The Discovery of a World in the Moone Or, A Discovrse Tending To Prove That 'Tis Probable There May Be Another Habitable World In That Planet

Excerpt: ...represent the Sea, and the brighter parts the Land. W h en I first compared the nature of our earth and water with those appearances in the Moone; I concluded contrary to the proposition, that the brighter parts represented the water, and the spots the land; of this opinion likewise was Keplar at the first; but my second thoughts, and the reading of others, Opt. Astro. c. 6. num. 9. Dissert. cum nuncio Gal. have now convinced me (as after he was) of the truth of that Proposition which I have now set downe. But before I come to the confirmation of it, I shall mention those scruples which at first made mee doubt of the truth of this opinion. 1. It may be objected, ¿tis probable, if there be any such sea and land as ours, that it bears some proportion and similitude with ours: but now this Proposition takes 106 away all likenesse betwixt them, for whereas the superficies of our earth is but the third part of the whole surface in the globe, two parts being overspread with the water (as Scaliger Exercit. 38. observes) yet here according to this opinion, the Sea should be lesse then the Land, since there is not so much of the bespotted, as ther is of the enlightened parts, wherefore ¿tis probable, that either there is no such thing at all, or else that the brighter parts are the Sea. 2. The water, by reason of the smoothnesse of its superficies, seemes better able to reflect the Sun beames then the earth, which in most places is so full of ruggednesse of grasse and trees, and such like impediments of reflection, and besides, cõmon experience shewes, that the water shines with a greater and more glorious brightnesse then the earth, therefore it should seeme that the spots are the earth, and the brighter parts the water. 107 But to the first it may be answered. 1. There is no great probability in this consequence, that because ¿tis so with us, therefore it must be so with the parts of the Moone, for since there is such a difference betwixt them in...