The Earth juſtly likened to the Planets, and the Planets to it. Having thus explained the two Schemes, there’s no Body I ſuppoſe but ſees, that in the firſt the Earth is made to be of the ſame ſort with the reſt of the Planets. For the very Poſition of the Circles ſhows it. And that the other Planets are round like it, and like it receive all the Light they have from the Sun, there’s no room (ſince the Diſcoveries made by Teleſcopes) to doubt. Another Thing they are like it in is, that they are moved [[18]]round their own Axis; for ſince ’tis certain that Jupiter and Saturn are, who can doubt it of the others? Again, as the Earth has its Moon moving round it, ſo Jupiter and Saturn have theirs. Now ſince in ſo many Things they thus agree, what can be more probable than that in others they agree too; and that the other Planets are as beautiful and as well ſtock’d with Inhabitants as the Earth? Or what ſhadow of Reaſon can there be why they ſhould not?
If any one ſhould be at the Diſſection of a Dog, and be there ſhewn the Intrails, the Heart, Stomach, Liver, Lungs and Guts, all the Veins, Arteries and Nerves; could ſuch a Man reaſonably doubt whether there were the ſame Contexture and Variety of Parts in a Bullock, Hog, or any other Beaſt, tho’ he had never chanc’d to ſee the like opening of them? I don’t believe he would. Or were we thoroughly ſatisfy’d in the Nature of one of the Moons round Jupiter, ſhould not we ſtraight conclude the ſame of the reſt of them? So if we could be [[19]]aſſur’d in but one Comet, what it was that is the Cauſe of that ſtrange Appearance, ſhould we not make that a Standard to judge of all others by? Arguments from their Similitude, of no ſmall weight. ’Tis therefore an Argument of no ſmall Weight that is fetch’d from Relation and Likeneſs; and to reaſon from what we ſee and are ſure of, to what we cannot, is no falſe Logick. This muſt be our Method in this Treatiſe, wherein from the Nature and Circumſtances of that Planet which we ſee before our Eyes, we may gueſs at thoſe that are farther diſtant from us.
The Planets are ſolid, and not without Gravity. And, Firſt, ’tis more than probable that the Bodies of the Planets are ſolid like that of our Earth, and that they don’t want what we call Gravity, that Virtue, which like a Loadſtone attracts whatſoever is near the Body to its Center. And that they have ſuch a Quality, their very Figure is a Proof; for their Roundneſs proceeds only from an equal preſſure of all their Parts tending to the ſame Center. Nay more, we are ſo skilful now-a-days, as to be able to tell how [[20]]much more or leſs the Gravitation in Jupiter or Saturn is than here; of which Diſcovery and its Author you may read my Eſſay of the Cauſes of Gravitation.
But now to carry the Search farther, let us ſee by what Steps we muſt riſe to the attaining ſome knowledge in the deeper Secrets concerning the State and Furniture of theſe new Earths. And, firſt, how likely is it that they may be ſtock’d with Plants Have Animals and Plants. and Animals as well as we? I ſuppoſe no Body will deny but that there’s ſomewhat more of Contrivance, ſomewhat more wonderful in the Production and Growth of Plants and Animals, than in Lifeleſs Heaps of inanimate Bodies, be they never ſo much larger; as Mountains, Rocks, or Seas are. For the Finger of God, and the Wiſdom of Divine Providence, is in them much more clearly manifeſted than in the other. One of Democritus’s or Cartes’s Scholars may venture perhaps to give ſome tolerable Explication of the Appearances in Heaven and Earth, allow him but his Atoms [[21]]and Motion; but when he comes to Plants and Animals, he’ll find himſelf non-plus’d, and give you no likely account of their Production. For every Thing in them is ſo exactly adapted to ſome Deſign, every part of them ſo fitted to its proper Uſe, that they manifeſt an Infinite Wiſdom, and exquiſite Knowledge in the Laws of Nature and Geometry, as, to omit thoſe Wonders in Generation, we ſhall by and by ſhow; and make it an Abſurdity even to think of their being thus happily jumbled together by a chance Motion of I don’t know what little Particles. Now ſhould we allow the Planets nothing but vaſt Deſerts, lifeleſs and inanimate Stocks and Stones, and deprive them of all thoſe Creatures that more plainly ſpeak their Divine Architect, we ſhould ſink them below the Earth in Beauty and Dignity; a Thing very unreasonable, as I ſaid before.
Well then, we have gain’d the Point thus far, and the Planets may be allowed ſome Creatures capable of moving themſelves, not at all inferior [[22]]to ours; and theſe are Animals. And if this be allowed, it almoſt neceſſarily follows, that there muſt be Herbs Not to be imagin’d too unlike ours. for Food for them. And as for the Growth and Nouriſhment of all theſe, ’tis no doubt the ſame with ours, ſeeing they have the ſame Sun to warm and enliven them as ours have.
But perhaps ſome Body may ſay, we conclude too faſt. They will not deny indeed but that there may be Plants and Animals on the Surface of the Planets, that deſerve as well to be provided for by their Creator as ours do: but why muſt they be of the ſame Kind with ours: Nature ſeems to love variety in her Works, and may have made them widely different from ours either in their matter or manner of Growth, in their outward Shape, or their inward Contexture; ſhe may have made them ſuch as neither our Underſtanding nor Imagination can conceive. That’s the Thing we ſhall now examine, and whether it be not more likely that ſhe has not obſerv’d ſuch a Variety as they talk of. Nature [[23]]ſeems moſt commonly, and in moſt of her Works, to affect Variety, ’tis true; But they ſhould conſider ’tis not the Buſineſs of Men to pretend to ſettle how great this Difference and Variety muſt be. Nor does it follow, becauſe it may be Infinite, and out of our Comprehenſion and Reach, that therefore Things in reality are ſo. For ſuppoſe God ſhould have pleaſed to have made all Things in the reſt of the Planets juſt as he has here, the Inhabitants of thoſe Places (if there are any ſuch) would admire his Wiſdom and Contrivance no leſs than if they were widely different; ſeeing they can’t come to know what’s done in the other Planets. Who doubts but that God, if he had pleaſed, might have made the Animals in America and other diſtant Countries nothing like ours? yet we ſee he has not done it. They have indeed ſome difference in their Shape, and ’tis fit they ſhould, to diſtinguiſh the Plants and Animals of thoſe Countries from ours, who live on this ſide the Earth; but even in this Variety there is an Agreement, [[24]]an exact Correſpondence in Figure and Shape, the ſame ways of Growth, and new Productions, and of continuing their own Kind. Their Animals have Feet and Wings like ours, and like ours have Hearts, Lungs, Guts, and the Parts ſerving to Generation; whereas all theſe Things, as well with them as us, might, if it had pleaſed Infinite Wiſdom, have been order’d a very different Way. ’Tis plain then that Nature has not exhibited that Variety in her Works that ſhe could, and therefore we muſt not allow that Weight to this Argument, as upon the Account of it to make every Thing in the Planets quite different from what is here. ’Tis more probable that all the Difference there is between us and them, ſprings from the greater or leſs diſtance and influence from that Fountain of Heat and Life the Sun; which will cauſe a Difference not ſo much in their Form and Shape, as in their Matter and Contexture.
Planets have Water. And as for the Matter whereof the Plants and Animals there conſiſt, tho’ [[25]]it is impoſſible ever to come to the Knowledge of its Nature, yet this we may venture to aſſert (there being ſcarce any Doubt of it) that their Growth and Nouriſhment proceeds from ſome liquid Principle. For all Philoſophers agree that there can be no other way of Nutrition; ſome of the Chief among them having made Water to be the Original of all Things: For whatſoever’s dry and without Moiſture, is without Motion too; and without Motion, it’s impoſſible there ſhould be any Increaſe. But the Parts of a Liquid being in continual Motion one with another, and inſinuating and twiſting themſelves into the ſmalleſt Places, are thereby very proper and apt to add not themſelves only, but whatſoever elſe they may bring along with them, to the Increaſe and Growth of Bodies. Thus we ſee that by the Means of Water the Plants grow, bloſſom, and bear Fruit; and by the Addition of that only, Stones grow together out of Sand. And there’s no doubt but that Metals, Cryſtals, and Jewels, [[26]]have the ſame Method of Production: Tho’ in them there has been no opportunity to make the ſame Obſervation, as well by reaſon of their ſlow Advances, as that they are commonly found far from the Places of their Generation; thrown up I ſuppoſe by ſome Earthquakes, or Convulſions. That the Planets are not without Water, is made not improbable by the late Obſervations: For about Jupiter are obſerved ſome Spots of a darker Colour than the reſt of his Body, which by their continual change ſhow themſelves to be Clouds: For the Spots of Jupiter which belong to him, and never remove from him, are quite different from theſe, being ſometimes for a long time not to be ſeen for theſe Clouds; and again, when theſe diſappear, ſhowing themſelves. And at the going off of theſe Clouds, ſome Spots have been taken notice of in him, much brighter than the reſt of his Body, which remained but a little while, and then were hid from our Sight. Theſe Monſieur Caſſini thinks are only the [[27]]Reflection from the Snow that covers the Tops of the Hills in Jupiter: But I ſhould rather think that it is only the Colour of the Earth, which happens to be free from thoſe Clouds that commonly darken it.
Mars too is found not to be without his dark Spots, by means of which he has been obſerved to turn round his own Axis in 24 Hours and 40 Minutes; the Length of his Day: but whether he has Clouds or no, we have not had the ſame opportunity of obſerving as in Jupiter, as well becauſe even when he is neareſt the Earth, he appears to us much leſs than Jupiter, as that his Light not coming ſo far, is ſo brisk as to be an Impediment to exact Obſervations: And this Reaſon is as much ſtronger in Venus as its Light is. But ſince ’tis certain that the Earth and Jupiter have their Water and Clouds, there is no Reaſon why the other Planets But not juſt like ours. ſhould be without them. I can’t ſay that they are exactly of the ſame nature with our Water; but that they ſhould be liquid their Uſe requires, as their Beauty does that they ſhould be [[28]]clear. For this Water of ours, in Jupiter or Saturn, would be frozen up inſtantly by reaſon of the vaſt diſtance of the Sun. Every Planet therefore muſt have its Waters of ſuch a temper, as to be proportioned to its Heat: Jupiter’s and Saturn’s muſt be of ſuch a Nature as not to be liable to Froſt; and Venus’s and Mercury’s of ſuch, as not to be eaſily evaporated by the Sun. But in all of them, for a continual ſupply of Moiſture, whatever Water is drawn up by the Heat of the Sun into Vapours, muſt neceſſarily return back again thither. And this it cannot do but in Drops, which are cauſed as well there as with us, by their aſcending into a higher and colder Region of the Air, out of that which, by reaſon of the Reflection of the Rays of the Sun from the Earth, is warmer and more temperate.
Here then we have found in theſe new Worlds Fields warm’d by the kindly Heat of the Sun, and water’d with fruitful Dews and Showers: That there muſt be Plants in them as well for Ornament as Uſe, we have ſhewn [[29]]juſt now. And what Nouriſhment, what manner of Growth ſhall we allow Plants grow and are nouriſhed there as they are here. them? Probably, there can be no better, nay no other, than what we here experience; by having their Roots faſtned into the Earth, and imbibing its nouriſhing Juices by their tender Fibres. And that they may not be only like ſo many bare Heaths, with nothing but creeping Shrubs and Buſhes, we may allow them ſome nobler and loftier Plants, Trees, or ſomewhat like them: Theſe being the greateſt, and, except Waters, the only Ornament that Nature has beſtowed upon the Earth. For not to ſpeak of thoſe many uſes that are made of their Wood, there’s no one that is ignorant either of their Beauty or Pleaſantneſs. Now what way can any one imagine for a continual Production and Succeſſion of theſe Plants, but their bearing Seed? A Method ſo excellent, that it’s the only one that Nature has here made uſe of, and ſo wonderful, that it ſeems to be deſigned not for this Earth alone. In fine, there’s the ſame reaſon to think that this Method is obſerved in thoſe [[30]]diſtant Countries, as there was of its being followed in the remote Quarters of this ſame Earth.
The ſame true of their Animals. ’Tis much the ſame in Animals as ’tis in Plants, as to their manner of Nouriſhment, and Propagation of their Kind. For ſince all the living Creatures of this Earth, whether Beaſts, Birds, Fiſhes, Worms, or Inſects, univerſally and inviolably follow the ſame conſtant and fix’d Inſtitution of Nature; all feed on Herbs, or Fruits, or the Fleſh of other Animals that fed on them: ſince all Generation is performed by the impregnating of the Eggs, and the Copulation of Male and Female: Why may not the ſame Rule be obſerved in the Planetary Worlds? For ’tis certain that the Herbs and Animals that are there would be loſt, their whole Species deſtroyed without ſome daily new Productions: except there be no ſuch thing there as Misfortune or Accident: except the Plants are not like other humid Bodies, but can bear Heat, Froſt, and Age, without being dry’d up, kill’d or decay’d: except the Animals have Bodies as hard [[31]]and durable as Marble; which I think are groſs Abſurdities. If we ſhould invent ſome new Way for their coming into the World, and make them drop like Soland Geeſe from Trees, how ridiculous would this be to any one that conſiders the vaſt Difference between Wood and Fleſh? Or ſuppoſe we ſhould have new ones made every Day out of ſome ſuch fruitful Mud as that of Nile, who does not ſee how contrary this is to all that’s reaſonable? And that ’tis much more agreeable to the Wiſdom of God, once for all to create of all ſorts of Animals, and diſtribute them all over the Earth in ſuch a wonderful and inconceivable way as he has, than to be continually obliged to new Productions out of the Earth? And what miſerable, what helpleſs Creatures muſt theſe be, when there’s no one that by his Duty will be obliged, or by that ſtrange natural fondneſs, which God has wiſely made a neceſſary Argument for all Animals to take care of their own, will be moved to aſſiſt, nurſe or educate them? [[32]]