Page:Mathematical collections and translations, in two tomes - Salusbury (1661).djvu/72

 And why should they be vain and uselesse?

Because we cleerly see, and feel with our hands, that all generations, corruptions, &c. made in the Earth, are all either mediately or immediately directed to the use, convenience, and benefit of man; for the use of man are horses brought forth, for the feeding of horses, the Earth produceth grasse, and the Clouds water it; for the use and nourishment of man, herbs, corn, fruits, beasts, birds, fishes, are brought forth; and in sum, if we should one by one dilligently examine and resolve all these things, we should find the end to which they are all directed, to be the necessity, use, convenience, and delight of man. Now of what use could the generations which we suppose to be made in the Moon or other Planets, ever be to mankind? unlesse you should say that there were also men in the Moon, that might enjoy the benefit thereof; a conceit either fabulous or impious.

That in the Moon or other Planets, there are generated either herbs, or plants, or animals, like to ours, or that there are rains, winds, or thunders there, as about the Earth, I neither know, nor believe, and much lesse, that it is inhabited by men: but yet I understand not, because there are not generated things like to ours, that therefore it necessarily followeth, that no alteration is wrought therein, or that there may not be other things that change, generate, and dissolve, which are not onely different from ours, but exceedingly beyond our imagination, and in a word, not to be thought of by us. And if, as I am certain, that one born and brought up in a spatious Forrest, amongst beasts and birds, and that hath no knowledg at all of the Element of Water, could never come to imagine another World to be in Nature, different from the EatthEarth [sic], full of living creatures, which without legs or wings swiftly move, and not upon the surface onely, as beasts do upon the Earth, but in the very bowels thereof; and not onely move, but also stay themselves and cease to move at their pleasure, which birds cannot do in the air; and that moreover men live therein, and build Palaces and Cities, and have so great convenience in travailing, that without the least trouble, they can go with their Family, House, and whole Cities, to places far remote, like as I say, I am certain, such a person, though of never so piercing an imagination, could never fancy to himself Fishes, the Ocean, Ships, Fleets, Armado's at Sea; thus, and much more easily, may it happn, that in the Moon, remote from us by so great a space, and of a substance perchance very different from the Earth, there may be matters, and operations, not only wide off, but altogether beyond all our imaginations, as being such as have no resemblance to ours, and therefore wholly inexcogitable, in regard, that what we