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CHAPTER
XVI
THE MILKY
WAY; SOLAR SYSTEMS, OR A PLURALITY OF WORLDS
1. THAT lucid, whitish zone, which is seen in the firmament
among the fixed stars, must have for a long while attracted the
attention of the ancients, and occasioned them to advance a great
many conjectures about the reason of it, and among the various
opinions respecting it, many without doubt, must to us appear
groundless, since one only can be true. But this kind of deficiency
is what will befal genius in every age, however bright, and especially
those who appeared in remote ages. A course of centuries so familiarizes
the discovery of any truth, after it hath gained the general consent,
that we are astonished, men of real ability, should ever have
hesitated about things which we have known from our infancy; and
we never give ourselves the trouble to think, that the day perhaps
shall come when the idea of Locke and Leibnits, and those of the
Newtonians, respecting attraction, and of our other naturalists
upon other subjects, will be regarded by posterity, as things
so obvious, that they will be amazed, how such great men could
for any time resist such evidence. Should any one of us appear
to them to have discerned the truth, in those points which are
at present in debate, how many of us will seem to have advanced
nothing but reveries: and it will be happy, if, among such a variety
of opinions, some be found to be true; for it is no inconsiderable
thing among men, when at great intervals, some one or other arises
among them, who, with sure steps, so advances as to keep clear
of those devious paths wherein others. had wandered. This’
hath frequently happened among the moderns, and so it also did
among the ancients. Truth often beamed through the obscurity in
which their knowledge was enveloped. Many erred in their conjectures,
whilst only one or two discovered the right course, and pointed
it out to others; so we, of this age, direct our views by the
beams of those geniuses who have illuminated it.
2. The milky way and fixed stars, have been an object of inquiry
to many philosophers. As to the former of these, the Pythagoreans
held that it had once been the sun’s path. and that he had
left in it a trace of white, which we now observe there. The Peripatics
have asserted, after Aristotle, that it was formed of exhalations,
pended high in air. I easily admit, that there were mistakes but
all were not mistaken in their conjectures. Democritus, of a telescope,
preceded Galileo in remarking, “that what we call the milky
way, contained in it an innumerable quantity of fixed star mixture
of whose distant rays occasioned the whiteness which we denominate
:“ or to express it in Plutarch’s words, “it was
the united brightness of an immense number of stars. -
3. The ancients were no less clear in their conceptions of
the nature of the fixed stars than we are; for it is but a short
while ago. that the moderns adopted the ideas of those great masters
on this subject after having rejected them during many ages. It
would be reckoned an absurdity in philosophy at present, to doubt
of those stars being suns like ours, each respectively having
planets of their own which revolve around them, and form various
solar systems, more or less resembling that of ours. All philosophers
at present admit of this theory; and even less philosophic minds,
begin to render this conception familiar to them, thanks to the
elegant work of Mr. de Fonte nelle.
4. And this notion of a plurality of worlds, was generally
inculcated by the Grecian philosophers. Plutarch, after having
given an account of it, says, “ that he was so far from finding
fault with it, that he thought it highly probable there had been,
and were, like this of ours an innumerable, though not absolute
infinite multitude of worlds; wherein were, as well as here, land
and water, invested by sky.”
5. Anaximenes was one of the first who taught this doctrine.
He believed, that the stars were immense masses of fire, around
which certain terrestrial globes, imperceptible to us, accomplished
their periodic revolutions. It is evident, that by these terrestrial
globes, turning round those masses of fire, he meant planets,
such as ours, subordinate to their own sun, and forming along
with him a solar system.
6. Anaximenes
agreed with Thales in his opinion which passed from the Ionic
to the Italic sect : who held that every star was a world, containing
in itself a sun and planets, all fixed in that immense space which
they call ether.
7. Heaclides
and all the Pythagoreans taught the same, that “every star
was a world, or solar system, having, like this of ours, its sun
and planets invested with an atmosphere of air, and moving in
the fluid ether, by which they were sustained.” This opinion
seems to have been of still more ancient origin. We find traces
of it in the verses of Orpheus, who lived in the time of the Trojan
war, and taught that there was a plurality of worlds ; a doctrine which Epicurus also looked
upon as very probable.
8. Origin, in his Philosophumena, treats amply of the opinion
of Hernocritus, saying, “that he taught, that there was an
innumerable multitude of worlds, of unequal size, and differing
in the number of their planets; that some of them were as large
as ours, and placed at unequal distances; that some were inhabited
by animals, which he could not take upon him to describe ; and
that some had neither animals nor plants, nor any thing like
what appeared among us.” For that truly philosophic genius
discerned, that the different nature of those spheres required
inhabitants of very different kinds.
9. It appears, that Aristotle who held this opinion, as did
likewise Alcinous, the Platonic, and Lewis Coelus de Rovigo, ascribes
it to Plotinus; who held besides, that the earth, compared to
the rest of the universe, was one of the meanest globes in it.
10. It was certainly in consequence of such an idea, that Phavorinus
struck out into that remarkable conjecture of his, of the existence
of other planets, besides those known to us. He was astonished
bow it came to be admitted as certain, that there were no other
wandering stars or planets, but those observed by the Chaldeans.
As for his part, be thought that their number was more considerable
than was vulgarly given out, though they had hitherto escaped
our notice. Here in all likelihood he alludes to the reality of
those satellites, which have since become manifest by means of
the telescope. It required singular penetration to be capable
of forming this supposition, and of having, as it were, predicted
this discovery. Seneca makes mention of a similar notion of Democritus:
who, in a treatise which he wrote concerning the planets, of which
only the title has been banded down to us, supposes that there
were many more of them, than had yet come within our view; though
he says nothing either of their names or magnitude.
Chapter 17
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