where the Earth will be Twelve thouſand of its Semidiameters diſtant
from him, which in German Miles makes above ſeventeen Millions. But
perhaps we may have a clearer Comprehenſion of this vaſt Length, by
comparing it with ſome very ſwift Motion after the Example of Heſiod
the Poet, who imagin’d that an Anvil let fall from the Top of Heaven,
reach’d the Earth the tenth Day of its Journey, and in ten more arriv’d
at the Bottom of Hell, the end of it: ſo making the Earth the mid-way
between Heaven and Hell. I ſhan’t make uſe of the Anvil, but of
ſomething as good, namely, a Bullet ſhot out of a great Gun, which may
travel perhaps in a Moment, or Pulſe of an Artery, about a hundred
Fathom, as is proved by thoſe Experiments that Merſennus in a Treatiſe
of his relates; by which the Sound was found to extend itſelf eighty
hundredth parts in the [The immenſe diſtance between the Sun and
Planets illuſtrated.] ſame time. I ſay then, that ſuppoſing a Bullet to
move with this Swiftneſs from the Earth to the Sun, it would ſpend 25
Years in its Paſſage. To make a Journey from Jupiter to the Sun, would
require 125, and from Saturn thither 250 Years. This account depends
upon the meaſure of the Earth’s Diameter, which, according to the
accurate Obſervations of the French, is 6538594 times ſix Paris Feet,
one Degree being 57060 of that Meaſure. This ſhows us how vaſt thoſe
Orbs muſt be, and how inconſiderable this Earth, the Theatre upon which
all our mighty Deſigns, all our Navigations, and all our Wars are
tranſacted, is when compared to them. A very fit Conſideration, and
Matter of Reflection, for thoſe Kings and Princes who ſacrifice the
Lives of ſo many People, only to flatter their Ambition in being
Maſters of ſome pitiful Corner of this ſmall Spot. But to return to the
matter in hand, now we have given you an account of the Sun’s
proportion to thoſe Orbs and Bodies, we’ll ſee what more we can ſay of
him.
[No ground for Conjecture in the Sun.]
And ſome have thought it not improbable but that the Sun himſelf has
alſo his Inhabitants. But upon what reaſon I cannot imagine, there
being leſs ground for a Probability in him than in the Moon. For we are
not yet ſure, whether he be a ſolid or liquid Globe; altho’, if my
Notion of Light be true, upon that account I ſhould rather think him
liquid: which his Roundneſs and equal diſtribution of his Light to all
parts are an Argument for. For that very ſmall inequality on his
Surface, which is diſcovered by the Teleſcopes, (and that not always
neither) which makes Men fancy they ſee boiling Seas and belching
Mountains of Fire, is nothing but the trembling Motion of the Vapours
our Atmoſphere is full of near the Earth; which is likewiſe [The Faculæ
in the Sun not eaſily ſeen.] the Cauſe of the Stars twinkling. Nor
could I ever have the Luck to diſcern thoſe bright Spots in the Sun
which they boaſt as much of as they do of his dark ones, which latter I
have very often ſeen; ſo that I have very good Reaſon to doubt whether
there be any thing in the Sun brighter than the Sun itſelf. For by the
moſt exact Obſervations, I could never find any ſuch pretended to be
ſeen any where but juſt about his dark Spots; and it is no great wonder
that thoſe Parts which are ſo near the darker, ſhould appear ſomewhat
[By reaſon of its Heat no Inhabitants like ours can live in the Sun.]
brighter than the reſt. That the Sun is extremely hot and fiery, is
beyond all diſpute, and ſuch Bodies as ours could not live one Moment
in ſuch a Furnace. We muſt ſuppoſe a new ſort of Animals then, ſuch as
we have no Idea or Likeneſs of among us, ſuch as we can neither imagine
nor conceive: which is as much as to ſay, that we can make no
Suppoſition at all about them. No doubt that glorious and vaſt Body was
made for ſome noble End and Uſe, and fram’d with excellent Deſign. And
I think we all very well know and feel its Uſefulneſs in that effuſion
of Light and Heat to all the Planets round it; in the Preſervation and
Happineſs of all living Creatures, and that not only in our Ball, but
in thoſe vaſt Globes of Jupiter and Saturn, not contemptible when
compared with its own. Theſe are ſuch great, ſuch wiſe Ends, that it is
not ſtrange that the Sun ſhould have been made, if it had been only
upon their account. For, as for Kepler’s Fancy, that he hath another
Office, namely, to help on the Motion of the Planets in their own Orbs,
by turning about his own Axis (which he would fain eſtabliſh in his
Epitome of the Copernican Syſtem) I ſhall give good Reaſons why I
cannot aſſent to it.
[The ſix’d Stars so many Suns.]
Before the Invention of Teleſcopes, it ſeemed to contradict
Copernicus’s Opinion, to make the Sun one of the fix’d Stars. For the
Stars of the firſt Magnitude being eſteem’d to be about three Minutes
Diameter; and Copernicus (obſerving that tho’ the Earth changed its
Place, they always kept the ſame diſtance from us) having ventur’d to
ſay that the Magnus Orbis was but a Point in reſpect of the Sphere in
which they were placed, it was a plain Conſequence that every one of
them that appeared any thing bright, muſt be larger than the Path or
Orbit of the Earth: which is very abſurd. This is the principal
Argument that Tycho Brahe ſet up againſt Copernicus. But when the
Teleſcopes took away thoſe Rays of the Stars which appear when we look
upon them with our naked Eye, (which they do beſt when the Eye-glaſs is
black’d with Smoke) they ſeemed juſt like little ſhining Points, and
then that Difficulty vaniſhed, and the Stars may yet be ſo many Suns.
Which is the more probable, becauſe their Light is certainly their own:
for it’s impoſſible that ever the Sun ſhould ſend, or they reflect it
at ſuch a vaſt Diſtance. This is the Opinion that commonly goes along
with Copernicus’s Syſtem. [They are not all in the ſame Sphere.] And
the Patrons of it do alſo with reaſon ſuppoſe, that all theſe Stars are
not in the ſame Sphere, as well becauſe there’s no Argument for it, as
that the Sun, which is one of them, cannot be brought to this Rule. But
it’s more likely they are ſcatter’d and diſpers’d all over the immenſe
Spaces of the Heaven, and are as far diſtant perhaps from one another,
as the neareſt of them are from the Sun.
Here again too I know Kepler is of another Opinion in his Epitome of
Copernicus’s Syſtem, that we mention’d above. For tho’ he agrees with
us, that the Stars are diffus’d through all the vaſt Expanſe of the
Heavens, yet he cannot allow that they have as large an empty Space
about them as our Sun has. For then ’twas his Opinion, we ſhould ſee
but very few, and thoſe of very different Magnitudes: For, ſeeing the
largeſt of all appear ſo ſmall to us, that we can ſcarce obſerve or
meaſure them with our beſt Inſtruments; how muſt thoſe appear that are
three or four times farther from us? Why, ſuppoſing them no larger than
theſe, they muſt ſeem three or four times leſs, and ſo on ’till a
little farther they will not be to be ſeen at all: Thus we ſhall have
the ſight of but very few Stars, and thoſe very different one from
another; Whereas we have above a Thouſand, and thoſe not conſiderably
bigger or leſs than one another. But this by no means proves what he
would have it; and his Miſtake was chiefly, that he did not conſider
the Nature of Fire and Flame which may be ſeen at ſuch diſtances, and
at ſuch ſmall Angles as all other Bodies would totally diſappear under.
A thing that we need go no farther than the Lamps ſet along the Streets
to prove. For altho’ they are a hundred Foot from one another, yet you
may count Twenty of them in a continued Row with your Eyes, and yet the
twentieth Part of them ſcarce makes an Angle of ſix Seconds. Certainly
then the glorious Light of the Stars muſt do much more than this; ſo
that it’s no wonder we ſhould ſee a Thouſand or two of them with our
bare Eyes, and with a Teleſcope diſcover twenty times that number. But
Kepler had a private Deſign in making the Sun thus ſuperiour to all the
other Stars, and planting it in the Middle of the World, attended with
the Planets: For his Aim was hereby to ſtrengthen his Coſmographical
Myſtery, that the Diſtances of the Planets from the Sun are in a
certain proportion to the Diameters of the Spheres that are inſcribed
within, and circumſcribed about Euclid’s Regular Bodies. Which could
never be ſo much as probable, except there were but one Chorus of
Planets moving round the Sun, and ſo the Sun were the only one of his
kind.
But that whole Myſtery is nothing but an idle Dream taken from
Pythagoras or Plato’s Philoſophy. And the Author himſelf acknowledges
that the Proportions do not agree ſo well as they ſhould, and is fain
to invent two or three very ſilly Excuſes for it. And he uſes yet
poorer Arguments to prove that the Univerſe is of a ſpherical Figure,
and that the Number of the Stars muſt neceſſarily be finite, becauſe
the Magnitude of each of them is ſo. But what is worſt of all is, that
he ſettles the Space between the Sun and the Concavity of the Sphere of
the fix’d Stars, to be ſix hundred thouſand of the Earth’s Diameters.
For this reaſon, which he has no Foundation for, that as the Diameter
of the Sun is to that of the Orbit of Saturn, which he makes to be as 1
to 2000, ſo is this Diameter to that of the Sphere of the fixed Stars.
I cannot but wonder how ſuch things as theſe could fall from ſo
ingenious a Man, and ſo great an Aſtronomer. But I muſt be of the ſame
Opinion with all the greateſt Philoſophers of our Age, that the Sun is
of the ſame Nature with the fix’d Stars. And this will give us a
greater Idea of the World, than all thoſe other Opinions. [The Stars
have Planets about them like our Sun.] For then why may not every one
of theſe Stars or Suns have as great a Retinue as our Sun, of Planets,
with their Moons, to wait upon them? Nay, there’s a manifeſt reaſon why
they ſhould. For if we imagine our ſelves placed at an equal diſtance
from the Sun and fix’d Stars; we ſhould then perceive no difference
between them. For, as for all the Planets that we now ſee attend the
Sun, we ſhould not have the leaſt glimpſe of them, either becauſe their
Light would be too weak to affect us, or that all the Orbs in which
they move would make up one lucid Point with the Sun. In this Station
we ſhould have no occaſion to imagine any difference between the Stars,
and ſhould make no doubt if we had but the Sight, and knew the Nature
of one of them, to make that the Standard of all the reſt. We are then
plac’d near one of them, namely, our Sun, and ſo near as to diſcover
ſix other Globes moving round him, ſome of them having others
performing them the ſame Office. Why then may not we make uſe of the
ſame Judgment that we would in that caſe; and conclude, that our Star
has no better attendance than the others? So that what we allowed the
Planets, upon the account of our enjoying it, we muſt likewiſe grant to
all thoſe Planets that ſurround that prodigious number of Suns. They
muſt have their Plants and Animals, nay and their rational Creatures
too, and thoſe as great Admirers, and as diligent Obſervers of the
Heavens as our ſelves; and muſt conſequently enjoy whatſoever is
ſubſervient to, and requiſite for ſuch Knowledge.
What a wonderful and amazing Scheme have we here of the magnificent
Vaſtneſs of the Univerſe! So many Suns, ſo many Earths, and every one
of them ſtock’d with ſo many Herbs, Trees, and Animals, and adorn’d
with ſo many Seas and Mountains! And how muſt our Wonder and Admiration
be increaſed when we conſider the prodigious Diſtance and Multitude of
the Stars?
That their Diſtance is ſo immenſe, that the Space between the Earth and
Sun (which is no leſs than Twelve thouſand of the Earth’s Diameters) is
almoſt nothing when compar’d to it, has more Proofs than one to confirm
it. And this among the reſt. If you obſerve two Stars near one another,
as for example thoſe in the middle of the Great Bears Tail, differing
very much from one another in Clearneſs, notwithſtanding our changing
our Poſition in our Annual Orbit round the Sun, and that there would be
a Parallax were the Star which is brighter nearer to us than the other,
as is very probable it is, yet whatever Part of the Year you look upon
them, they will not in the leaſt have altered their diſtance. Thoſe
that have hitherto undertook to calculate their Diſtance, have not been
able perfectly to compaſs their Deſign, by reaſon of the extreme
Niceneſs and almoſt Impoſſibility of the Obſervations requiſite for
their Purpoſe. The only Method that I ſee remaining, to come at any
tolerable Probability in ſo difficult a Caſe, I ſhall here make uſe of.
Seeing then that the Stars, as I ſaid before, are ſo many Suns, if we
do but ſuppoſe one of them equal to ours, it will follow that its
diſtance from us is as much greater than that of the Sun, as its
apparent Diameter is leſs than the Diameter of the Sun. But the Stars,
even thoſe of the firſt Magnitude, though view’d through a Teleſcope,
are ſo very ſmall, that they ſeem only like ſo many ſhining Points,
without any perceivable Breadth. So that ſuch Obſervations can here do
us no good. When [A way of making a probable gueſs at the diſtance of
the Stars.] I ſaw this would not ſucceed, I ſtudied by what way I could
ſo leſſen the Diameter of the Sun, as to make it not appear larger than
the Dog, or any other of the chief Stars. To this purpoſe I clos’d one
End of my twelve-foot Tube with a very thin Plate, in the Middle of
which I made a Hole not exceeding the twelfth Part of a Line, that is
the hundred and forty fourth Part of an Inch. That End I turn’d to the
Sun, placing my Eye at the other, and I could ſee ſo much of the Sun as
was in Diameter about the 182d part of the Whole. But ſtill that little
piece of him was brighter much than the Dog-ſtar is in the cleareſt
Night. I ſaw that this would not do, but that muſt leſſen the Diameter
of the Sun a great deal more. I made then ſuch another Hole in a Plate,
and againſt it I plac’d a little round Glaſs that I had made uſe of in
my Microſcopes, of much about the ſame Diameter with the former Hole.
Then looking again towards the Sun (taking care that no Light might
come near my Eye to hinder my Obſervation) I found it appeared of much
the ſame Clearneſs with Sirius. But caſting up my account, according to
the Rules of Dioptricks, I found his Diameter now was but 1⁄152 part of
that hundred and eighty ſecond part of his whole Diameter that I ſaw
through the former Hole. Multiplying 1⁄152 and 1⁄182 into one another,
the Product I found to be 1⁄27664. The Sun therefore being contracted
into ſuch a Compaſs, or being removed ſo far from us (for it’s the ſame
thing) as to make his Diameter but the 27664 part of that we every Day
ſee, will ſend us juſt the ſame Light as the Dog-ſtar now doth. And his
diſtance then from us will be to his preſent diſtance undoubtedly as
27664 is to 1; and his Diameter little above four Thirds, 4‴. Seeing
then Sirius is ſuppoſed equal to the Sun, it follows that his Diameter
is likewiſe 4‴, and that his Diſtance to the Diſtance of the Sun from
us is as 27664 to 1. And what an incredible Diſtance that is, will
appear by the ſame way of reaſoning that we uſed in meaſuring that of
the Sun. For if 25 Years are required for a Bullet out of a Cannon,
with its utmoſt Swiftneſs, to travel from the Sun to us; then by
multiplying the Number 27664 into 25, we ſhall find that ſuch a Bullet
would ſpend almoſt ſeven hundred thouſand Years in its Journey between
us and the neareſt of the fix’d Stars. And yet when in a clear Night we
look upon them, we cannot think them above ſome few Miles over our
Heads. What I have here enquir’d into, is concerning the neareſt of
them. And what a prodigious Number muſt there be beſides of thoſe which
are placed in the vaſt Spaces of Heaven, as to be as remote from theſe
as theſe are from the Sun! For if with our bare Eyes we can obſerve
above a Thouſand, and with a Teleſcope can diſcover ten or twenty times
as many; what bounds of Number can we ſet to thoſe which are out of the
Reach even of theſe Aſſiſtances! eſpecially if we conſider the infinite
Power of God. Really, when I have been reflecting thus with my ſelf,
me-thoughts all our Arithmetick was nothing, and we are vers’d but in
the very Rudiments of Numbers, in compariſon of this great Sum. For
this requires an immenſe Treaſury, not of twenty or thirty Figures
only, in our decuple Progreſſion, but of as many as there are Grains of
Sand upon the Shore. And yet who can ſay, that even this Number exceeds
that of the Fix’d Stars? Some of the Ancients, and Jordanus Brunus
carry’d it further, in declaring the Number infinite: he would perſwade
us that he has prov’d it by many Arguments, tho’ in my opinion they are
none of them concluſive. Not that I think the contrary can ever be made
out. Indeed it ſeems to me certain, that the Univerſe is infinitely
extended; but what God has been pleas’d to place beyond the Region of
the Stars, is as much above our Knowledge, as it is beyond our
Habitation.
Or what if beyond ſuch a determinate Space he has left an infinite
Vacuum; to ſhow, how inconſiderable all that he has made is, to what
his Power could, had he ſo pleas’d, have produced? But I am falling,
before I am aware, into that intricate Diſpute of Infinity: Therefore I
ſhall wave this, and not, as ſoon as I am free of one, take upon me
another difficult Task. All that I ſhall do more is to add ſomewhat of
my Opinion concerning the whole World, as it is a Place for the
Reception of the Suns or fix’d Stars, every one of which, I have
ſhowed, may have their Planetary Syſtems about them.
[Every Sun has a Vortex round it, very different from thoſe of Cartes.]
I am of Opinion then that every Sun is ſurrounded with a Whirl-pool or
Vortex of Matter in a very ſwift Motion; tho’ not in the leaſt like
Cartes’s either in their Bulk, or manner of Motion. For Cartes makes
his ſo large, as every one of them to touch all the others round them,
in a flat Surface, juſt as you have ſeen the Bladders that Boys blow up
in Soap-ſuds do; and would have the whole Vortex to move round the ſame
way. But the Angles of every Vortex will be no ſmall hindrance to ſuch
a Motion. Then the whole Matter moving round at once, upon the Axis as
it were of a Cylinder, did not a little puzzle him in giving Reaſons
for the Roundneſs of the Sun: which however they may ſatisfy ſome
People that do not conſider them, really prove nothing of the Matter.
In this æthereal Matter the Planets float, and are carried round by its
Motion: and the thing that keeps them in their own Orbs is, that they
themſelves, and the Matter in which they ſwim, equally ſtrive to fly
off from the Center of this Motion. Againſt all which there are many
Aſtronomical Objections, ſome of which I touch’d upon in my Eſſay of
the Cauſes of Gravity. Where I gave another Account of the Planets not
deſerting their own Orbs; which is their Gravitation towards the Sun. I
ſhow’d there the Cauſes of that Gravitation, and cannot but wonder that
Cartes, the firſt Man that ever began to talk reaſonably of that
Matter, ſhould never meddle with, or light on it. Plutarch in his Book
of the Moon above-mentioned ſays, that ſome of the Ancients were of
Opinion, that the Reaſon of the Moon’s keeping her Orbit was, that the
Force of her Circular Motion was exactly equal to her Gravity, the one
of which pull’d her to, as much as the other forc’d off from the
Centre. And in our Age Alphonſus Borellus, who was of this ſame Opinion
in the other Planets as well as the Moon, makes the Gravitation of the
primary Planets to be towards the Sun, as that of the Secondary is
towards the Planets round which they move: Which Sir Iſaac Newton has
more fully explain’d, with a great deal of Pains and Subtilty; and how
from that Cauſe proceeds the Ellipticity of the Orbs of the Planets,
found out by Kepler. According to my Notion of the Gravitation of the
Planets to the Sun, the Matter of his Vortex muſt not at all move the
ſame way, but after ſuch a manner as to have its Parts carry’d
different ways on all Sides. And yet there is no fear of its being
deſtroyed by ſuch an irregular Motion, becauſe the Æther round it,
which is at reſt, keeps the Parts of it from flying out. With the Help
of ſuch a Vortex as this I have undertook in that Eſſay to explain the
Gravity of Bodies on this Earth, and all the Effects of it. And I
ſuppoſe there may be the ſame Cauſe as well of the Gravitation of the
Planets, and of our Earth among the reſt, towards the Sun, as of their
Roundneſs: A Thing ſo very hard to give an Account of in Cartes’s
Syſtem.
I muſt differ from him too in the Bigneſs of the Vortices, for I cannot
allow them to be ſo large as he would make them. I would have them
diſperſed all about the immenſe Space, like ſo many little Whirl-pools
of Water, that one makes by the ſtirring of a Stick in any large Pond
or River, a great way diſtant from one another. And as their Motions do
not all intermix or communicate with one another, ſo in my Opinion muſt
the Vortices of Stars be placed as not to hinder one anothers free
Circumrotations.
So that we may be ſecure, and never fear that they will ſwallow up or
deſtroy one another; for that was a mere Fancy of Cartes’s, when he was
a ſhowing how a fix’d Star or Sun might be turn’d into a Planet. And
’tis plain that when he writ it, he had no Thoughts of the immenſe
Diſtance of the Stars from one another; particularly, by this one
Thing, that he would have a Comet as ſoon as ever it comes into our
Vortex, to be ſeen by us. Which is as abſurd as can be. For how could a
Star, which gives us ſuch a vaſt Light only from the Reflection of the
Beams of the Sun, as he himſelf owns they do; how I ſay could that be
ſo plainly ſeen at a diſtance Ten thouſand times larger than the
Diameter of the Earth’s Orbit? He could not but know that all round the
Sun there is a vaſt Extenſum; ſo vaſt, that in Copernicus’s Syſtem the
magnus Orbis is counted but a Point in compariſon with it. But indeed
all the whole Story of Comets and Planets, and the Production of the
World, is founded upon ſuch poor and trifling Grounds, that I have
often wonder’d how an ingenious Man could ſpend all that pains in
making ſuch Fancies hang together. For my part, I ſhall be very well
contented, and ſhall count I have done a great Matter, if I can but
come to any Knowledge of the Nature of Things, as they now are, never
troubling my ſelf about their Beginning, or how they were made, knowing
that to be out of the reach of human Knowledge, or even Conjecture.
FINIS.
NOTE
[1] The Author invented the Pendulum for Clocks.