Page:The Discovery of a World in the Moone, 1638.djvu/32

Rh she might not heare the sound of those Charmes, which would otherwise bring her downe, and this is rendered for a reason of this cuftome by Pliny and Propertius:

Plutarch gives another reason of it, and he fayes, 'tis because they would hasten the Moone out of the darke shade wherein shee was involv'd, that so she might bring away the soules of those Saints that inhabit within her, which cry out by reason they are then deprived of their wonted happinesse, and cannot heare the musicke of the Spheares, but are forced to behold the torment, and wailing of those damned soules which are represented to them as they are tortured in the region of the aire, but whether this or what ever else was the meaning of this superstition, yet certainly 'twas a very ridiculous Rh