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 - Of Comets

Chapter 17