Page:The Discovery of a World in the Moone, 1638.djvu/69

52 matter in hand, I shall therefore referre the Reader to their authors, and omit any large proofe of them my selfe, as desiring all possible brevity.

1. The first is this: That there are no solid Orbes. If there be a habitable World in the Moone (which I now affirme) it must follow, that her Orbe is not solid, as Aristotle supposed; and if not her, why any of the other? I rather thinke that they are all of a fluid (perhaps aereous) substance. Saint Ambrose, and Saint Basil did endeavour to prove this out of that place in Isay, where they are compared to smoake, as they are both quoted by Rhodiginus , Eusebius, Nierembergius doth likewise from that place confute the solidity and incorruptibility of the Heavens, and cites for the same interpretation the authority of Eustachius of Antioch; and Saint Austin, I am sure seemes to assent unto this opinion, though he does often

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