the Heavenly Bodies, even the Attendants upon Jupiter and Saturn, why muſt all that Multitude of Beings which the Almighty Creator has been pleaſed to place upon them, be excluded the Privilege, and not ſuffered to have a Share in the Expreſſion? And theſe Men themſelves can’t but know in what Senſe it is that all things are ſaid to be made for the Uſe of Man, not certainly for us to look at through a Teleſcope, for that’s very abſurd. Since then the greateſt part of God’s Creation, that innumerable multitude of Stars, is placed out of the [[8]]reach of any Man’s Eye; and many of them it’s likely, of the beſt Glaſſes, ſo that they don’t ſeem to belong to us; is it ſuch an unreaſonable Opinion to think, that there are ſome reaſonable Creatures who ſee and admire thoſe glorious Bodies at a nearer diſtance?
This Enquiry not over curious. But perhaps they’ll ſay, it does not become us to be ſo curious and inquiſitive in theſe Things which the Supreme Creator ſeems to have kept for his own Knowledge: For ſince he has not been pleaſed to make any farther Diſcovery or Revelation of them, it ſeems little better than preſumption to make any inquiry into that which he has thought fit to hide. But theſe Gentlemen muſt be told, that they take too much upon themſelves when they pretend to appoint how far and no farther Men ſhall go in their Searches, and to ſet bounds to other Mens Induſtry; as if they knew the Marks that God has placed to Knowledge: or as if Men were able to paſs thoſe Marks. If our Forefathers had been at this rate ſcrupulous, we might [[9]]have been ignorant ſtill of the Magnitude and Figure of the Earth, or that there was ſuch a Place as America. We ſhould not have known that the Moon is inlightned by the Sun’s Rays, nor what the Cauſes of the Eclipſes of each of them are, nor a multitude of other Things brought to light by the late Diſcoveries in Aſtronomy. For what can a Man imagine more abſtruſe, or leſs likely to be known, than what is now as clear as the Sun? Whence it follows, that vigorous Induſtry, and piercing Wit were given Men to make Advances in the Search of Nature, and there’s no Reaſon to put any Stop to ſuch Enquiries. I muſt acknowledge that what I here intend to treat of is not of that Nature as to admit of a certain Knowledge; I can’t pretend to aſſert any thing as poſitively true (for how is it poſſible) but only to advance a probable Gueſs, the Truth of which every one is at his own liberty to examine. If any one therefore ſhall gravely tell me, that I have ſpent my Time idly in a vain and fruitleſs Enquiry [[10]]after what by my own acknowledgment I can never come to be ſure of; The Anſwer is, that at this rate he would put down all Natural Philoſophy as far as it concerns it ſelf in ſearching into the Nature Conjectures not uſeleſs, becauſe not certain. of Things: In ſuch noble and ſublime Studies as theſe, ’tis a Glory to arrive at Probability, and the Search it ſelf rewards the Pains. But there are many degrees of Probable, ſome nearer Truth than others, in the determining of which lies the chief exerciſe Theſe Studies uſeful to Religion. of our Judgment. But beſides the Nobleneſs and Pleaſure of the Studies, may not we be ſo bold as to ſay, they are no ſmall help to the Advancement of Wiſdom and Morality? ſo far are they from being of no uſe at all. For here we may mount from this dull Earth, and viewing it from on high, conſider whether Nature has laid out all her Coſt and Finery upon this ſmall Speck of Dirt. So, like Travellers into other diſtant Countries, we ſhall be better able to judge of what’s done at home, know how to make a true Eſtimate of, and ſet [[11]]its own Value upon every Thing. We ſhall be leſs apt to admire what this World calls Great, ſhall nobly deſpiſe thoſe Trifles the generality of Men ſet their Affections on, when we know that there are a multitude of ſuch Earths inhabited and adorned as well as our own. And we ſhall worſhip and reverence that God the Maker of all theſe things; we ſhall admire and adore his Providence and wonderful Wiſdom which is diſplayed and manifeſted all over the Univerſe, to the Confuſion of thoſe who would have the Earth and all things formed by the ſhuffling Concourſe of Atoms, or to be without beginning. But to come to our Purpoſe.