THE Comical HISTORY OF THE STATE AND EMPIRE OF THE WORLD OF THE MOON.

I Had been with some Friends at Cla­mard, a House near Paris, and mag­nificently Entertain'd there by Mon­sieur de Guigy, the Lord of it; when upon [Page 2] our return home, about Nine of the Clock at Night, the Air serene, and the Moon in the Full, the Contemplation of that bright Luminary, furnished us with such variety of Thoughts, as made the way seem shorter than, indeed, it was. Our Eyes being fixed upon that stately Planet, every one spoke what he thought of it: One would needs have it be a Garret Window of Heaven; another presently affirmed, That it was the Pan whereupon Diana smooth­ed Apollo's Bands; whilst another was of Opinion, That it might very well be the Sun himself, who putting his Locks up under his Cap at Night, peeped through a hole, to observe what was doing in the World, during his absence: And for my part, Gentlemen, said I, that I may put in for a share, and guess with the rest; not to amuse my self with those curious Notions, wherewith you tickle and spur on slow­paced Time; I believe, that the Moon is a World like ours, to which this of ours serves likewise for a Moon. This was re­ceived with the general Laughter of the Company. And perhaps, said I, (Gen­tlemen) just so they laugh now in the Moon, at some who maintain, That this Globe, where we are, is a World. But I'd as good have said nothing, as have alledg­ed to them, That a great many Learned [Page 3] Men had been of the same Opinion; for that only made them laugh the faster. However, this thought, which because of its boldness suted my Humor, being con­firmed by Contradiction, sunk so deep in­to my mind, that during the rest of the way, I was big with Definitions of the Moon, which I could not be delivered of: Insomuch that by striving to verifie this Comical Fancy, by Reasons of appearing weight, I had almost perswaded my self already of the truth on't; when a Mira­cle, Accident, Providence, Fortune, or what, perhaps, some may call Vision, o­thers Fiction, Whimsey, or (if you will) Folly, furnished me with an occasion, that engaged me into this Discourse. Being come home, I went up into my Closet, where I found a Book open upon the Ta­ble, which I had not put there. It was a piece of Cardanus; and though I had no design to read in it, yet I fell at first sight, as by force, exactly upon a Passage of that Philosopher, where he tells us, That Study­ing one evening by Candle-light, he per­ceived Two tall old Men, enter in through the door that was shut, who after many que­stions that he put to them, made him an­swer, That they were Inhabitants of the Moon, and thereupon immediately disap­peared. I was so surprised, not only to see [Page 4] a Book get thither of it self; but also be­cause of the nicking of the Time so patly, and of the Page, at which it lay open, that I looked upon that Concatenation of Acci­dents, as a Revelation, discovering to Mortals, that the Moon is a World. How! said I to my self, having just now talked of a thing, can a Book, which, perhaps, is the only Book in the World, that treats of that matter so particularly, fly down from the Shelf upon my Table, become capable of Reason, in opening so exactly at the place of so strange an adventure; force my Eyes in a manner to look upon it, and then to suggest to my fancy the Reflexions, and to my Will the Designs which I hatch: Without doubt, continued I, the Two old Men, who appeared to that famous Philoso­pher, are the very same who have taken down my Book, and opened it at that Page, to save themselves the labour of making to me the Harangue, which they made to Cardan. But, added I, I cannot be re­solved of this Doubt, unless I mount up thither: And why not? said I instantly to my self. Promethus heretofore went up to Heaven, and stole fire from thence. Have not I as much Boldness as he? And why should not I, then, expect as favou­rable a Success?

[Page 5] After these sudden starts of Imagination, which may be termed, perhaps, the Rav­ings of a violent Feaver, I began to conceive some hopes of succeeding in so fair a Voy­age: Insomuch that to take my measures aright, I shut my self up in a solitary Coun­try-house; where having flattered my fancy with some means, proportionated to my de­sign, at length I set out for Heaven in this manner.

I planted my self in the middle of a great many Glasses full of Dew, tied fast about me; upon which the Sun so violently dart­ed his Rays, that the Heat which attracted them, as it does the thickest Clouds, car­ried me up so high, that at length I found my self above the middle Region of the Air. But seeing that Attraction hurried me up with so much rapidity, that instead of drawing near the Moon, as I intended, she seem'd to me to be more distant, than at my first setting out; I broke several of my Vials, until I found my weight exceed the force of the Attraction, and that I began to descend again towards the Earth. I was not mistaken in my opinion, for some time after I fell to the ground again; and to reckon from the hour that I set out at, it must then have been about midnight. Ne­vertheless I found the Sun to be in the Meridian, and that it was Noon. I leave [Page 6] it to you to judge, in what Amazement I was: The truth is, I was so strangely sur­prised, that not knowing what to think of that Miracle, I had the insolence to imagine, that in favour of my Boldness, God had once more nailed the Sun to the Firmament, to light so generous an Enter­prise. That which encreased my Astonish­ment was, That I knew not the Country where I was; it seemed to me, that ha­ving mounted straight up, I should have fallen down again in the same place I parted from. However, in the Equipage I was in, I directed my course towards a kind of Cottage, where I perceived some smoke; and I was not above a Pistol­shot from it, when I saw my self envi­roned by a great number of People, stark naked: They seemed to be exceedingly surprised at the sight of me; for I was the first, (as I think) that they had ever seen clad in Bottles. Nay, and to baffle all the Interpretations, that they could put upon that Equipage, they per­ceived, that I hardly touched the ground as I walked; for, indeed, they under­stood not, that upon the least agitation I gave my Body, the Heat of the beams of the Noon-Sun, raised me up with my Dew; and that if I had had Vials enough about me, it would possibly have carried me up [Page 7] into the Air in their view. I had a mind to have spoken to them; but as if Fear had changed them into Birds, immediately I lost sight of them, in an adjoyning Forest. How­ever, I catched hold of one, whose Legs had, without doubt, betrayed his Heart. I asked him, but with a great deal of pain, (for I was quite choked) how far they reckoned from thence to Paris? How long Men had gone naked in France? and why they fled from me in so great Consternati­on? The Man I spoke to was an old taw­ny Fellow, who presently fell at my Feet, and with lifted-up Hands, joyned behind his Head, opened his Mouth and shut his Eyes: He mumbled a long while be­tween his Teeth, but I could not distin­guish an articulate Word; so that I took his Language for the maffling noise of a Dumb-man.

Some time after, I saw a Company of Souldiers marching, with Drums beating; and I perceived Two detached from the rest, to come and take speech of me. When they were come within hearing, I asked them, Where I was? You are in France, answered they: But what Devil hath put you into that Dress? And how comes it that we know you not? Is the Fleet then arrived? Are you going to car­ry the News of it to the Governor? [Page 8] And why have you divided your Brandy into so many Bottles? To all this I made answer, That the Devil had not put me into that Dress: That they knew me not; because they could not know all Men: That I knew nothing of the Seine's car­rying Ships to Paris: That I had no news for the Marshal de l' Hospital; and that I was not loaded with Brandy. Ho, ho, said they to me, taking me by the Arm, you are a merry Fellow indeed; come, the Governor will make a shift to know you, no doubt on't. They led me to their Company, where I learnt that I was in reality in France, but that it was in New-France: So that some time after, I was presented before the Governor, who asked me my Country, my Name and Qua­lity; and after that I had satisfied him in all Points, and told him the pleasant Suc­cess of my Voyage, whether he believed it, or only pretended to do so, he had the goodness to order me a Chamber in his Apartment. I was very happy, in meeting with a Man capable of lofty Opinions, and who was not at all surprised, when I told him, that the Earth must needs have turned during my Elevation; seeing that having begun to mount about Two Leagues from Paris, I was fallen, as it were, by a per­pendicular Line in Canada.

[Page 9] When I was going to Bed at night, he came into my Chamber, and spoke to me to this purpose: I should not have come to disturb your Rest, had I not thought that one who hath found out the secret, of Travelling so far in Twelve hours space, had likewise a charm against Lassitude. But you know not, added he, what a pleasant Quarrel I have just now had with our Fathers, upon your account? They'll have you absolutely to be a Magician; and the greatest favour you can expect from them, is to be reckoned only an Impostor: The truth is, that Motion which you attri­bute to the Earth, is a pretty nice Paradox; and for my part I'll frankly tell you, That that which hinders me from being of your Opinion, is, That though you parted yester­day from Paris, yet you might have arrived to day in this Country, without the Earth's turning: For the Sun having drawn you up, by the means of your Bottles, ought he not to have brought you hither; since ac­cording to Ptolemy, and the Modern Phi­losophers, he marches obliquely, as you make the Earth to move? And besides, what great Probability have you to ima­gine, that the Sun is immoveable, when we see it go? And what appearance is there, that the Earth turns with so great Rapidity, when we feel it firm under our Feet? Sir, [Page 10] replied I to him, These are, in a manner, the Reasons that oblige us to think so: In the first place, it is consonant to common Sense, to think that the Sun is placed in the Center of the Universe; seeing all Bodies in nature, standing in need of that radical Heat, it is fit he should reside in the heart of the Kingdom, that he may be in a condi­tion, readily to supply the Necessities of eve­ry Part; and that the Cause of Generations, should be placed in the middle of all Bodies, that it may act there with greater Equality and Ease: After the same manner, as Wise Nature hath placed the Genitals in Man, the Seeds in the Center of Apples, the Kernels in the middle of their Fruits; and in the same manner, as the Onion, under the cover of so many Coats that encompass it, preserves that precious Bud, from which Millions of others are to have their being, for an Apple is in it self a little Universe; the Seed, hotter than the other parts thereof, is its Sun, which diffuses about it self that natural Heat, which preserves its Globe: And in the Onion, the Germ is the little Sun of that little World, which vivifies and nourishes the vegetative Salt of that little mass. Having laid down this, then, for a ground, I say, That the Earth standing in need of the Light, Heat, and Influence of this great Fire, it turns round it, that it [Page 11] may receive in all parts alike, that Virtue which keeps it in Being. For it would be as ridiculous to think, that that vast lumi­nous Body, turned about a point, that it has not the least need of; as to imagine, that when we see a roasted Lark, that the Kitchin­fire must have turned round it. Else, were it the part of the Sun to do that drudgery, it would seem that the Physician stood in need of the Patient; that the Strong should yield to the Weak; the Superior serve the Inferior; and that the Ship did not sail a­bout the Land, but the Land about the Ship. Now if you cannot easily conceive, how so ponderous a Body can move; Pray, tell me, are the Stars and Heavens, which, in your Opinion, are so solid, any way lighter? Besides, it is not so difficult for us, who are assured of the Roundness of the Earth, to infer its motion from its Figure: But why do ye suppose the Heaven to be round, seeing you cannot know it, and that yet, if it hath not this Figure, it is im­possible it can move? I object not to you your Excentricks nor Epicycles, which you cannot explain but very confusedly, and which are out of doors in my Systeme. Let's reflect only on the natural Causes of that Motion. To make good your Hy­pothesis, you are forced to have recourse to Spirits or Intelligences, that move and go­vern [Page 12] your Spheres. But for my part, with­out disturbing the repose of the supreme Being, who, without doubt, hath made Nature entirely perfect, and whose Wisdom ought so to have compleated her, that be­ing perfect in one thing, she should not have been defective in another: I say, that the Beams and Influences of the Sun, darting Circularly upon the Earth, make it to turn, as with a turn of the Hand, we make a Globe to move; or, which is much the same, that the Steams which continu­ally evaporate from that side of it, which the Sun shines upon, being reverbera­ted by the Cold of the middle Region, rebound upon it, and striking obliquely, do of necessity make it whirle about in that manner.

The Explication of the other Motions is less perplexed still; for pray, consider a lit­tle— At these words the Vice-Roy inter­rupted me: I had rather, said he, you would excuse your self from that trouble; for I have read some Books of Gassendus on that subject: And hear what one of our Fathers, who maintained your Opinion one day, answered me. Really, said he, I fancy that the Earth does move, not for the Reasons alledged by Copernicus; but because Hell-fire, being shut up in the Cen­ter of the Earth, the damned who make a [Page 13] great bustle to avoid its Flames, scramble up to the Vault, as far as they can from them, and so make the Earth to turn, as a Turn­spit makes the Wheel go round, when he runs about in it.

We applauded that Thought, as being a pure effect of the Zeal of that good Fa­ther: And then the Vice-Roy told me, That he much wondered, how the Systeme of Ptolemy, being so improbable, should have been so universally received. Sir, said I to him, most part of Men, who judge of all things by the Senses, have suffered them­selves to be perswaded by their Eyes; and as he who Sails along a Shoar, thinks the Ship immoveable, and the Land in motion; even so Men turning with the Earth round the Sun, have thought that it was the Sun that moved about them. To this may be added, the unsupportable Pride of Mankind, who perswade themselves, that Nature hath only been made for them; as if it were [...]ikely that the Sun, a vast Body, Four [...]undred and thirty four times bigger than [...]he Earth, had only been kindled to ripen [...]heir Medlars, and plumpen their Cabbage. [...]or my part, I am so far from complying [...]ith their Insolence, that I believe the Pla­ [...]ets are Worlds about the Sun, and that [...]e fixed Stars are also Suns, which have [...]anets about them, that's to say, Worlds, [Page 14] which because of their smallness, and that their borrowed light cannot reach us, are not discernable by Men in this World: For in good earnest, how can it be imagined, that such spacious Globes are no more but vast Desarts; and that ours, because we live in it, hath been framed for the habita­tion of a dozen of proud Dandyprats? How, must it be said, because the Sun measures our Days and Years, that it hath only been made, to keep us from running our Heads against the Walls? No, no, if that visible Deity shine upon Man, it's by accident, as the King's Flamboy by acci­dent lightens a Porter that walks along the Street: But, said he to me, if, as you affirm, the fixed Stars be so many Suns, it will follow, that the World is infinite; seeing it is probable, that the People of that World, which moves about that fixed Star, you take for a Sun, discover above them­selves other fixed Stars, which we cannot perceive from hence, and so others in that manner in infinitum.

Never question, replied I, but as God could create the Soul Immortal, He could also make the World Infinite; if so it be that Eternity is nothing else, but an illimi­ted Duration, and an infinite, a boundless Extension: And then God himself would be Finite, supposing the World not to be [Page 15] infinite, seeing he cannot be where nothing is, and that he could not encrease the greatness of the World, without adding somewhat to his own Being, by beginning to exist, where he did not exist before. We must believe then, that as from hence we see Saturn and Jupiter; if we were in ei­ther of the Two, we should discover a great many Worlds which we perceive not, and that the Universe extends so in infi­nitum.

I' faith, replied he, when you have said all you can, I cannot at all compre­hend that Infinitude. Good now, replied I to him, do you comprehend the Nothing that is beyond it? Not at all. For when you think of that Nothing, you imagine it at least to be like Wind or Air, and that is a Being: But if you conceive not an Infinite in general, you comprehend it at least in particulars; seeing it is not difficult to fancy to our selves beyond the Earth, Air, and Fire which we see, other Air, and other Earth, and other Fire. Now Infinitude is nothing else, but a boundless Series of all these. But if you ask me, How these Worlds have been made, seeing Holy Scrip­ture speaks only of one that God made? My answer is, That I have no more to say: For to oblige me to give a Reason for every thing, that comes into my Imagination, is [Page 16] to stop my Mouth, and make me confess, that in things of that nature, my Reason shall always stoop to Faith. He ingeni­ously acknowledged to me, that his Questi­on was to be censured, but bid me pursue my notion: So that I went on, and told him, That all the other Worlds, which are not seen, or but imperfectly believed, are no more, but the Scum that purges out of the Suns. For how could these great Fires subsist without some matter, that served them for Fewel? Now as the Fire drives from it the Ashes that would stifle it, or the Gold in a Crucible, separates from the Marcasite and Dross, and is refined to the highest Standard; nay, and as our Stomack discharges it self by vomit, of the Crudi­ties that oppress it; even so these Suns dai­ly evacuate, and reject the Remains of mat­ter, that might incommode their Fire: But when they have wholly consumed that matter, which entertains them; you are not to doubt, but they spread themselves abroad on all sides, to seek for fresh Fewel, and fasten upon the Worlds, which here­tofore they have made, and particularly upon those that are nearest: Then these great Fires, reconcocting all the Bodies, will as formerly force them out again, Pell­mell from all parts; and being by little and little purified, they'll begin to serve for [Page 17] Suns, to other little Worlds, which they procreate by driving them out of their Spheres: And that without doubt, made the Pythagoreans foretel the universal Con­flagration.

This is no ridiculous Imagination, for New-France where we are, gives us a very convincing instance of it. The vast Con­tinent of America, is one half of the Earth, which in spight of our Predecessors, who a Thousand times had cruised the Ocean, was not at that time discovered: Nor, in­deed, was it then in being, no more than a great many Islands, Peninsules, and Moun­tains that have since started up in our Globe; when the Sun purged out its Excrements to a convenient distance, and sufficient Gravity, to be attracted by the Center of our World, either in small Particles, per­haps, or, it may be also, altogether in one lump. That is not so unreasonable, but that St. Austin would have applauded to it, if that Country had been discovered in his Age. Seeing that great Man, who had a very clear Wit, assures us, That in his time, the Earth was flat like the floor of an Oven, and that it floated upon the Water, like the half of an Orange: But if ever I have the honour to see you in France, I'll make you observe, by means of a most excellent Celescope, that some Obscurities, [Page 18] which from hence appear to be Spots, are Worlds a forming.

My Eyes that shut with this Discourse, obliged the Vice-Roy to withdraw. Next Day, and the Days following, we had some Discourses to the same purpose: But some time after, since the hurry of Affairs suspended our Philosophy, I fell afresh upon the design of mounting up to the Moon.

So soon as she was up, I walked about musing in the Woods, how I might ma­nage and succeed in my Enterprise; and at length on St. John's-Eve, when they were at Council in the Fort, whether they should assist the Wild Natives of the Country a­against the Iroqueans; I went all alone to the top of a little Hill, at the back of our Habitation, where I put in Practice what you shall hear. I had made a Machine, which I fancied might carry me up as high as I pleased, so that nothing seeming to be want­ing to it, I placed my self within, and from the Top of a Rock, threw my self in the Air: But because I had not taken my mea­sures aright, I fell with a sosh in the Valley below. Bruised as I was, however, I re­turned to my Chamber, without loosing courage, and with Beef-Marrow I anoint­ed my Body, for I was all over mortified from Head to Foot: Then having taken a [Page 19] dram of Cordial Waters to strengthen my Heart, I went back to look for my Ma­chine; but I could not find it, for some Sol­diers, that had been sent into the Forest, to cut wood for a Bonefire, meeting with it by chance, had carried it with them to the Fort: Where after a great deal of guessing what it might be, when they had disco­vered the invention of the Spring, some said, that a good many Fire-Works should be fastened to it, because their Force carry­ing them up on high, and the Machine play­ing its large Wings, no Body but would take it for a Fiery Dragon. In the mean time I was long in search of it, but found it at length in the middle of the Market­place of Kebeck, just as they were setting Fire to it. I was so transported with Grief, to find the Work of my Hands in so great Peril, that I ran to the Souldier, that was gi­ving Fire to it, caught hold of his Arm, pluckt the Match out of his Hand, and in great rage threw my self into my Ma­chine, that I might undo the Fire-Works, that they had stuck about it; but I came too late, for hardly were both my Feet with­in, when whip, away went I up in a Cloud: The Horror and Consternation I was in, did not so confound the faculties of my Soul, but I have since remembred all that happened to me at that instant. For so soon [Page 20] as the Flame had devoured one tire of Squibs, which were ranked by six and six, by means of a Train, that reached every half-dozen; another tire went off, and then another; so that the Salt-Peter taking Fire, put off the danger by encreasing it. However, all the combustible matter being spent, there was a period put to the Fire­work; and whilst I thought of nothing less, than to knock my Head against the top of some Mountain, I felt, without the least stirring, my elevation continuing; and adieu Machine, for I saw it fall down again towards the Earth. That extraor­dinary Adventure puffed up my Heart with so uncommon a Gladness; that, ravish­ed to see my self delivered from certain danger, I had the impudence to philoso­phize upon it. Whilst then with Eyes and Thought I cast about, to find what might be the cause of it, I perceived my flesh blown up, and still greasy with the Marrow, that I had daubed my self over with, for the Bruises of my fall: I knew that the Moon being then in the Wain, and that it being usual for her in that Quarter, to suck up the Marrow of Animals; she drank up that wherewith I was anointed, with so much the more force, that her Globe was nearer to me, and that no inter­position of Clouds weakened her Attraction.

[Page 21] When I had, according to the computa­tion I made since, advanced a good deal more, than three quarters of the space, that divided the Earth from the Moon; all of a sudden I fell with my Heels up, and Head down, though I had made no Trip; and indeed, I had not been sensible of it, had not I felt my Head loaded under the weight of my Body: The truth is, I knew very well, that I was not falling again to­wards our World; for though I found my self to be betwixt two Moons, and easily observed, that the nearer I drew to the one, the farther I removed from the other; yet I was certain, that ours was the big­ger Globe of the two: Because after one or two days Journey, the remote Refracti­ons of the Sun, confounding the diversity of Bodies and Climates, it appeared to me only as a large Plate of Gold: That made me imagine, that I byassed towards the Moon; and I was confirmed in that Opinion, when I began to call to mind, that I did not fall, till I was past three quarters of the way. For, said I to my self, that Mass being less than ours, the Sphere of its Activity must be of less Ex­tent also; and by consequence, it was la­ter before I felt the force of its Center.

In fine, after I had been a very long while in falling, as I judged, for the vi­olence [Page 22] of my Precipitation hindered me from observing it more exactly: The last thing I can remember is, That I found my self under a Tree, entangled with three or four pretty large Branches, which I had broken off by my fall; and my Face be­smeared with an Apple, that had dashed against it.

By good luck that place was, as you shall know by and by — So that you may very well conclude, that had it not been for that Chance, if I had had a thousand lives, they had been all lost. I have many times since reflected upon the vulgar Opinion, That if one precipitate himself from a very high place, his breath is out before he reach the ground; and from my adventure I conclude it to be false, or else that the efficacious Juyce of that Fruit, which squirted into my mouth, must needs have recalled my Soul, that was not far from my Carcass, which was still hot, and in a disposition of exerting the Functions of Life. The truth is, so foon as I was upon the ground, my pain was gone, before I could think what it was; and the Hunger, which I felt during my Voyage, was fully satisfied with the sense that I had lost it.

When I was got up, I had hardly ta­ken notice of the largest of Four great [Page 23] Rivers, which by their conflux make a Lake; when the Spirit, or invisible Soul of Plants, that breath upon that Country, refreshed my Brain with a delightful smell: And I found that the Stones there, were neither hard nor rough; but that they carefully softened themselves, when one trode upon them. I presently lighted upon a Walk with five Avenues, in figure like to a Star; the Trees whereof seemed to reach up to the Skie, a green plot of lofty Boughs: Casting up my Eyes from the root to the top, and then making the same Survey downwards, I was in doubt whe­ther the Earth carried them, or they the Earth, hanging by their Roots: Their high and stately Forehead seemed also to bend, as it were by force, under the weight of the Celestial Globes; and one would say, that their Sighs and out-stretch­ed Arms, wherewith they embraced the Firmament, demanded of the Stars the bounty of their purer Influences, before they had lost any thing of their Innocence, in the contagious Bed of the Elements. The Flowers there on all hands, without the aid of any other Gardiner but Na­ture, send out so sweet (though wild) a Perfume, that it rouzes and delights the Smell: There the incarnate of a Rose upon the Bush, and the lively Azure of a [Page 24] Violet under the Rushes, captivating the Choice, make each of themselves to be judged the Fairest: There the whole Year is a Spring; there no poysonous Plant sprouts forth, but is as soon destroyed; there the Brooks by an agreeable murmur­ing, relate their Travels to the Pebbles; there Thousands of Quiristers make the Woods, resound with their melodious Notes; and the quavering Clubs of these divine Mu­sicians are so universal, that every Leaf of the Forest, seems to have borrowed the Tongue and shape of a Nightingale; nay, and the Nymph Eccho is so delightful with their Airs, that to hear her repeat, one would say, She were sollicitous to learn them. On the sides of that Wood, are Two Meadows, whose continued Verdure seems an Emerauld, reaching out of sight. The various Colours, which the Spring be­stows upon the numerous little Flowers that grow there, so delightfully confounds and mingles their Shadows; that it is hard to be known, whether these Flowers shaken with a gentle Breeze, pursue themselves, or fly rather from the Caresses of the Wan­ton Zephyrus; one would likewise take that Meadow for an Ocean, because as the Sea, it presents no Shoar to the view; inso­much, that mine Eye fearing it might lose it self, having roamed so long, and [Page 25] discovered no Coast, sent my Thoughts pre­sently thither; and my Thoughts, imagin­ing it to be the end of the World, were willing to be perswaded, that such charm­ing places, had, perhaps, forced the Hea­vens to descend, and join the Earth there. In the midst of that vast and pleasant Car­pet, a rustick Fountain bubbles up in Sil­ver Purles, crowning its enamelled Banks with Sets of Violets, and multitudes of o­ther little Flowers, that seem to strive, which shall first behold it self in that Chry­stal Myrroir: It is as yet in the Cradle, being but newly Born, and its Young and smooth Face shews not the least Wrinkle. The large Compasses it fetches, in circling within it self, demonstrate its unwilling­ness to leave its native Soyl: And as if it had been ashamed to be caressed in pre­sence of its Mother, with a Murmuring it thrust back my hand, that would have touched it: The Beasts that came to drink there, more rational than those of our World, seemed surprised to see it day upon the Horizon, whilst the Sun was with the Antipodes; and durst not bend downwards upon the Brink, for fear of falling into the Firmament.

I must confess to you, That at the sight of so many Fine things, I found my self tickled with these agreeable Twitches, [Page 26] which, they say, the Embryo feels upon the infusion of its Soul: My old Hair fell off, and gave place for thicker and softer Locks: I perceived my Youth revived, my Face grow ruddy, my natural Heat mingle gently again, with my radical Moisture: And in a word, I grew younger again, by at least Fourteen Years.

I had advanced half a League, through a a Forest of Jessamines and Myrtles, when I perceived something that stirred, lying in the Shade: It was a Youth, whose Maje­stick Beauty forced me almost to Adorati­on. He started up to hinder me; crying, It is not to me, but to God that you owe these Humilities. You see one, answered I, stunned with so many Wonders, that I knew not what to admire most; for com­ing from a World, which without doubt you take for a Moon here, I thought I had ar­rived in another, which our Worldlings call a Moon also; and behold I am in Pa­radice at the Feet of a God, who will not be Adored. Except the quality of a God, replied he, whose Creature I only am, the rest you say is true: This Land is the Moon, which you see from your Globe, and this place where you are is — Now at that time Man's Imagination was so strong, as not being as yet corrupted, neither by Debauches, the Crudity of Ali­ments, [Page 27] nor the alterations of Diseases, that being excited by a violent desire of coming to this Sanctuary, and his Body becoming light, through the heat of this Inspiration; he was carried thither in the same manner, as some Philosophers, who having fixed their Imagination, upon the contemplation of a certain Object, have sprung up in the Air by Ravishments, which you call Exta­sies. The Woman, who through the in­firmity of her Sex, was weaker and less hot, could not, without doubt, have the Imagination strong enough, to make the Intension of her Will, prevail over the Pon­derousness of her Matter; but because there were very few —

The Sympathy which still united that half to its whole, drew her towards him as he mounted up, as the Amber attracts the Straw; the Load-stone turns to­wards the North, from whence it hath been taken, and drew to him that part of him­self, as the Sea draws the Rivers which proceed from it. When they arrived in your Earth, they dwelt betwixt Mesopota­mia and Arabia: Some People knew them by the name of —, and others under that of Prometheus, whom the Poets feign­ed to have stolen Fire from Heaven, by reason of his Off-spring, who were endowed with a Soul as perfect as his own: So that [Page 28] to inhabit your World, that Man left this destitute; but the All-wise, would not have so blessed an Habitation, to remain without Inhabitants: He suffered a few ages after that — cloyed with the company of Men, whose Innocence was corrupted, had a desire to forsake them. This person, however, thought no retreat secure enough from the Ambition of Men, who already Murdered one another, about the distributi­on of your World; except that blessed Land, which his Grand-Father had so often men­tioned unto him, and to which no Body had as yet found out the way: But his Imagination supplied that; for seeing he had observed that — he filled Two large Vessels which he sealed Hermetically, and fastened them under his Arm-pits: So soon as the Smoak began to rise upwards, and could not pierce through the Mettal, it for­ced up the Vessels on high, and with them also that Great Man. When he was got as high as the Moon, and had cast his Eyes upon that lovely Garden, a fit of al­most supernatural Joy convinced him, that that was the place, where his Grand­father had heretofore lived. He quickly untied the Vessels, which he had girt like Wings about his Shoulders, and did it so luckily, that he was scarcely Four Fathom in the Air above the Moon, when he set [Page 29] his Fins a going; yet het was high enough still, to have been hurt by the fall, had it not been for the large skirts of his Gown, which being swelled by the Wind, gently upheld him, till he set Foot on ground. As for the two Vessels, they mounted up to a certain place, where they have conti­nued: And those are they, which now a­days you call the Balance.

I must now tell you, the manner how I came hither: I believe you have not for­got my name, seeing it is not long since I told it you. You shall know then, that I lived on the agreeable Banks of one of the most renowned Rivers of your World; where amongst my Books, I lead a Life pleasant enough, not to be lamented, though it slipt away fast enough. In the mean while, the more I encreased in Knowledge, the more I knew my Ignorance. Our Learned Men never put me in mind of the famous Mada, but the thoughts of his perfect Philosophy made me to Sigh. I was despairing of be­ing able to attain to it, when one day, af­ter a long and profound Studying, I took a piece of Load-stone about two Foot square, which I put into a Furnace; and then after it was well purged, precipita­ted and dissolved, I drew the calcined At­tractive of it, and reduced it into the size of about an ordinary Bowl.

[Page 30] After these Preparations, I got a very light Machine of Iron made, into which I went — and when I was well seated in my place, I threw this Magnetick Bowl, as high as I could, up into the Air. Now the Iron Machine, which I had purposely made more massive in the middle than at the ends, was presently elevated, and in a just Poise; because the middle received the greatest force of Attraction. So then, as I arrived at the place, whither my Load­stone had attracted me, I presently threw up my Bowl in the Air over me. But, said I, interrupting him, How came you to heave up your Bowl so streight over your Chariot, that it never happened to be on one side of it? That seems to me to be no wonder at all, said he; for the Load­stone being once thrown up in the Air, drew the Iron streight towards it; and so it was impossible, that ever I should mount side-ways. Nay more, I can tell you, that when I held the Bowl in my hand, I was still mounting upwards; because the Cha­riot flew always to the Load-stone, which I held over it. But the effort of the Iron, to be united to my Bowl, was so violent, that it made my Body bend double; so that I durst but once essay that new Ex­periment. The truth is, it was a very surprizing Spectacle to behold; for the [Page 31] Steel of that flying House, which I had very carefully Polished, reflected on all sides the light of the Sun, with so great life and lustre, that I thought my self to be all on fire. In fine, after often Bowl­ing and following of my Cast, I came, as you did, to an Elevation, from which I descended towards this World; and be­cause at that instant, I held my Bowl ve­ry fast between my hands, my Machine, whereof the Seat pressed me hard, that it might approach its Atractive, did not for­sake me; all that now I feared was, that I should break my Neck: But to save me from that, ever now and then, I tossed up my Bowl; that by its atractive Virtue, it might prevent the violent De­scent of my Machine, and render my fall more easie, as indeed it happened; for when I saw my self, within Two or three hundred fathom of the Earth, I threw out my Bowl on all hands, level with the Chariot, sometimes on this side, and sometimes on that, until I came to a cer­tain Distance; and immediately then, I tossed it up above me; so that my Ma­chine following it, I left it, and let my self sall on the other side, as gently as I could, upon the Sand; insomuch that my fall was no greater, than if it had been but my own height. I shall not describe to [Page 32] you the amazement I was in at the sight of the wonders of this place, seeing it was so like the same, wherewith I just now saw you seized—

Scarcely had I tasted it, when a thick Cloud over-cast my Soul: I saw no body now near me; and in the whole Hemi­sphere, my Eyes could not discern the least Tract of the way I had made; yet, never­theless I fully remembred every thing that befel me. When I reflected since upon that Miracle, I fanced that the skin of the Fruit which I bit, had not rendered me altogether brutish; because my Teeth piercing through it were, a little moisten­ed by the Juyce within, the efficacy where­of had dissipated the Malignities of the Rind. I was not a little surprised to see my self all alone, in a Country I knew not. It was to no purpose for me, to stare and look about me; for no Creature ap­peared to comfort me: At length, I resolved to march forwards, till Fortune should aford me the company of some Beasts, or at least the means of Dying.

She favourably granted my desire; for within half a quarter of a League, I met two huge Animals, one of which stopt before me, and the other fled swiftly to its Den; for so I thought at least; because that some time after, I perceived it come back again, [Page 33] in company of above Seven or Eight hun­dred of the same kind, who beset me. When I could discern them at a near di­stance, I perceived that they were propor­tioned and shaped like us. This adven­ture brought into my mind, the old Wives Tales of my Nurse concerning Syrenes, Faunes and Satyrs: Ever now and then they raised such furious Shouts, occasioned undoubtedly by their Admiration, at the sight of me, that I thought I was e'en turned a Monster. At length one of these Beast-like men, catching hold of me by the Neck, just as Wolves do when they carry away Sheep, tossed me upon his back, and brought me into their Town; where I was more amazed than before, when I knew they were Men, that I could meet with none of them, but who marched upon all four.

When these People saw that I was so little, (for most of them are Twelve Cubits long,) and that I walked only upon Two Legs, they could not believe me to be a Man: For they were of opinion, that Nature having given to men as well as Beasts Two Legs and Two Arms, they should both make use of them alike. And, indeed, reflecting upon that since, that scituation of Body did not seem to me altogether extravagant; when I called to mind, that whilst Children are [Page 34] still under the nurture of Nature, they go upon all four, and that they rise not on their two Legs, but by the care of their Nurses; who set them in little running Chairs, and fasten straps to them, to hin­der them from falling on all four, as the only posture that the shape of our Body naturally inclines to rest in.

They said then, (as I had it interpre­ted to me since) That I was infallibly the Female of the Queens little Animal. And therefore as such, or somewhat else, I was carried streight to the Town-House, where I observed by the muttering and gestures, both of the People and Magistrates, that they were consulting what sort of a thing I could be. When they had con­ferred together a long while, a certain Burgher, who had the keeping of the strange Beasts, besought the Mayor and Aldermen to commit me to his Custody, till the Queen should send for me to couple me to my Male. This was granted with­out any difficulty, and that Juggler carried me to his House; where he taught me to Tumble, Vault, make Mouths, and shew a Hundred odd Tricks, for which in the Afternoons he received Money at the door, from those that came in to see me: But Heaven pitying my Sorrows, and vext to see the Temple of its Maker profaned, so [Page 35] ordered it, that one day as I was tied to a Rope, wherewith the Mountebank made me Leap and Skip to divert the People; I heard a Man's voice, who asked me what I was, in Greek. I was much surprised to hear one speak in that Country, as they do in our World. He put some Questions to me, which I answered, and then gave him a full account of my whole design, and the success of my Travels: He took the pains to comfort me, and, as I take it, said to me: Well, Son, at length you suffer for the frailties of your World: There is a Mobile here, as well as there, that can away with nothing, but what they are accusto­med to: But know, that you are but justly served; for had any one of this Earth, had the boldness to mount up to yours, and call himself a Man, your Sages would have destroyed him as a Monster. He then told me, That he would acquaint the Court with my disaster; adding, that so soon as he had heard the news that went of me, he came to see me, and was satisfied that I was a man of the World, of which I said I was; because he had Travelled there formerly, and sojourned in Greece, where he was called the Demon of Socrates: That after the Death of that Philosopher, he had governed and taught Epaminondas at Thebes: After which being gone over to the Romans, Justice [Page 36] had obliged him to espouse the party of the Younger Cato: That after his Death, he had addicted himself to Brutus: That all these great Men, having left in that World no more, but the shadow of their Virtues, he with his Companions, had retreated to Temples and Solitudes. In a word, ad­ded he, the People of your World became so dull and stupid, that my Companions and I lost all the Pleasure, that formerly we had had in instructing them: Not but that you have heard Men talk of us; for they called us Oracles, Nymphs, Geniuses, Fairies, Houshold-Gods, Lemmes, Larves, Lamiers, Hobgoblins, Nayades, Incubusses, Shades, Manes, Visions and Apparitions: We aban­doned your World, in the Reign of Au­gustus, not long after I had appeared to Drusus the Son of Livia, who waged War in Germany, whom I forbid to proceed any farther. It is not long since I came from thence a second time; within these Hundred Years I had a Commission to Tra­vel thither: I roamed a great deal in Eu­rope, and conversed with some, whom pos­sibly you may have known. One Day, amongst others, I appeared to Cardan, as he was at his Study; I taught him a great many things, and he in acknowledg­ment promised me, to inform Posteri­ty, of whom he had those Wonders, [Page 37] which he intended to leave in writing. There I saw Agrippa, the Abbot Trithemi­us, Doctor Faustus, La Brosse, Caesar, and a certain Cabal of Young Men, who are commonly called Rosacrucians or Knights of the Red-Cross, whom I taught a great many Knacks and Secrets of Nature, which, with­out doubt, have made them pass for great Magicians: I knew Campanella also; it was I that advised him, whilst he was in the In­quisition at Rome, to put his Face and Body into the usual Postures of those, whose in­side he needed to know, that by the same frame of Body, he might excite in himself, the thoughts which the same scituation had raised in his Adversaries; because by so do­ing, he might better manage their Soul, when he came to know it; and at my de­sire he began a Book, which we Entitu­led, De Sensu Rerum. I likewise haunted in France, La Mothe le Vayer and Gassen­dus; this last hath written as much like a Philosopher, as the other lived: I have known a great many more there, whom your Age call Divines, but all that I could find in them, was a great deal of Babble, and a great deal of Pride. In fine, since I past over from your Country into En­gland, to acquaint my self, with the man­ners of its Inhabitants, I met with a Man, the shame of his Country; for certainly it [Page 38] is a great shame for the Grandees of your States, to know the virtue which in him has its Throne, and not to adore him: That I may give you an Abridgement of his Panegyrick, he is all Wit, all Heart, and possesses all the Qualities, of which one alone was heretofore sufficient to make an Heroe: It was Tristan the Hermite. The Truth is, I must tell you, when I per­ceived so exalted a Virtue, I mistrusted it would not be taken notice of, and there­fore I endeavoured to make him accept Three Vials, the first filled with the Oyl of Talk, the other with the Powder of Projection, and the third with Aurum Po­tabile; but he refused them with a more generous Disdain, than Diogenes did the Complements of Alexander. In fine, I can add nothing to the Elogy of that Great Man, but that he is the only Poet, the only Philosopher, and the only Free-man amongst you: These are the considerable Persons that I conversed with; all the rest, at least, that I know, are so far be­low Men, that I have seen Beasts some­what above them.

After all, I am not a Native neither of this Country nor yours, I was born in the Sun; but because sometimes our World is over-stock'd with people, by reason of the long Lives of the Inhabitants, and that [Page 39] there is hardly any Wars, or Diseases a­mongst them: Our Magistrates, from time to time, send Colonies into the neigbouring Worlds. For my own part, I was com­manded to go to yours; being declared Chief of the Colony that accompanyed me. I came since into this World, for the Rea­sons I told you; and that which makes me continue here, is, because the Men are great lovers of Truth, have no Pedants among them; that the Philosophers are never perswaded but by Reason, and that the Authority of a Doctor, or of a great number, is not preferred before the Opi­nion of a Thresher in a Barn, when he has right on his side. In short, none are reckoned Mad-men in this Country, but Sophisters and Orators. I asked him how they lived? he made answer, three or four thousand Years; and thus went on:

Though the Inhabitants of the Sun, be not so numerous as those of this World; yet the Sun is many times over stocked, be­cause the People being of a hot constitu­tion, are stirring and ambitious, and digest much.

You ought not to be surprised at what I tell you; for though our Globe be very vast, and yours little, though we die not before the end of Four thousand Years, and you at the end of Fifty; yet know, that as there [Page 40] are not so many Stones as clods of Earth, nor so many Animals as Plants, nor so ma­ny Men as Beasts; just so there ought not to be so many Spirits as Men, by reason of the difficulties that occur in the Generation of a perfect Creature.

I asked him, if they were Bodies as we are? He made answer, That they were Bodies, but not like us, nor any thing else which we judged such; because we call nothing a Body commonly, but what we can touch: That, in short, there was nothing in Nature, but what was material; and that though they themselves were so, yet they were forced, when they had a mind to appear to us, to take Bo­dies proportionated to what our Senses are able to know; and that, without doubt, that was the reason, why many have taken the Stories that are told of them, for the Delusions of a weak Fancy, because they only appeared in the night time: He told me withal, That seeing they were necessitated to piece together the Bodies, they were to make use of in great haste, many times they had not leisure enough, to render them the Objects of more Senses than one at a time, sometimes of the Hear­ing, as the Voices of Oracles, sometimes of the Sight,, as the Fires and Visions, some­times of the Feeling, as the Incubusses; [Page 41] and that these Bodies being but Air con­densed, in such or such a manner, the Light dispersed them by its heat, in the same manner, as it scatters a Mist.

So many fine things as he told me, gave me the curiosity to question him about his Birth and Death; if in the Country of the Sun, the individual was procreated by the ways of Generation, and if it died by the dissolution of its Constitution, or the dis­composure of its Organs? Your senses, re­plied he, bear but too little proportion to the Explication of these Mysteries: Ye Gentlemen imagine, that whatsoever you cannot comprehend is spiritual, or that it is not at all; but that Consequence is ab­surd, and it is an argument, that there are a Million of things, perhaps, in the Universe, that would require a Million of different Organs in you, to understand them. For instance, I by my Senses know the cause of the Sympathy, that is betwixt the Load­stone and the Pole, of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea, and what becomes of the Animal after Death; you cannot reach these high Conceptions but by Faith, be­cause they are Secrets above the power of your Intellects; no more than a Blind-man can judge of the beauties of a Land-skip, the Colours of a Picture, or the streaks of a Rain-bow; or at best he will fancy them [Page 42] to besomewhat palpable, to be like Eating, a Sound, or a pleasant Smell: Even so, should I attempt to explain to you, what I perceive by the Senses which you want, you would represent it to your self, as some­what that may be Heard, Seen, Felt, Smelt or Tasted, and yet it is no such thing.

He was gone on so far in his Discourse, when my Juggler perceived, that the Com­pany began to be weary of my Gibberish, that they understood not, and which they took to be an inarticulated Grunting: He therefore fell to pulling my Rope afresh, to make me leap and skip, till the Specta­tors having had their Belly-fulls of Laugh­ing, affirmed that I had almost as much Wit, as the Beasts of their Country, and so broke up.

Thus, all the comfort I had during the misery of my hard Usage, were the visits of this officious Spirit; for you may judge what conversation I could have, with these that came to see me, since besides that they only took me for an Animal, in the highest class of the Category of Bruits, I neither understood their Language, nor they mine. For you must know, that there are but two Idioms in use in that Country, one for the Grandees, and another for the People in general.

[Page 43] That of the great ones is no more, but various inarticulate Tones, much like to our Musick, when the Words are not added to the Air: and in reality it is an Invention, both very useful and pleasant; for when they are weary of talking, or dis­dain to prostitute their Throats to that Of­fice, they take either a Lute, or some other Instrument, whereby they communicate their Thoughts, as well as by their Tongue: So that sometimes Fifteen or Twenty in a Company, will handle a point of Divinity, or discuss the difficulties of a Law-suit, in the most harmonious Consort, that ever tickled the Ear.

The second, which is used by the Vulgar, is performed by a shivering of the Mem­bers, but not, perhaps, as you may ima­gine, for some parts of the Body sig­nifie an entire Discourse; for example, the agitation of a Finger, a Hand, an Ear, a Lip, an Arm, an Eye, a Cheek, every one severally will make up an Oration, or a Period with all the parts of it: Others serve only instead of Words, as the knit­ting of the Brows, the several quiverings of the Muscles, the turning of the Hands, the stamping of the Feet, the contorsion of the Arm; so that when they speak, as their Custom is, stark naked, their Mem­bers being used to gesticulate their Concep­tions, [Page 44] move so quick, that one would not think it to be a Man that spoke, but a Body that trembled.

Every day almost the Spirit came to see me, and his rare Conversation made me patiently bear with the rigour of my Cap­tivity. At length, one morning I saw a Man enter my Cabbin, whom I knew not, who having a long while licked me gently, took me up in his Teeth by the Shoulder, and with one of his Paws, wherewith he held me up, for fear I might hurt my self, threw me upon his Back; where I found my self so softly seated, and so much at my ease, that being afflicted to be used like a Beast, I had not the least desire of making my escape; and besides, these Men that go upon all four, are much swifter than we, seeing the heaviest of them, make nothing of running down a Stagg.

In the mean time I was extreamly troubled, that I had no news of my cour­teous Spirit; and the first night we came to our Inn, as I was walking in the Court, expecting till Supper should be ready, a pretty handsome young Man came smil­ing in my Face, and cast his Two Fore-Legs about my Neck. After I had a little considered him: How! said he in French, do not you know your Friend then? I leave you to judge in what [Page 45] case I was at that time; really, my sur­prise was so great, that I began to imagine, that all the Globe of the Moon, all that had befallen me, and all that I had seen, had on­ly been Enchantment: And that Beast-man, who was the same that had carried me all day, continued to speak to me in this manner; You promised me, that the good Offices I did you, should never be forgot­ten, and yet it seems you have never seen me before; but perceiving me still in amaze: In fine, said he, I am that same Demon of Socrates, who diverted you during your Imprisonment, and who, that I may still oblige you, took to my self a Body, on which I carried you to day: But, said I interrupting him, how can that be, see­ing that all Day you were of a very long Stature, and now you are very short; that all day long you had a weak and broken Voice, and now you have a clear and vigorous one; that, in short, all day long you were a Grey-headed old Man, and are now a brisk young Blade: Is it then that whereas in my Country, the Progress is from Life to Death; Animals here go Retrograde from Death to Life, and by growing old become young a­gain.

So soon as I had spoken to the Prince, said he, and received orders to bring you [Page 49] to Court, I went and found you out where you were, and have brought you hither; but the Body I acted in, was so tired out with the Journey, that all its Organs re­fused me their ordinary Functions, so that I enquired the way to the Hospital; where being come in I found the Body of a young Man, just then expired by a very odd Accident, but yet very common in this Country — I drew near him, pre­tending to find motion in him still, and protesting to those who were present, that he was not dead, and that what they thought to be the cause of his Death, was no more but a bare Lethargy; so that without being perceived, I put my Mouth to his, by which I entred as with a breath: Then down dropt my old Carcass, and as if I had been that young Man, I rose and came to look for you, leaving the Spectators crying a Miracle. With this they came to call us to Supper, and I followed my Guide into a Parlour rich­ly furnished; but where I found nothing fit to be eaten. No Victuals appearing, when I was ready to die of Hunger, made me ask him where the Cloath was laid: But I could not hear what he an­swered, for at that instant Three or Four young Boys, Children of the House, drew near, and with much Civility stript [Page 47] me to the Shirt. This new Ceremony so astonished me, that I durst not so much as ask my pretty Valets de Chamber the cause of it; and I cannot tell how my Guide, who asked me what I would begin with, could draw from me these two Words, A Potage; but hardly had I pronounced them, when I smelt the o­dour of the most agreable Soop, that ever steamed in the rich Gluttons Nose: I was about to rise from my place, that I might trace that delicious Scent to its source, but my Carrier hindered me: Whither are you going, said he, we shall fetch a walk by and by; but now it is time to Eat, make an end of your Potage, and then we'll have something else: And where the Devil is the Potage? answered I half angry: Have you laid a wager you'll jeer me all this Day? I thought, replied he, that at the Town we came from, you had seen your Master or some Bo­else at meal, and that's the reason I told you not, how People feed in this Country. Seeing then you are still ignorant, you must know, that here they live on Steams. The art of Cookery is to shut up in great Vessels, made on purpose, the Exhalations that proceed from the meat, whilst it is a dressing; and when they have provided enough of [Page 48] several sorts, and several tastes, according to the Appetite of those they treat; they open one Vessel where that Steam is kept, and after that another; and so on till all the Company be satisfied.

Unless you have already lived after this manner, you would never think, that the Nose without Teeth and Gullet, can perform the office of the Mouth, in feed­ing a Man; but I'll make you experi­ence it your self. He had no sooner said so, but I found so many agreable and nou­rishing Vapours enter the Parlour, one after another, that in less than half a quarter of an Hour I was fully satisfi­ed. When we were got up; This is not a matter, said he, much to be admired at, seeing you cannot have lived so long, and not have observed, that all sorts of Cooks, who eat less than People of another Calling, are nevertheless much Fatter. Whence proceeds that Plumpness, d'ye think, unless it be from the Steams that continually environ them, which pene­trate into their Bodies, and fatten them? Hence it is, that the People of this World enjoy a more steady and vigorous Health, by reason that their Food hardly engen­ders any Excrements, which are in a manner the original of all Diseases. You were, perhaps, surprised, that before sup­per [Page 49] you were stript, since it is a Custom not practised in your Country; but it is the fashion of this, and for this end used, that the Animal may be the more tran­spirable to the Fumes. Sir, answered I, there is a great deal of probability in what you say, and I have found somewhat of it my self by experience; but I must frankly tell you, That not be­ing able to Unbrute my self so soon, I should be glad to feel something, that my Teeth might fix upon: He promis­ed I should, but not before next Day; because, said he, to Eat so soon after your meal, would breed Crudities. After we had discoursed a little longer, we went up to a Chamber to take our rest; a Man met us on the top of the Stairs; who having attentively Eyed us, led me into a Closet, where the floor was strow­ed with Orange-Flowers Three Foot thick, and my Spririt into another, filled with Gilly-Flowers and Jessamine: Perceiving me amazed at that Magnificence, he told me, they were the Beds of the Country. In fine, we laid our selves down to rest, in our several Cells, and so soon as I had stretched my self out upon my Flow­ers, by the light of Thirty large Glow-worms shut up in a Chrystal, (being the only Candles Charon uses,) I per­ceived [Page 50] the Three or Four Boys, who had stript me before Supper, One tick­ling my Feet, another my Thighs, the Third my Flanks, and the Fourth my Arms, and all so delicately and daintily, that in less than a Minute I was fast asleep.

Next Morning by Sun-rising, my Spi­rit came into my Room, and said to me, Now I'll be as good as my Word, you shall breakfast this Morning, more solidly than you Supped last Night. With that I got up, and he led me by the Hand to a place, at the back of the Garden, where one of the Children of the House stayed for us, with a Piece in his Hand, much like to one of our Fire-Locks. He asked my Guide, if I would have a dozen of Larks, because Baboons (one of which he took me to be,) loved to feed on them? I had hardly answered, Yes, when the Fowler discharged a Shot, and Twenty or Thirty Larks fell at our Feet ready Roasted. This, thought I present­ly with my self, verifies the Proverb in our World, of a Country where Larks fall ready Roasted; without doubt, it has been made by some Body that came from hence. Fall too, fall too, said my Spirit, don't spare; for they have a knack of ming­ling a certain Composition with their [Page 51] Powder and Shot, which Kills, Plucks, Roasts, and Seasons the Fowl all at once. I took up some of them, and eat them upon his word; and to say the Truth, In all my Life time, I never eat any thing so delicious. Having thus Breakfasted, we prepared to be gone, and with a Thou­sand odd Faces, which they use when they would shew their Love; our Landlord received a Paper from my Spirit. I ask­ed him, if it was a Note for the Reckon­ing? He replied, No, that all was paid, and that it was a Copy of Verses. How! Verses, said I, are your Inn-Keepers here curious of Rhime then? It's, said he, the Money of the Country, and the charge we have been at here, hath been computed to amount to Three Coup­lets, or Six Verses, which I have given him. I did not fear we should out-run the Constable; for though we should Pamper our selves for a whole Week; we could not spend a Sonnet, and I have Four about me, besides Two Epigrams, Two Odes, and an Eclogue. Would to God, said I, it were so in our World; for I know a good many honest Poets there, who are ready to Starve, and who might live plentifully, if that Money would pass in Payment. I farther asked him, If these Verses would always serve, [Page 52] if one Transcribed them? He made an­swer, No, and so went on. When an Author has Composed any; he carries them to the Mint, where the sworn Po­ets of the Kingdom sit in Court. There these versifying Officers essay the pieces; and if they be judged Sterling, they are rated not according to their Coyn; that's to say, That a Sonnet is not always as good as a Sonnet; but according to the intrinsick value of the piece; so that if any one Starve, he must be a Blockhead: For Men of Wit make always good Chear. With Extasie, I was admiring the judicious Po­licy of that Country, when he proceeded in this manner: There are others who keep Publick-house, after a far different manner: When one is about to be gone, they demand proportionably to the Char­ges, an Acquittance for the other World; and when that is given them, they write down in a great Register, which they call Doomsday's Book, much after this manner. Item, The value of so many Verses, delivered such a Day, to such a Person, which he is to pay upon the re­ceipt of this Acquittance, out of his rea­diest Cash: And when they find them­selves in danger of Death, they cause these Registers to be Chopt in pieces, and swal­low them down; because they believe, [Page 53] that if they were not thus digested, they would be good for nothing.

This Conversation was no hinderance to our Journey; for my Four-legged Porter jogged on under me, and I rid stradling on his Back. I shall not be particular in re­lating to you, all the Adventures, that happened to us on our way, till we arri­ved at length at the Town, where the King holds his Residence. I was no sooner come, but they carryed me to the Palace, where the Grandees received me with more Moderation, than the People had done, as I passed the Streets: But both great and small concluded, That, without doubt, I was the Female of the Queen's little Animal. My Guide was my Interpreter; and yet he himself un­derstood not the Riddle, and knew not what to make of that little Animal of the Queen's; but we were soon satis­fied as to that; for the King having some time considered me, ordered it to be brought, and about half an hour after, I saw a company of Apes, wearing Ruffs and Breeches, come in, and amongst them a little Man, almost of my own Built, for he went on Two Legs; so soon as he per­ceived me, he Accosted me with a Cria­do de vuestra merced. I answered his Greeting, much in the same Terms. But [Page 54] alas! no sooner had they seen us talk to­gether, but they believed their Conjecture to be true; and so, indeed, it seemed; for he of all the By-standers, that past the most favourable Judgment upon us, protested, that our Conversation, was a Chattering we kept for Joy at our meet­ing again. That little Man told me, that he was an European, a Native of old Castil­le: That he had found a means by the help of Birds, to mount up to the World of the Moon, where then we were: That falling into the Queen's Hands, she had taken him for a Monkey, because Fate would have it so: That in that Country they cloath Apes in a Spanish Dress; and that upon his arrival, being found in that ha­bit, she had made no doubt, but he was of the same kind. It could not other­wise be, replied I, but having tried all Fashions of Apparel upon them, none were found so Ridiculous, and by consequence more becoming a kind of Animals, which are only entertained for Pleasure and Di­version. That shews you little under­stand the Dignity of our Nation, answered he, for whom the Universe breeds Men, only to be our Slaves, and Nature produces nothing but objects of Mirth and Laugh­ter. He then intreated me to tell him, how I durst be so bold, as to Scale the Moon [Page 55] with the Machine I told him of? I an­swered, That it was because he had carried a way the Birds, which I intended to have made use of. He smiled at this Raillery; and about a quarter of an hour after, the King commanded the Keeper of the Mon­keys to carry us back, with express Orders to make the Spaniard and me lie together, that we might procreate a breed of Apes in his Kingdom. The King's Pleasure was punctually obeyed; at which I was very glad, for the satisfaction I had, of ha­ving a Mate to converse with, during the solitude of my Brutification. One Day my Male (for I was taken for the Female) told me, That the true reason, which had obliged him to travel all over the Earth, and at length to abandon it for the Moon, was, that he could not find so much as one Country, where even Imagination was at liberty. Look ye, said he, how the Wittiest thing you can say, unless you wear a Cornered Cap, if it thwart the Principles of the Doctors of the Robe, you are an Ideot, a Fool, and something worse, perhaps. I was about to have been put into the Inquisition at home, for maintaining to the Pedants Teeth, That there was a Vacuum, and that I knew no one matter in the World, more Ponderous than another. I asked him, what probable [Page 56] Arguments he had, to confirm so new an O­pinion? To evince that, answered he, you must suppose that there is but one Ele­ment; for though we see Water, Earth, Air and Fire distinct, yet are they never found to be so perfectly pure, but that there still remains some Mixture. For ex­ample, When you behold Fire, it is not Fire but Air much extended; the Air is but Water much dilated; Water is but liquified Earth, and the Earth it self, but condensed Water; and thus if you weigh Matter seriously, you'll find it is but one, which like an excellent Comedian here be­low acts all Parts, in all sorts of Dresses: Otherwise we must admit as many Ele­ments, as there are kinds of Bodies: And if you ask me why Fire burns, and Wa­ter cools, since it is but one and the same matter, I answer, That that matter acts by Sympathy, according to the Dispositi­on it is in, at the time when it acts. Fire which is nothing but Earth also, more dilated than is fit for the constitution of Air, strives to change into it self, by Sym­pathy, what ever it meets with: Thus the heat of Coals, being the most subtile Fire, and most proper to penetrate a Bo­dy, at first slides through the pores of our Skin; and because it is a new matter that fills us, it makes us exhale in Sweat; [Page 57] that Sweat dilated by the Fire is conver­ted to a Steam, and becomes Air; that Air being farther rarified by the heat of the Antiperistasis, or of the Neighbouring Stars, is called Fire, and the Earth abandoned by the Cold and Humidity, which were Ligaments to the whole, falls to the ground: Water, on the other hand, though it no ways differ from the matter of Fire, but in that it is closer, burns us not; because that being dense by Sympathy, it closes up the Bodies it meets with, and the Cold we feel is no more, but the effect of our Flesh contracting it self, because of the Vicinity of Earth or Water, which con­strains it toa Resemblance. Hence it is, that those who are troubled with a Drop­sie, convert all their nourishment into Water; and the Cholerick convert all the Blood, that is formed in their Liver, into Choler. It being then supposed, that there is but one Element; it is most cer­tain, that all Bodies, according to their se­veral qualities, incline equally towards the Center of the Earth.

But you'll ask me, Why then does Iron, Metal, Earth and Wood, des­cend more swiftly to the Center than a Sponge, if it be not that it is full of Air, which naturally tends upwards? That is not at all the Reason, and thus I [Page 58] make it out: Though a Rock fall with greater Rapidity than a Feather, both of them have the same inclination for the Journey; but a Cannon Bullet, for in­stance, where the Earth pierced through, would precipitate with greater haste to the Center thereof, than a Bladder full of Wind; and the reason is, because that mass of Metal, is a great deal of Earth contract­ed into a little space, and that Wind a very little Earth in a large space: For all the parts of Matter, being so closely joined together in the Iron, encrease their force by their Union; because being thus com­pacted, they are many that Fight against a few, seeing a parcel of Air equal to the Bullet in Bigness, is not equal in Quan­tity.

Not to insist on a long Deduction of Arguments to prove this, tell me in good earnest, How a Pike, a Sword or a Dag­ger wound us? If it be not, because the Steel, being a matter, wherein the parts are more continuous, and more closely knit to­gether, than your Flesh is, whose Pores and Softness shew, that it contains but very little Matter, within a great extent of Place; and that the point of the Steel that pricks us, being almost an innumerable number of Particles of matter, against a very little Flesh, it forces it to yeild to the stronger, [Page 59] in the same manner as a Squadron in close order, will easily break through a more open Battallion; for why does a Bit of red hot Iron, burn more than a Log of Wood all on Fire? Unless it be, that in the Iron, there is more Fire in a small space, see­ing it adheres, to all the parts of the Me­tal, than in the Wood which being very Spongy, by consequence contains a great deal of Vacuity; and that Vacuity, being but a Privation of Being, cannot receive the form of Fire. But, you'll object, you suppose a Vacuum, as if you had proved it, and that's begging of the question: Well then I'll prove it, and though that diffi­culty be the Sister of the Gordian knot, yet my Arms are strong enough to become its Alexander.

Let that vulgar Beast, then, who does not think it self a Man, had it not been told so, answer me if it can: Suppose now there be but one Matter, as I think I have sufficiently peoved; whence comes it, that according to its Appetite, it enlarges or con­tracts its self; whence is it, that a piece of Earth, by being Condensed becomes a Stone? Is it that the parts of that Stone are placed one with another, in such a manner, that wherever that grain of Sand is settled, even there, or in the same point, another grain of Sand is Lodged? That [Page 60] cannot be, no not according to their own Principles, seeing there is no Penetration of Bodies: But that matter must have crowd­ed together, and if you will, abridged it self, so that it hath filled some place which was empty before. To say, that it is incom­prehensible, that there should be a Nothing in the World, that we are in part made up of Nothing: Why not, pray? Is not the whold World wrapt up in Nothing? Since you yield me this point, then confess ingeniously, that it's as rational, that the World should have a Nothing within it, as Nothing about it.

I well perceive you'll put the question to me, Why Water compressed in a Vessel by the Frost should break it, if it be not to hinder a Vacuity? But I answer, That that only happens, because the Air over­head, which as well as Earth and Water, tends to the Center, meeting with an emp­ty Tun by the way, takes up his Lodging there: If it find the pores of that Vessel, that's to say, the ways that lead to that void place, too narrow, too long, and too crooked, with impatience it breaks through and arrives at its Tun.

But not to trifle away time, in answering all their objections, I dare be bold to say, That if there were no Vacuity, there could be no Motion; or else a Penetration of Bo­dies [Page 61] must be admitted; for it would be a little too ridiculous to think, that when a Gnat pushes back a parcel of Air with its Wings, that parcel drives another before it, that other another still; and that so the stirring of the little Toe of a Flea, should raise a bunch upon the Back of the Uni­verse. When they are at a stand, they have recourse to Rarefaction: But in good earnest, How can it be when a Body is rarified, that one Particle of the Mass does recede from another Particle, without leav­ing an empty Space betwixt them; must not the two Bodies, which are just separa­ted, have been at the same time in the same place of this; and that so they must have all three penetrated each other? I expect you'll ask me, why through a Reed, a Syringe or a Pump, Water is forced to ascend contrary to its inclination? To which I answer, That that's by violence, and that it is not the fear of a Vacuity, that turns it out of the right way; but that be­ing linked to the Air by an imperceptible Chain, it rises when the Air, to which it is joined, is raised.

That's no such knotty Difficulty, when one knows the perfect Circle, and the deli­cate Concatenation of the Elements: For if you attentively consider the Slime, which joines the Earth and Water together in Mar­riage, [Page 62] you'll find that it is neither Earth nor Water; but the Mediator betwixt these Two Enemies. In the same manner, the Water and Air reciprocally send a Mist, that dives into the Humours of both, to ne­gotiate a Peace betwixt them; and the Air is reconciled to the Fire, by means of an interposing Exhalation which Unites them.

I believe he would have proceeded in his Discourse, had they not brought us our Victuals; and seeing we were a hungry, I stopt my Ears to his discourse, and opened my Stomack to the Food they gave us.

I remember another time, when we were upon our Philosophy, for neither of us took pleasure to Discourse of mean things: I am vexed, said he, to see a Wit of your stamp, infected with the Errors of the Vulgar. You must know then, in spight of the Pedantry of Aristotle, with which your Schools in France still ring, That every thing is in every thing; that's to say, for instance, That in the Water there is Fire, in the Fire Water, in the Air Earth, and in the Earth Air: Though that Opinion makes Scho­lars open their Eyes as big as Sawcers, yet it is easier to prove it, than perswade it. For I ask them, in the first place, if Wa­ter does not breed Fish: If they deny it, let them dig a Pit, fill it with meer Ele­ment, [Page 63] and to prevent all blind Objections, let them if they please, strain it through a Strainer, and I'll oblige my self, in case they find no Fish therein, within a certain time, to drink up all the Water they have poured into it: But if they find Fish, as I make no doubt on't; it is a convincing Argument, that there is both Salt and Fire there. Consequentially now, to find Wa­ter in Fire; I take it to be no difficult Task. For let them chuse Fire, even that which is most abstracted from Matter, as Comets are, there is a great deal in them still; seeing if that Unctuous Humour, whereof they are engendred, being redu­ced to a Sulphur, by the heat of the Anti­peristasis which kindles them, did not find a curb of its Violence in the humid Cold, that qualifies and resists it, it would spend it self in a trice like Lightning. Now that there is Air in the Earth, they will not de­ny it; or otherwise they have never heard of the terrible Earth-quakes, that have so of­ten shaken the Mountains of Sicily: Be­sides, the Earth is full of Pores, even to the least grains of Sand that compass it. Ne­vertheless, no Man hath as yet said, that these Hollows were filled with Vacuity: It will not be taken amiss then, I hope, if the Air takes up its quarters there. It remains to be proved, that there is Earth in [Page 64] the Air; but I think it scarcely worth my pains, seeing you are convinced of it, as of­ten as you see, such numberless Legions of Atomes fall upon your heads, as even stiffle Arithmetick.

But let us pass from simple to compound Bodies, they'll furnish me with much more frequent Subjects; and to demonstrate that all things are in all things, not that they change into one another, as your Peripate­ticks Juggle, (for I will maintain to their Teeth, that the Principles mingle, separate, and mingle again in such a manner, that that hath been made Water by the Wise Creator of the World, will always be Water:) I shall suppose no Maxime, as they do, but what I prove.

And therefore take a Billet, or any other combustible stuff, and set Fire to it, they'll say when it is in a Flame, That what was Wood is now become Fire; but I main­tain the contrary, and that there is no more Fire in it, when it is all in Flame, than before it was kindled; but that which be­fore was hid in the Billet, and by the Hu­midity and Cold hindered from acting; being now assisted by the Stronger, hath rallied its forces against the Phlegm that choaked it, and commanding the Field of Bat­tle, that was possessed by its Enemy, triumphs over his Jaylor, and appears without Fet­ters. [Page 65] Don't you see how the Water flees out at the two ends of the Billet, hot and smoaking from the Fight it was engaged in. That flame which you see rise on high, is the purer Fire, unpestered from the Mat­ter, and by consequence the readiest to re­turn home to it self: Nevertheless it Unites it self, by tapering into a Piramide, till it rise to a certain height, that it may pierce through the thick Humidity of the Air, which resists it; but as in mounting it dis­engages it self by little and little, from the violent company of its Landlords; so it diffuses it self, because then it meets with nothing that thwarts its passage, which negligence, though, is many times the cause of a second Captivity: For marching stragglingly, it wanders sometimes into a Cloud, and if it meet there with a Party of its own, sufficient to make head against a Vapour; they Engage, Grumble, Thun­der and Roar, and the Death of Innocents is many times the effect of the animated Rage, of those inanimated Things. If when it finds it self pestered, among those Crudities of the middle Region, it is not strong enough to make a defence; it yields to its Enemy upon discretion, which by its weight, constrains it to fall again to the Earth: And this Wretch, inclosed in a drop of Rain, may, perhaps, fall at the Foot of an [Page 66] Oak, whose Animal Fire will invite the poor Straggler, to take a Lodging with him; and thus you have it in the same condition again, as it was a few Days be­fore.

But let us trace the Fortune of the other Elements, that composed that Billet. The Air retreats to its own Quarters also, though blended with Vapours; because the Fire all in a rage, drove them briskly out Pell-mell together. Now you have it serv­ing the Winds for a Tennis-ball, furnishing Breath to Animals, filling up the Vacuities that Nature hath left; and, it may be, also wrapt up in a drop of Dew, suckling the thir­sty Leaves of that Tree, whither our Fire re­treated: The Water driven from its Throne by the Flame, being by the heat elevated to the Nursery of the Meteors, will distil a­gain in Rain upon our Oak, as soon as up­on another; and the Earth being turned to Ashes, and then cured of its Sterility, ei­ther by the nourishing Heat of a Dunghill, on which it hath been thrown, or by the vegetative Salt of some neighbouring Plants, or by the teeming Waters of some Rivers, may happen also to be near this Oak, which by the heat of its Germ, will at­tract it, and convert it into a part of its bulk.

[Page 67] In this manner, these Four Elements un­dergo the same Destiny, and return to the same State, which they quitted but a few days before: So that it may be said, that all that's necessary for the composition of a Tree, is in a Man; and in a Tree, all that's necessary for making of a Man. In fine, according to this way, all things will be found in all things; but we want a Pro­metheus, to pluck us out of the Bosom of Na­ture, and render us sensible, which I am willing to call the First Matter.

These were the things, I think, with which we past the time; for that little Spa­niard had a quaint Wit. Our conversation, however, was only in the Night time; be­cause from Six a clock in the morning un­til night, Crowds of the People that came to stare at us in our Lodging, would have disturbed us: For some threw us Stones, others Nuts, and others Grass; there was no talk, but of the Kings Beasts; we had our Victuals daily at set hours, and the King and Queen took the pains often to feel my Belly, to see if I did not begin to swell, for they had an extraordinary desire to have a Race of these little Animals. I cannot tell, whether it was that I minded their Gestures and Tones, more than my Male did: But I learnt sooner than he, to understand their Language, and to smatter [Page 68] a little in it, which made us to be lookt upon, in another guess manner than former­ly; and the news thereupon flew presently all over the Kingdom, that two Wild Men had been found, who were less than other Men, by reason of the bad Food we had had in the Desarts; and who through a defect of their Parents Seed, had not the fore Legs strong enough to support their Bo­dies.

This belief would have taken rooting, by being spread, had it not been for the Learned Men of the Country, who oppo­sed it, saying, That it was horrid Impiety to believe, not only Beasts, but Monsters to be of their kind. It would be far more probable, (added the calmer Sort) that our Domestick Beasts, should participate of the priviledge of Humanity, and by conse­quence of Immortality, as being bred in our Country, than a Monstrous Beast, that talks of being born I know not where, in the Moon; and then observe the difference be­twixt us and them. We walk upon Four Feet, because God would not trust so pre­cious a thing, upon weaker Supporters, and he was afraid least marching other­wise, some Mischance might befall Man; and therefore he took the pains, to rest him upon four Pillars, that he might not fall, but disdaining to have a hand in [Page 69] the Fabrick of these two Brutes, he left them to the Caprice of Nature, who not concerning her self with the loss of so small a matter, supported them only by Two Feet.

Birds themselves, said they, have not had so hard measure as they; for they have got Feathers, at least to supply the weakness of their Legs, and to cast them­selves in the Air, when we pursue them; whereas Nature, depriving these Monsters of Two Legs, hath disabled them from scaping our Justice.

Besides, consider a little how they have the Head raised toward Heaven, it is be­cause God would punish them with scarci­ty of all things, that he hath so placed them; for that supplicant Posture, shews that they complain to Heaven of him that Created them, and that they beg Permissi­on to make their best of our Leavings. But we, on the contrary, have the Head bend­ing downwards, to behold the Blessings, whereof we are the Masters, and as if there were nothing in Heaven, that our happy condition needed Envy.

I heard such Discourses, or the like, daily at my Lodge; and at length they so curb­ed the minds of the people, as to that point, that it was decreed, That at best, I should only pass for a Parrot without Feathers; [Page 70] for they confirmed those, who were already perswaded, in that I had but two Legs no more than a Bird, which was the cause that I was put into a Cage, by express orders from the Privy Council.

There the Queen's Bird-keeper, taking the pains daily to teach me to Whistle, as they do Stares or Singing-Birds here, I was really happy in that I wanted not Food: In the mean while, with the Sonnets the Spectators stunned me, I learnt to speak as they did; so that when I was got to be so much Master of the Idiom, as to express most of my thoughts, I told them the fi­nest of my Conceits. The Quaintness of my Sayings, was already the entertainment of all Societies, and my Wit was so much esteemed, that the Council was obliged to Publish an Edict, forbidding all People to believe, that I was endowed with Rea­son; with express Commands to all Per­sons, of what Quality or Condition soever, not to imagine, but that whatever I did, though never so wittily, proceeded only from Instinct.

Nevertheless, the decision of what I was, divided the Town into Two Factions. The party that stood for me, encreased daily; and at length in spight of the Anathema, whereby they endeavoured to scare the mul­titude: They who held for me, demand­ed [Page 71] a Convention of the States, for determin­ing that Controversie. It was long before they could agree, in the Choice of those who should have a Vote; but the Arbitrators pa­cified the heat, by making the number of both parties equal, who ordered that I should be brought unto the Assembly, as I was: But I was treated there with all ima­ginable Severity. My Examiners, amongst other things, put questions of Philoso­phy to me; I ingenuously told them, all that my Tutor had heretofore taught me, but they easily refuted me by more con­vincing Arguments: So that having no­thing to answer for my self, my last refuge was to the Principles of Aristotle, which stood me in as little stead, as his Sophisms did; for in two Words, they let me see the falsity of them. That same Aristotle, said they, whose Learning you brag so much of, did without doubt accommodate Prin­ciples to his Philosophy; instead of ac­commodating his Philosophy to Principles; and besides he ought to have proved them, at least to be more rational, than those of the other Sects, you mentioned to us: Wherefore the good Man will not take it ill, we hope, if we bid him God b'w'. In fine, when they perceived that I did nothing but bawl, that they were not more knowing than Aristotle, and that I was [Page 72] forbid to dispute against those who denied his Principles: They all unanimously con­cluded, That I was not a Man, but, per­haps, a kind of Estriage, seeing I carried my Head upright like them, that I walked on two Legs; and that, in short, but for a little Down, I was every way like one of them, so that the Bird-keeper was ordered to have me back to my Cage. I spent my time pretty pleasantly there, for because I had correctly learned their Language, the whole Court took pleasure to make me prattle. The Queen's Maids, among the rest, slipt always some Boon into my Basket; and the gentilest of them all, hav­ing conceived some kindness for me, was so transported with Joy, when in private I entertained her, with the manners and di­vertisements of the People of our World, and especially our Bells, and other Instruments of Musick, that she protested to me, with Tears in her Eyes, That if ever I found my self in a condition to fly back again to our World, she would follow me with all her Heart.

One Morning early, having started out of my Sleep, I found her Taboring upon the grates of my Cage: Take good heart, said she to me, yesterday in Council, a War was resolved upon, against the King [...] I hope that during the [Page 73] hurry of Preparations, whilst our Mo­narch and his Subjects are absent, I may find an occasion to make your escape. How, a War, said I interruping her, have the Princes of this World, then, any quar­rels amongst themselves, as those of ours have? Good now, let me know their way of Fighting.

When the Arbitrators, replied she, who are freely chosen by the two Parties, have appointed the time for raising Forces for their March, the number of Combatants, the day and place of Battle, and all with so great equality, that there is not one Man more in one Army, than in the other: All the maimed Soldiers on the one side, are listed in one Company; and when they come to engage, the Mareshalls de Camp, take care to expose them to the maimed of the other side: The Giants are matched with Colosses, the Fencers with those that can handle their Weapons, the Vali­ant with the Stout, the Weak with the Infirm, the Sick with the Indisposed, the Sturdy with the Strong; and if any un­dertake to strike at another, than the E­nemy he is matched with, unless he can make it out, that it was by mistake, he is Condemned for a Coward. When the Battle is over, they take an account of the Wounded, the Dead and the Priso­ners, [Page 74] for Run-aways they have none; and if the loss be equal on both sides, they draw Cuts, who shall be Proclaimed Victori­ous.

But though a Kingdom hath defeated the Enemy in open War, yet there is hardly any thing got by it; for there are other smaller Armies of Learned and Wit­ty Men, on whose Disputations the Tri­umph or Servitude of States wholly de­pends.

One Learned Man grapples with ano­ther, one Wit with another, and one Ju­dicious Man with another Judicious Man: Now the Triumph which a State gains in this manner, is reckoned as good as three Victories by open force. After the Pro­clamation of Victory, the Assembly is bro­ken up, and the Victorious People, either chuse the Enemies King to be theirs, or con­firm their own.

I could not forbear to Laugh, at this scrupulous way of giving Battle; and for an Example of much stronger Politicks, I alledged the Customs of our Europe, where the Monarch would be sure, not to let slip any favourable occasion of gaining the day; but mind what she said as to that.

Tell me, pray, if your Princes use not a pretext of Right, when they levy Arms: No doubt, answered I, and of [Page 75] the Justice of their Cause too. Why then, replied she, do they not chuse Impartial and Unsuspected Arbitrators to compose their Differences? And if it be found, that the one has as much Right as the other, let things continue as they were; or let them play a game at Picket, for the Town or Province that's in dispute.

But why all these Circumstances, re­plied I, in your way of Fighting? Is it not enough, that both Armies are equal in the number of Men? Your Judgment is Weak, answered she. Would you think in Conscience, that if you had the bet­ter of your Enemy, Hand to Hand, in an open Field, you had fairly overcome him, if you had had on a Coat of Mail, and he none; if he had had but a Dagger, and you a Tuck; and in a Word, if he had had but one Arm, and you both yours? Nevertheless, what Equality soe­ver you may recommend to your Gladia­tors, they never fight on even terms; for the one will be a tall Man, and the other Short; the one skilful at his Wea­pon, and the other a Man that never handled a Sword; the one will be strong, and the other Weak: And though these Disproportions were not, but that the one were as skillful and strong as the o­ther; yet still they might not be rightly [Page 76] matched; for one, perhaps, may have more Courage than the other, who being rash and hot-headed, inconcerned in dan­ger, as not foreseeing it, of a bilious Tem­per, a more contracted Heart, with all the qualities that constitute Courage, (as if that, as well as a Sword, were not a Weapon which his Adversary hath not:) He makes nothing of falling desperately, upon terrifying and killing this poor Man, who foresees the danger; has his Heat choked in Phlegme, and a Heart too wide to close in the Spirits in such a posture, as is necessary for thawing that Ice, which is called Cowardise. And now you praise that Man, for having kill­ed his Enemy at odds, and praising him for his Boldness, you praise him for a Sin against nature; seeing such Boldness tends to its destruction. And this puts me in mind to tell ye, that some Years ago, ap­plication was made to the Council of War, for a more circumspect and conscientious Rule to be made, as to the way of Fight­ing. The Philosopher who gave the ad­vice, if I mistake it not, spake in this manner.

You imagine, Gentlemen, that you have very equally balanced the advantages of two Enemies, when you have chosen both Tall Men, both skillful, and both couragi­ous: But that's not enough, seeing after [Page 77] all, the Conquerour must have the better on't, either through his Skill, Strength, or good Fortune. If it be by Skill, without doubt he hath taken his Adversary on the blind side, which he did not expect; or struck him sooner than was likely, or faining to make his Pass on one side, he hath attacked him on the other: Never­theless all this is Cunning, Cheating, and Treachery, and none of these make a brave Man: If he hath triumphed by Force, would you judge his Enemy over-come, be­cause he hath been over-powered? No; doubtless, no more than you'll say, that a Man hath lost the Victory, when over­whelm'd by a Mountain, it was not in his power to gain it: Even so, the other was not overcome, because he was not in a suitable Disposition, at that nick of time, to resist the violences of his Adversary. If Chance hath given him the better of his E­nemy, Fortune ought then to be Crowned, since he hath contributed nothing to it; and, in fine, the vanquished is no more to be blamed, than he who at Dice having thrown Seventeen, is beat by another that throws three Sixes.

They confessed he was in the right; but that it was impossible, according to humane Appearances, to remedy it; and that it was better, to submit to a small inconvenience, [Page 78] than to open a door to a hundred of greater Importance.

She entertained me no longer at that time, because she was afraid to be found alone with me so early; not that Impu­dicity is a Crime in that Country: On the contrary, except Malefactors Con­victed, all Men have power over all Wo­men; and in the same manner, a Wo­man may bring her Action against a Man for refusing her: But she durst not keep me company publickly, because the Mem­bers of Council, at their last meeting, had said, That it was chiefly the Women who gave it out that I was a Man, that under that pretext they might cover the violent desire they had of enjoying Beasts, and of committing with me sins against Nature, without a blush; which was the reason, that for a long time, I neither saw her, nor any other of her Sex.

In the mean time, some must needs have revived the Disputes, about the De­finition of my Being; for whilst I was thinking of nothing else, but of dying in my Cage, I was once more brought out to have another Audience. I was then questioned, in presence of a great many Courtiers, upon some points of Na­tural Philosophy; and, as I take it, my Answers gave some kind of Satisfacti­on; [Page 79] for the President declared to me at large, his thoughts concerning the stru­cture of the World. They seemed to me very ingenious; and had he not traced it to its Original, which he maintained to be Eternal, I should have thought his Philosophy more rational than our own: But as soon as I heard him maintain a Foppery, so contrary to our Faith, I broke with him; at which he did but laugh; and that obliged me to tell him, That since they were therea­bouts with it, I began again to think, that their World was but a Moon. But then all cried, Don't you see here Earth, Rivers, Seas? what's all that then? No matter, said I, Aristotle assures us it is but a Moon; and if you had said the contrary in the Schools, where I have been bred, you would have been hissed at. At this they all burst out in laughter; you need not ask, if it was their Ignorance, that made them do so; for in the mean time I was carried back to my Cage.

But some more passionate Doctors, be­ing informed, that I had the boldness to affirm, That the Moon, from whence I came, was a World; and that their World was no more but a Moon, thought it might give them a very just pretext, to have me condemned to the Water; for [Page 80] that's their way of rooting out Hereticks. For that end, they went in a Body, and com­plained to the King, who promised them Justice; and order'd me once more to be brought to the Bar.

Now was I the third time Un-caged; and then the most Ancient spoke, and pleaded against me. I do not well re­member his Speech; because I was too much frighted, to receive the tones of his Voice without disorder; and because also in declaiming, he made use of an Instru­ment, which stunn'd me with its noise: It was a Speaking-Trumpet, which he had chosen on purpose, that by its Mar­tial Sound he might rouse them to my death; and by that Emotion of their Spi­rits, hinder Reason from performing its Office: As it happens in our Armies, where the noise of Drums and Trumpets, hinders the Souldiers from minding the importance of their Lives. When he had done, I rose up to defend my Cause; but I was excu­sed from it, by an Accident that will sur­prize you. Just as I had opened my Mouth, a Man, who with much ado had pressed through the Crowd, fell at the King's Feet, and a long while rouled him­self upon his Back in his presence. This practice did not at all surprize me, because I knew it to be the posture they put [Page 81] themselves into, when they have a mind to be heard in publick: I only stopt my own Harangue, and gave Ear to his.

Just Judges, said he, listen to me; you cannot Condemn that Man, that Monkey or Parrot, for saying, That the Moon, from whence he comes, is a World; for if he be a Man, though he were not come from the Moon, since all Men are free, is not he free also, to imagine what he pleases? How, can you constrain him not to have Visions, as well as you? You may very well force him to say, That the Moon is not a World, but he will not believe it for all that; for to believe a thing, some possibilities enclining more to the Yea, than to the Nay, must offer to ones Imagination: And unless you furnish him with that Pro­bability, or his own mind hit upon it, he may very well tell you, that he believes, but still remain an Infidel.

I am now to prove, that he ought not to be condemned, if you list him in the Cata­logue of Beasts.

For suppose him to be an Animal with­out Reason, would it be rational in you to Condemn him, for offending against it? He hath said, that the Moon is a World. Now Beasts act only by the instinct of Nature: it is Nature then that says so, and not he: To think that wise Nature, who [Page 82] hath made the World, and the Moon knows not her self what it is; and that ye who have no more Knowledge, but what ye derive from her, should more certainly know it, would be very Ridiculous. But if Passion should make you renounce your Principles, and you should suppose, that Nature does not guide Beasts; blush, at least, to think on't, that the Caprices of a Beast should so discompose you. Really, Gentlemen, should you meet with a Man come to the Years of Discretion, who made it his bu­siness to inspect the Government of Pis­mires, giving a blow to one that had over­thrown its Companion, imprisoning another that had robb'd its Neighbour of a grain of Corn, and inditing a third, for leaving its Eggs; would you not think him a mad Man, to be employed in things so far be­low him, and to pretend to give Laws to Animals, that never had Reason? How will you then, most Venerable Assembly, justifie your selves, for being so concerned at the Caprices of that little Animal? Just Judges, I have no more to say.

When he had made an end, all the Hall rung again with a kind of Musical Applause; and after all the Opinions had been canva­sed, during the space of a large quarter of an hour, the King gave Sentence:

[Page 83] That for the future, I should be reput­ed to be a Man, accordingly set at liberty; and that the Punishment of being Drown­ed, should be converted into a publick Disgrace (the most honourable way of sa­tisfying the Law in that Country) where­by I should be obliged to retract openly, what I had maintained, in saying, That the Moon was a World, because of the Scan­dal, that the novelty of that opinion, might give to weak Brethren.

This Sentence being pronounced, I was taken away out of the Palace, richly Cloath­ed; but in derision, carried in a magnifi­cent Chariot, as on a Tribunal; which four Princes in Harness drew, and in all the publick places of the Town, I was forced to make this Declaration:

Good People, I declare to you, That this Moon here is not a Moon, but a World; and that that World below is not a World, but a Moon: This the Council thinks fit you should believe. After I had Proclaimed this, in the five great places of the Town; my Advocate came and reach­ed me his Hand to help me down. I was in great amaze, when after I had Eyed him, I found him to be my Spirit; we were an hour in embracing one another: Come lodge with me, said he, for if you return to Court, after a Publick Disgrace, [Page 84] you will not be well lookt upon: Nay more, I must tell you, that you would have been still amongst the Apes yonder, as well as the Spaniard your Companion; if I had not in all Companies published the vigour and force of your Wit, and gained from your Enemies, the protection of the great Men, in your favours. I ceased not to thank him all the way, till we came to his Lodgings; there he entertained me till Supper-time, with all the Engines he had set a work to prevail with my Enemies. Notwithstanding, the most specious pre­texts they had used for riding the Mobile, to desist from so unjust a Prosecution: But as they came to acquaint us, that Supper was upon the Table, he told me, that to bear me company that evening, he had in­vited Two Professors of the University of the Town to Sup with him: I'll make them, said he, fall upon the Philosophy, which they teach in this World, and by that means you shall see my Landlord's Son: He's as Witty a Youth as ever I met with; he would prove another Socrates, if he could use his Parts aright, and not bury in Vice the Graces wherewith God continually visits him, by affecting a Libertinism, as he does, out of a Chi­merical Ostentation and Affectation of the name of a Wit. I have taken Lodg­ings [Page 85] here, that I may lay hold on all Opportunities of Instructing him: He said no more, that he might give me the Liberty to speak, if I had a mind to it; and then made a sign, that they should strip me of my disgraceful Orna­ments, in which I still glistered.

The Two Professors, whom we ex­pected, entered, just as I was undrest, and we went to sit down to Table, where the Cloth was laid, and where we found the Youth, he had mentioned to me, fal­len to already. They made him a low Reverence, and treated him with as much respect, as a Slave does his Lord. I asked my Spirit the reason of that, who made me answer, that it was because of his Age; seeing in that World, the Aged rendered all kind of Respect and Diffe­rence to the Young; and which is far more, that the Parents obeyed their Chil­dren, so soon as by the Judgment of the Senate of Philosophers, they had attained to the Years of Discretion. You are ama­zed, continued he, at a Custom so con­trary to that of your Country; but it is not all repugnant to Reason: For say, in your Conscience, when a brisk young Man is at his Prime in Imagining, Judg­ing, and Acting, is not he fitter to go­vern a Family, than a Decrepit piece of [Page 86] Threescore Years, dull and doting, whose Imagination is frozen under the Snow of Sixty Winters, who follows no other Guide, but what you call, the Ex­perience of happy Successes; and yet are no more, but the bare effects of Chance, against all the Rules and Oeconomy of humane Prudence? And as for Judg­ment, he hath but little of that neither, though the people of your World make it the Portion of Old Age: But to unde­ceive them, they must know, That that which is called Prudence in an Old Man, is no more but a panick Apprehension, and a mad Fear of acting any thing, where there is danger: So that when he does not run a Risk, wherein a Young Man hath lost himself; it is not that he foresaw the Catastrophe, but because he had not Fire enough to kindle those noble Flashes, which make us dare: Whereas the Boldness of that Young Man, was as a pledge of the good Suc­cess of his design; because the same Ar­dour that speeds and facilitates the execu­tion, thrust him upon the undertaking. As for Execution, I should wrong your Judgment; if I endeavoured to convince it by proofs: You know that Youth a­lone is proper for Action; and were you ont fully perswaded of this, tell me, pray, [Page 87] when you respect a Man of Courage, is it not because he can revenge you on your Enemies or Oppressors? And does any thing, but meer Habit, make you con­sider him, when a Battalion of Seventy Januarys hath frozen his Blood, and chilled all the noble Heats that youth is warmed with? When you yeild to the Stronger, is it not that he should be ob­liged to you for a Victory, which you can Dispute him? Why then should you submit to him, when Laziness hath softened his Muscles, weakened his Ar­teries, evaporated his Spirits, and suckt the Marrow out of his Bones? If you adore a Woman, is it not because of her Beauty? Why should you then continue your Cringes, when Old Age hath made her a Ghost, which only re­presents a hideous Picture of Death? In short, When you loved a Witty Man, it was because by the Quickness of his Apprehension, he unravelled an intricate Affair, seasoned the choicest Companies with his quaint Sayings, and sounded the depth of Sciences with a single Thought; and do you still honour him, when his worn Organs disappoint his weak Nod­dle, when he is become dull and uneasy in Company, and when he looks like an aged Fairy rather than a rational Man? [Page 86] [...] [Page 87] [...] [Page 88] Conclude then from thence, Son, that it is fitter Young Men should govern Fami­lies, than Old; and the rather, that accord­ing to your own Principles, Hercules, Achilles, Epaminondas, Alexander, and Caesar, of whom most part died under Fourty Years of Age, could have merited no Honours, as being too Young in your account, though their Youth was the only cause of their Famous Actions; which a more advanced Age would have render­ed ineffectual, as wanting that Heat and Promptitude, that rendered them so high­ly successful. But you'll tell me, that all the Laws of your World, do carefully en­join the Respect that is due to Old Men: That's true; but it is as true also, that all who made Laws, have been Old Men, who feared that Young Men might justly have dispossessed them of the Authority they had usurped —

You owe nothing to your mortal Ar­chitector, but your Body only; your Soul comes from Heaven, and Chance might have made your Father your Son, as now you are his. Nay, are you sure he hath not hindered you from Inheriting a Crown? Your Spirit left Heaven, per­haps with a design to animate the King of the Romans, in the Womb of the Emperess; it casually encountered the Embryo of [Page 89] you by the way, and it may be to shorten its journey, went and lodged there: No, no, God would never have razed your name out of the List of Mankind, though your Father had died a Child. But who knows, whether you might not have been at this day the work of some va­liant Captain, that would have associa­ted you to his Glory, as well as to his Estate. So that, perhaps, you are no more indebted to your Father, for the life he hath given you, than you would be to a Pirate who had put you in Chains, because he feeds you: Nay, grant he had begot you a Prince, or King; a Present loses its merit, when it is made with­out the Option of him who receives it. Caesar was killed, and so was Cassius too: In the mean time Cassius was obliged to the Slave, from whom he begg'd his Death, but so was not Caesar to his Mur­derers, who forced it upon him. Did your Father consult your Will and Plea­sure, when he Embraced your Mother? Did he ask you, if you thought fit to see that Age, or to wait for another; if you would be satisfied to be the Son of a Sot, or if you had the Ambition to spring from a Brave Man? Alas, you whom alone the business concerned, were [Page 90] the only Person not consulted in the case. May be then, had you been shut up any where else, than in the Womb of Nature's Ideas, and had your Birth been in your own Opinion, you would have said to the Parca, my dear Lady, take another Spindle in your Hand: I have lain very long in the Bed of No­thing, and I had rather continue an Hun­dred years still without a Being, than to Be to day, that I may repent of it to morrow: However, Be you must, it was to no purpose for you to whimper and squall, to be back again, at the long and darksome House they drew you out of, they made as if they believed you cryed for the Teat.

These are the Reasons, at least some of them, my Son, why Parents bear so much respect to their Children: I know very well, that I have inclined to the Chil­drens side, more than in justice I ought; and that in favour of them, I have spoken a little against my Conscience. But since I was willing to repress the Pride of some Parents, who insult over the weakness of their little Ones; I have been forced to do as they do, who to make a crooked Tree streight, bend it to the contrary side, that betwixt two Conversions it may be­come [Page 91] even: Thus I have made Fathers re­store to their Children what they have taken from them, by taking from them a great deal that belonged to them; that so another time they may be con­tent with their own. I know very well also, that by this Apology I have offend­ed all Old men: But let them remem­ber, that they were Children before they were Fathers, and Young before they were Old; and that I must needs have spoken a great deal to their advantage, seeing they were not found in a Parsley­bed: But, in fine, fall back, fall edge, though my Enemies draw up against my Friends, it will go well enough still with me; for I have obliged all men, and only disobliged but one half.

With that he held his tongue, and our Landlord's Son spake in this manner: Give me leave, said he to him, since by your care I am informed of the Origi­nal, History, Customs, and Philosophy of the World, of this little Man; to add something to what you have said; and to prove that Children are not ob­liged to Parents for their Generation, because their Parents were obliged in Conscience to procreate them.

The strictest Philosophy of their World [Page 92] acknowledges that, it is better to dye, since to dye, one must have lived, than not to have had a Being. Now seeing, by not giving a Being to that Nothing, I leave it in a state worse than Death, I am more guilty in not producing, than in killing it. In the mean time, my little Man, thou wouldst think thou hadst committed an unpardonable Parra­cide, shouldst thou have cut thy Sons throat: It would indeed be an enor­mous Crime, but it is far more execrable, not to give a Being to that which is capable of receiving it: For that Child whom thou deprivest of life for ever, hath had the satisfaction of having en­joyed it for some time. Besides, we know that it is but deprived of it, but for some ages; but these forty poor little Nothings, which thou mightest have made forty good Souldiers for the King, thou art so malicious as to deny them Life, and lettest them corrupt in thy Reins, to the danger of an Apoplexy, which will stifle thee.

This Philosophy did not at all please me, which made me three or four times shake my Head; but our Preceptor held his tongue, because Supper was mad to be gone.

[Page 93] We laid our selves along, then, upon very soft Quilts, covered with large Car­pets; and a young man that waited on us, taking the oldest of our Philosophers, led him into a little arlour apart, where my Spirit called to him, to come back to us, assoon as he had supped.

This humour of eating separately, gave me the curiosity of asking the Cause of it: He'll not relish, said he, the steam of Meat, nor yet of Herbs, unless they die of themselves, because he thinks they are sensible of Pain. I wonder not so much, replied I, that he abstains from Flesh, and all things that have had a sensitive Life: For in our World the Py­thagoreans, and even some holy Anchorites, have followed that Rule; but not to dare, for instance, cut a Cabbage, for fear of hurting it; that seems to me altoge­ther ridiculous. And for my part, an­swered my Spirit, I find a great deal of probability in his Opinion.

For tell me, Is not that Cabbage you speak of, a Being existent in Nature, as well as you? Is not she the common Mother of you both? Nay it would even seem that she hath taken more care of the Vegetable, than of the Rational, since she hath referred the Generation of [Page 94] a Man to the Caprices of his Father, who may, according as he has a mind to it, beget him, or not beget him: A rigour wherewith she hath not treated the Cabbage; for instead of remitting it to the discretion of the Father, to gene­rate the Son, as if she had been more fearful, least the Race of Cabbage should perish, than that of Man; she for­ces them, whether they will or no, to give a Being to another, and not so as Men, who engender not, but according to their Whimseys; and who, during their whole life, cannot procreate above a Score; whereas Cabbages can produce many Thousands a Head. Yet the Opi­nion that Nature is kinder to Mankind, than to Cabbage-kind, tickles and makes us laugh: But seeing she is incapable of Passion, she can neither love, nor hate any thing; and were she susceptible of Love, she would rather bestow her af­fection upon this Cabbage, which you grant cannot offend her, than upon that Man who would destroy her, if it lay in his power. And moreover, Man can­not be born Innocent, being a Part of the first Offendor: But we know very well, that the first Cabbage did not of­fend its Creator. If it be said, that we [Page 95] are made after the Image of the Su­preme Being, and so is not the Cabbage; grant that to be true; yet by polluting our Soul, wherein we resembled Him, we have effaced that Likeness, seeing no­thing is more contrary to God than Sin. If then our Soul be no longer his Image, we resemble him no more in our Feet, Hands, Mouth, Forehead and Ears, than a Cabbage in its Leaves, Flowers, Stalk, Pith, and Head: Do not you really think, that if this poor Plant could speak, when one cuts it, it would not say, Dear Bro­ther Man, what have I done to thee that deserves Death? I never grow but in Gardens, and am never to be found in desart places, where I might live in Security: I disdain all other company but thine; and scarcely am I sowed in thy Garden, when to shew thee my Good­will, I blow, stretch out my Arms to thee; offer thee my Children in Grain; and as a requital for my civility, thou causest my Head to be chopt off. Thus would a Cabbage discourse, if it could speak. Well, and because it cannot com­plain, may we therefore justly do it all the Wrong which it cannot hinder? If I find a Wretch bound Hand and Foot, may I lawfully kill him, because he can­not [Page 96] defend himself; so far from that, that his Weakness would aggravate my Cruelty? And though this wretched Crea­ture be poor, and destitute of all the ad­vantages which we have, yet it deserves not Death; and when of all the Benefits of a Being, it hath only that of Encrease, we ought not cruelly to snatch that away from it. To massacre a Man, is not so great Sin, as to cut and kill a Cabbage, because one day the Man will rise again, but the Cabbage has no other Life to hope for: By putting to death a Cab­bage, you annihilate it; but in killing a Man, you make him only change his Habitation: Nay, I'll go farther with you still, since God doth equally cherish all his Works, and hath equally divided his Benefits betwixt Us, and Plants, it is but just we should have an equal Esteem for Them, as for our Selves. It is true, we were born first, but in the Family of God there is no Birth-right. If then the Cabbage share not with us in the in­heritance of Immortality, without doubt, that Want was made up by some other Advantage, that may make amends for the short ness of its Being; may be by an universal Intellect, or a perfect Know­ledge of all things in their Causes; [Page 97] and it's for that Reason, that the wise Mov­er of all things, hath not shaped for it Or­gans like ours, which are proper only for a simple Reasoning, not only weak, but ma­ny times fallacious too; but others, more ingeniously framed, stronger, and more numerous, which serve to manage its Spe­culative Exercises. You'll ask me, per­haps, when ever any Cabbage, imparted those lofty Conceptions to us? But tell me, again, who ever discovered to us cer­tain Beings, which we allow to be above us; to whom, we bear no Analogy, nor Proportion, and whose Existence, it is as hard for us to comprehend, as the Under­standing and Ways, whereby a Cabbage expresses its self to its like, though not to us, because our Senses are too dull to pene­trate so far.

Moses, the greatest of Philosophers, who drew the Knowledge of Nature, from the Fountain-Head, Nature her self, hinted this truth to us, when he spoke of the Tree of Knowledge; and without doubt, he intended to intimate to us, under that Figure, that Plants, in Exclusion to Man­kind, possess perfect Philosophy. Remem­ber, then, O thou Proudest of Animals I that though a Cabbage which thou cuttest, sayeth not a Word, yet it pays it at Think­ing; but the poor Vegetable, has no fit [Page 98] Organs to howl as you do, nor yet to frisk it about, and weep: Yet, it hath those that are proper to complain of the Wrong you do it, and to draw a Judgement from Heaven upon you for the Injustice. But if you still demand of me, how I come to know, that Cabbage and Coleworts con­ceive such pretty Thoughts? Then will I ask you, how come you to know that they do not? And that some amongst them, when they shut up at Night, may not Compliment one another, as you do, saying: Good Night, Master Cole-Curled-Pate; your most humble Servant, good Master Cabbage-Round-Head.

So far was he gone on in his Discourse, when the young Lad, who had led out our Philosopher, led him in again; What, Supped already? cryed my Spirit to him. He answered, yes, almost: The Physiogno­mist having permitted him to take a little more with us. Our young Landlord stay­ed not, till I should ask him the meaning of that Mystery; I perceive, said he, you wonder at this way of Living; know then, that in your World, the Govern­ment of Health is too much neglected, and that our Method is not to be de­spised.

[Page 99] In all Houses, there is a Physiognomist entertained by the Publick, who in some manner, resembles your Physicians, save that he only prescribes to the Healthful, and judges of the different manner, how we are to be Treated, only according to the Proportion, Figure, and Symetry of our Members; by the Features of the Face, the Complexion, the Softness of the Skin, the Agility of the Body, the Sound of the Voice, and the Colour, Strength, and Hardness of the Hair. Did not you just now mind a Man, of a pretty low Stature, why ey'd you; he was the Physiognomist of the House: Assure your self, that ac­cording as he observed your Constitution, he hath diversified the Exhalation of your Supper: Mark the Quilt on which you lie, how distant it is from our Couches; with­out doubt, he judged your Constitution to be far different from ours; since he feared, that the Odour which evaporates from those little Pipkins, that stand under our Noses, might reach you, or that yours might steam to us; at Night, you'll see him chuse the Flowers for your Bed, with the same Circumspection. During all this Discourse, I made Signs to my Landlord, that he would try, if he could oblige the Philosophers, to fall upon some head of the Science, which they professed. He was [Page 100] too much my Friend, not to start an Oc­casion upon the Spot: But not to trou­ble the Reader, with the Discourse, and Entreaties, that were previous to the Treaty, wherein Jest and Earnest were so wittily interwoven, that it can hardly be imitated; I'll only tell you, that the Doctor, who came last, after many things, spake as follows:

It remains to be proved, that there are infinite Worlds, in an infinite World: Fancy to your self then the Universe, as a great Animal, and that the Stars, which are Worlds, are in this great Animal, as other great Animals, that serve recipro­cally for Worlds to other People. Such as we, our Horses, &c. That we in our turns, are likewise Worlds to certain other Animals, incomparably less than our selves, such as Nits, Lice, Hand-worms, &c. And that these are on Earth, to others more imperceptible ones; in the same manner, as every one of us, appears to be a great World, to these little People. Perhaps, our Flesh, Blood, and Spirits, are nothing else, but a Contexture of little Animals that correspond, lend us Motion from theirs, and blindly suffer themselves to be guided by our Will, which is their Coach­man; or otherwise conduct us, and all Conspiring together, produce that Action [Page 101] which we call Life. For tell me, pray, is it a hard thing to be believed, that a Louse takes your Body for a World; and that when any one of them, travels from one of your Ears to the other, his Companions say, that he hath travelled the Earth, from end to end, or that he hath run from one Pole to the other? Yes, without doubt, those little People, take your Hair for the Forests of their Country; the Pores full of Liquor, for Fountains; Buboes and Pim­ples, for Lakes and Ponds; Boils, for Seas; and Defluxions, for Deluges: And when you Comb your self, forwards, and back­wards, they take that Agitation, for the Flowing and Ebbing of the Ocean. Doth not Itching make good what I say? What is the little Worm that causes it, but one of these little Animals, which hath broken off from civil Society, that it may set up for a Tyrant in its Country? If you ask me, why are they bigger than other im­perceptible Creatures? I ask you, why are Elephants bigger than we? And the Irish-men, than Spaniards? As to the Bli­sters, and Scurff, which you know not the Cause of; they must either happen by the Corruption of their Enemies, which these little Blades have killed, or which the Plague has caused by the scarcity of Food, for which the Seditious wor­ried [Page 102] one another, and left Mountains of Dead Carcases rotting in the Field; or because the Tyrant, having driven away on all Hands his Companions, who by their Bodies, stopt up the Pores of ours, hath made way out for the waterish Matter, which being extravasated, and out of the Sphere of the Circulation of our Blood, is corrupted. It may be asked, perhaps, why a Nit, or Hand-worm, produces so many disorders? But that's easily conceived; for as one Revolt begets another, so these little People, egg'd on by the bad Example of their Seditious Companions, aspire several­ly to Soveraign Command; and occasion every where, War, Slaughter, and Famine. But you'll say, some are far less subject to Itching, than others; and, nevertheless, all are equally inhabited by these little Ani­mals, since you say, they are the Cause of our Life. That's true; for we observe, that Phlegmatick People, are not so much given to scratching as the Cholerick; be­cause the People sympathizing with the Climate they inhabit, are slower in a cold Body, than those others that are heated by the temper of their Region, who frisk and stir, and cannot rest in a place: Thus a Cholerick Man, is more delicate than a Phlegmatick; because being animated in many more Parts, and the Soul, being [...]he [Page 103] Action of these little Beasts, he is capable of Feeling, in all places where those Cat­tle stir. Whereas, the Phlegmatick Man, wanting sufficient Heat to put that stir­ring Mobile in Action, is sensible but in a few places; and to prove more plain­ly that universal Vermicularity, you need but consider, when you are wounded, how the Blood runs to the Sore: Your Doctors say, that it is guided by provi­dent Nature, who would succour the parts debilitated; which might make us conclude, that, besides the Soul and Mind, there were a third intellectual Substance, that had distinct Organs and Functions: And therefore, it seems to me far more Rational, to say, That these little Animals, finding themselves attacked, send to de­mand Assistance from their Neighbours, and that Recruits flocking in from all Parts, and the Country being too little to contain so many, they either die of Hunger, or are stifled in the Press. That Mortality hap­pens when the Boil is ripe; for as an Ar­gument, that these Animals at that time are stifled, the Flesh becomes insensible: Now, if Blood-letting, which is many times ordered to divert the Fluxion, do any good, it is because, much being lost by the Orifice, which these little Animals laboured to stop, they refuse their Allies [Page 104] Assistance, having no more Forces, than is enough to defend themselves at home.

Thus he concluded, and when the se­cond Philosopher, perceived by all our Looks, that we longed to hear him speak in his turn:

Men, said he, seeing you are curious to instruct this little Animal, (our like) in somewhat of the Science which we pro­fess, I am now dictating a Treatise, which I wish he might see, because of the Light it gives to the Understanding of our Na­tural Philosophy; it is an Explication of the Original of the World: But seeing I am in haste to set my Bellows at work, (for to Morrow, without delay, the Town departs;) I hope you'll excuse my want of time, and I promise to satisfie you, as­soon as the Town is arrived, at the place whither it is to go.

At these words, the Landlord's Son cal­led his Father, to know what it was a Clock? who having answered him, that it was past Eight, he asked him in a great Rage, Why he did not give him notice at Seven, according as he had commanded him, that he knew well enough, the Houses were to be gone to Morrow; and that the City Walls were already upon their Journey? Son, replyed the good Man, since you sate down to Table, there is an Order publish­ed, [Page 105] That no House shall budg before next day: That's all one, answered the young Man; you ought blindly to obey, not to examine my Orders, and only remember what I commanded you. Quick, go fetch me your Effigies: So soon as it was brought, he took hold on't by the Arm, and Whipt it a whole quarter of an Hour: Away you ne'er be good, continued he, as a Punish­ment for your disobedience; it's my Will and Pleasure, that this day you serve for a Laughing-stock to all People; and there­fore I command you, not to walk but upon two Legs, till Night. The Poor Man went out in a very mournful Condition, and the Young Man excused to us his Passion.

I had much ado, though I bit my Lip, to forbear Laughing at so pleasant a Pu­nishment; and therefore to take me off of this odd piece of Pedantick Discipline, which, without doubt, would have made me burst out at last; I prayed my Philosopher to tell me, what he meant by that Journey of the Town, he talked of, and if the Houses and Walls Travelled? Dear Stran­ger, answered he, we have some Ambula­tory Towns, and some Sedentary; the Am­bulatory, as for instance, this wherein now we are, are Built in this manner: The Architector, as you see, builds every Pa­lace of a very light sort of Timber; sup­ported [Page 106] by four Wheels underneath; in the thickness of one of the Walls, he places ten large pair of Bellows, whose Snouts pass in a Horizontal Line, through the upper Story, from one Pinacle to the other; so that when Towns are to be removed, from one place to another, (for according to the Seasons they change the Air) every one spreads a great many large Sails, upon one side of the House, before the Noses of the Bellows; then having wound up a Spring, to make them play, in less then Eight days time, their Houses by the continual Puffs, which these Windy Monsters blow, are driven, if one pleases, an Hundred Leagues and more. For those which we call Sen­dentary, they are almost like to your Towers; save that they are of Timber, and that they have a Great and Strong Skrew, or Vice in the Middle, reaching from the Top to the Bottom; whereby they may be hoisted up, or let down as People please. Now the Ground under­neath, is dugg as deep as the House is high; and it is so ordered, that so soon as the Frosts begin to chill the Air, they may sink their Houses down under Ground, where they keep themselves secure from the Severity of the Weather: But assoon as the gentle Breathings of the Spring, begin to soften and qualifie the Air; they raise [Page 107] them above Ground again, by means of the great Skrew I told you of. I prayed him, since he had shew'd me so much good­ness, and that the Town was not to part till next day, that he would tell me some­what of that Original of the World, which he had mentioned not long before; and I promise you, said I, that in requital, so soon as I am got back to the Moon, from whence my Governour (pointing to my Spirit) will tell you that I am come, I'll spread your Renown there, by relat­ing the rare things you shall tell me: I perceive you Laugh at that promise, be­cause you do not believe, that the Moon, I speak of, is a World, and that I am an Inhabitant of it; but I can assure you al­so, that the People of that World, who take this only for a Moon, will Laugh at me, when I tell them that your Moon is a World, and that there are Fields, and Inhabitants in it: He answered only with a smile, and spake in this manner:

Since in Ascending to the Original of this great ALL, we are forced to run in­to three or four Absurdities; it is but rea­sonable we should follow the way, where­in we may be least apt to stumble. I say then, that the first Obstacle that stops us short, is the Eternity of the World; and the minds of men, not being able enough to [Page 108] conceive it, and being no more able to ima­gine, that this great Universe, so lovely and so well ordered, could have made it self, they have had their recourse to Creati­on: But like to him that would leap into a River, for fear of being wet with Rain, they save themselves out of the Clutches of a Dwarf, by running into the Arms of a Giant; and yet they are not safe for all that: For that Eternity which they deny the World, because they cannot compre­hend it, they attribute it to God, as if he stood in need of that Present, and as if it were easier to imagine it, in the one than in the other; for tell me, pray, was it e­ver yet conceived in Nature, how Some­thing can be made of Nothing? Alas! betwixt Nothing and an Atome only, there are such infinite Disproportions, that the sharpest Wit could never dive into them; therefore to get out of this inextricable La­byrinth, you must admit of a Matter Eter­nal with God: But you'l say to me, grant I should allow you that Eternal Matter; how could that Chaos dispose and order it self? That's the thing I am about to ex­plain to you.

My little Animal, after you have men­tally divided every little Visible Body, in­to an infinite many little invisible Bodies; you must imagine, That the infinite Universe [Page 109] consists only of these Atomes, which are most solid, most incorruptible, and most simple; whose Figures are partly Cubical, partly Parallelograms, partly Angular, part­ly Round, partly Sharp-pointed, partly Pyramidal, partly Six-cornered, and part­ly Oval; which act all severally, accord­ing to their Various Figures: And to shew that it is so, put a very round Ivory Bowl upon a very smooth place, and with the least touch you give, it will be half a quarter of an hour before it rest: Now I say, that if it were perfectly round, as some of the Atomes I speak of are, and the Sur­face on which it is put perfectly smooth, it would never rest. If Art then be capable of inclining a Body to a perpetual Motion, why may we not believe that Nature can do it? It's the same with the other Fi­gures, of which the Square require a per­petual Rest, others an oblique Motion, o­thers a half Motion, as Trepidation; and the Round, whose Nature is to move, joyning a Pyramidal, makes that, perhaps, which we call Fire; because not only Fire is in conti­nual Agitation, but also because it easily penetrates: Besides, the Fire hath diffe­rent effects, according to the opening and quality of the Angles, when the round Fi­gure is joyned; for Example, The Fire of Pepper is another thing, than the Fire of [Page 110] Sugar, the Fire of Sugar differs from that of Cinnamon; that of Cinnamon, from that of the Clove; and this from the Fire of a Faggot. Now the Fire, which is the Ar­chitect of the parts and whole of the Uni­verse, hath driven together, and Congre­gated into an Oak, the quantity of Figures which are necessary for the Composition of that Oak: But you'l say, how could Ha­zard congregate into one place, all the Fi­gures that are necessary for the production of that Oak? I answer, That it is no wonder that Matter so disposed, should form an Oak; but the wonder would have been greater, if the Matter being so dispos­ed, the Oak had not been produced, had there been a few less of some Figures, it would have been an Elm, a Poplar, a Wil­low; and fewer of 'em still, it would have been the Sensitive Plant, an Oyster, a Worm, a Flie, a Frog, a Sparrow, an Ape, a Man. If three Dice being flung upon a Table, there happen a Raffle of two, or all, a three, a four, and a five, or two sixes, and a third in the bottom, would you say, O strange! that each Die should turn up such a chance, when there were so many others. A Sequence of three hath happen­ed, O strange! Two sixes turned up, and the bottom of the third, O strange! I am sure that being a man of Sense, you'l never [Page 111] make such Exclamations; for since there is but a certain quantity of Numbers upon the Dice, it's impossible but some of them must turn up; and you wonder, after that, how matter shuffled together Pell-Mell, as Chance pleases, should make a Man, seeing so many things were necessary for the Con­struction of his Being. You know not then, that this Matter tending to the Fabrick of a Man, hath been a Million of times stopt in it's Progress, for forming sometimes a Stone, sometimes Lead, sometimes Coral, some­times a Flower, sometimes a Comet; and all because of more or less Figures, that were required for the framing of a Man: So that it is no greater wonder, if amongst infinite Matters, which incessantly change and stir, some have hit upon the construction of the few Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals which we see, than if in a Hundred Casts of the Dice, one should throw a Raffle: Nay, indeed, it is impossible, that in this hurling of things, nothing should be pro­duced; and yet this will be always admired by a Block-head, who little knows how small a matter, would have made it to have been o­therwise. When the great River of [...] makes a Mill to Grind, guides the Wheels of a Clock, and the Brook of [...] [Page 112] only runs, and sometimes absconds, you will not say, that that River hath a great deal of Wit, because you know that it hath met with things, disposed for producing such rare Feats; for had not the Mill stood in the way, it would not have ground the Corn; had it not met the Clock, it would not have marked the Hours: and if the little Rivulet I speak of, had met with the same Opportunities, it would have wrought the very same Miracles. Just so it is with the Fire that moves of it self; for finding Or­gans fit for the Act of Reasoning, it Rea­sons; when it finds only such, as are pro­per for Sensation, it Sensates; and when such as are fit for Vegetation, it Vegetates. And to prove it is so, put out but the Eyes of a Man, the Fire of whose Soul makes him to see, and he will cease to see; just as our great Clock will leave off to make the Hours, if the Movements of it be broken.

In fine, these Primary and indivisible Atomes, make a Circle, whereon without difficulty move the most perplexed Difficul­ties of Natural Philosophy, not so much as even the very Operation of the Senses, which no Body hitherto hath been able to conceive, but I will easily explain by these little Bodies. Let us begin with the Sight. It deserves, as being the most incomprehensi­ble, our first Essay.

[Page 113] It is performed then, as I imagine, when the Tunicles of the Eye, whose Pores re­semble those of Glass, transmitting that fiery Dust, which is called Visual Rays, the same is stopt by some opacous Mat­ter, which makes it recoil; and then, meet­ing in its retreat the Image of the Object, that forced it back, and that Image, be­ing but an infinite number of little Bo­dies, exhaled in an equal Superfice, from the Object beheld; it pursues it to our Eye: You'll not fail to Object, I know, that Glass is an Opacous Body, and very Compact; and that nevertheless, instead of reflecting other Bodies, it lets them pass through: But I answer, that the Pores of Glass, are shaped in the same Figure, as those Atomes are which pass through it; and as a Wheat-Sieve is not proper for Sifting of Oats, nor an Oat-Sieve to Sift Wheat; so a Box of Deal-Board, though it be thin, and lets a sound go through it, is impene­trable to the Sight; and a piece of Chry­stal, though transparent, and pervious to the Eye, is not penetrable to the Touch. I could not here forbear to interrupt him: A great Poet and Philosopher of our World, said I, hath, after Epicurus and Democritus, spoken of these little Bodies, in the same manner almost as you do; and therefore, you don't at all surprise me, by [Page 114] that Discourse: Only, tell me, I pray, as you proceed, how, according to your Prin­ciples, you'll explain to me, the manner of drawing your Picture in a Looking-Glass, That's very easie, replied he, for imagine with your self, that those Fires of our Eyes, having passed through the Glass, and meeting behind it an Opacous Body, that reverberates them, they come back the way they went; and finding those lit­tle Bodies, marching in equal Superfices upon the Glass, they repel them to our Eyes; and our Imagination, hotter than the other Faculties of our Soul, attracts the more subtile, wherewith it draws our Picture in little.

It is as easie to conceive the Act of Hearing, and for Brevities sake, let us only consider it in the Harmony of a Lute, touched by the Hand of a Master. You'll ask me, How can it be, that I perceive at so great a distance, a thing which I do not see? Does there a Sponge go out of my Ears, that drinks up that Musick, and brings it back with it again? Or does the Player, beget in my Head another little Musician, with another little Lute, who has Orders like an Eccho, to sing over to me the same Airs? No; But that Miracle proceeds from this, that the String touched, striking those little Bodies, of which the [Page 115] Air is composed, drives it gently into my Brain, with those little Corporeal Nothings, that sweetly pierce into it; and according as the String is stretched, the Sound is high, be­cause it more vigorously drives the Atomes; and the Organ being thus penetrated, furnisheth the Fancy, wherewith to make a Representation; if too little, then our Memory, not having as yet finished its I­mage, we are forced to repeat the same sound to it again; to the end it may take enough of Materials, which, for Instance, the Measures of a Saraband, furnish it with, for finishing the Picture of that Saraband; but that Operation, is nothing near so won­derful, as those others, which by the help of the same Organ, excite us sometimes to Joy, sometimes to Anger.—

And this happens, when in that motion, these little Bodies, meet with other little Bodies within us, moving in the same manner, or whose Figure, renders them susceptible of the same Agitation; for then these New-comers, stir up their Landlords to move as they do; & thus, when a violent Air meets with the Fire of our Blood, it inclines it to the same Mo­tion, and animates it to a Sally, which is the thing we call Heat of Courage; if the Sound be softer, and have only force enough to raise a less Flame, in greater A­gitation, by leading it along the Nerves, [Page 116] Membranes, and through the interstices of our Flesh, it excites that Tickling which is called Joy: And so it happens, in the Ebullition of the other Passions, according as these little Bodies, are more or less vio­lently tossed upon us, according to the Motion they receive, by the rencounter of other Agitations, and according as they find Dispositions in us for motion. So much for Hearing.

Now, I think the Demonstration of Touching, will be every whit as easie; if we conceive, that out of all palpable Mat­ter, there is a perpetual Emission of little Bodies, and that the more we touch them, the more evaporate; because, we press them out of the Subject it self, as Water out of a Sponge, when we squeez it. The Hard, make a report to the Organ, of their Hardness; the Soft, of their Softness; the Rough, &c. And that this is so, we are not so quaint in Feeling with Hands used to Labour, because of the Thickness of the Skin, which being neither porous, nor animated, with difficulty transmits the Evaporations of Matter. Some, perhaps, may desire to know, where the Organ of Touching has its Residence. For my part, I think it is spread over all the Surface of the Body, seeing in all parts it feels: Yet I imagine, that the nearer the Member, where­with [Page 117] we touch, be to the Head, the soon­er we distinguish; which Experience con­vinces us of, when with shut Eyes we handle any thing, for then we'll more ea­sily guess what it is; and if on the contra­ry, we feel it with our hinder Feet, it will be harder for us to know it: And the Reason is, because our Skin being all over perforated, our Nerves, which are of no compacter Matter, lose by the way a great many of those little Atomes, through the little Holes of their Contexture, before they reach the Brain, which is their Jour­neys end: It remains, that I speak of the Smelling and Tasting.

Pray tell me, when I taste a Fruit, is it not because the Heat of my Mouth melts it? Confess to me then, that there being Salts in a Pear, and that they being sepa­rated by Dissolution, into little Bodies of a different Figure, from those which make the Taste of an Apple; they must needs pierce our Pallate, in a very different man­ner: Just so as the thrust of a Pike, that passes through me, is not like the Wound which a Pistol-Bullet makes me feel, with a sudden start; and as that Pistol-Bullet, makes me suffer another sort of Pain, than that of a Slug of Steel.

[Page 118] I have nothing to say, as to the Smel­ling, seeing the Philosophers themselves confess, that it is performed by a continu­al Emission of little Bodies.

Now, upon the same Principle, will I explain to you, the Creation, Harmony, and Influence of the Celestial Globes, with the immutable Variety of Mete­ors.

He was about to proceed; but the Old Landlord coming in, made our Philosopher think of withdrawing: He brought in Chri­stals full of Glow-worms, to light the Par­lour; but seeing those little fiery Insects, lose much of their Light, when they are not fresh gathered, these which were ten days old, had hardly any at all. My Spi­rit stayed not, till the Company should complain of it, but went up to his Cham­ber, and came immediately back again, with two Bowls of Fire so Sparkling, that all wondred he burnt not his Fingers. These incombustible Tapers, said he, will serve us better than your Week of Worms. They are Rays of the Sun, which I have purged from their Heat; otherwise, the corrosive qualities of their Fire, would have dazled, and offended your Eyes; I have fixed their Light, and inclosed it within these transparent Bowls. That ought not to afford you any great Cause of Ad­miration; [Page 119] for it is not harder for me, who am a Native of the Sun, to condense his Beams, which are the Dust of that World, than it is for you, to gather the Atomes of the pulveriz'd Earth of this World. There­upon our Landlord sent a Servant, to wait upon the Philosophers home, it being then Night, with a dozen Globes of Glow-worms hanging at his four Legs. As for my Preceptor, and my self, we went to rest, by order of the Phisiognomist. He laid me that Night in a Chamber of Vio­lets and Lillies, ordered me to be tick­led after the usual manner; and next Morn­ing about Nine a Clock, my Spirit came in, and told me, that he was come from Court, where [...] One of the Queens Maids of Honour had sent for him, and that she had enquired after me, protesting that she still persisted in her Design, to be as good as her Word; that is, that with all her Heart she would follow me, if I would take her along with me to the other World; which exceedingly pleased me, said he, when I understood, that the chief Motive, which inclined her to the Voyage, was to become Christian: And therefore, I have promi­sed to forward her Design, what lies in me; and for that end, to invent a Machine, that may hold three or four, wherein you [Page 120] may mount to day, both together, if you think fit. I'll go seriously set about the performance of my Undertaking; and in the mean time, to entertain you, during my Absence, I leave you here a Book, which heretofore I brought with me from my Na­tive Countrey; the Title of it is, The States and Empires of the Sun, with an Ad­dition of the History of the Spark. I also give you this, which I esteem much more, it is the great Work of the Philosophers, composed by one of the greatest Wits of the Sun. He proves in it, that all things are true, and shews the way of uniting Physically, the Truths of every Contradi­ction; as, for Example, That White is Black, and Black White; that one may be, and not be at the same time; that there may be a Mountain without a Valley; that nothing is something, and that all things that are, are not; but observe, that he proves all these unheard-of Paradoxes, without any Captious or Sophistical Argument. When you are weary of Reading, you may Walk, or Converse with our Landlord's Son, he has a very Charming Wit; but that which I dislike in him is, that he is a little Athe­istical. If he chance to Scandalize you, or by any Argument shake your Faith, fail not immediately to come and propose it to me, and I'll clear the Difficulties of it; any [Page 121] other, but I, would enjoin you to break Company with him; but since he is ex­treamly proud and conceited, I am certain, he would take your flight for a Defeat, and would believe your Faith to be groun­ded on no Reason, if you refused to hear his. Having said so, he left me; and no sooner was his back turned, but I fell to consider attentively my Books and their Boxes, that's to say, their Covers, which seemed to me to be wonderfully Rich; the one was cut of a single Diamond, incom­parably more resplendent than ours; the second looked like a prodigious great Pearl, cloven in two. My Spirit had translated those Books into the Language of that World; but because I have none of their Print, I'll now explain to you the Fashion of these two Volumes.

As I opened the Box, I found within somewhat of Metal, almost like to our Clocks, full of I know not what little Springs, and imperceptible Engines: It was a Book, indeed; but a Strange and Won­derful Book, that had neither Leaves nor Letters: In fine, it was a Book, made wholly for the Ears, and not the Eyes. So that when any Body has a mind to read in it, he winds up that Machine, with a great many little Strings; then he turns the Hand to the Chapter which he desires to hear, [Page 122] and straight, as from the Mouth of a Man, or a Musical Instrument, proceed all the distinct and different Sounds, which the Lunar Grandees make use of, for expres­sing their Thoughts, instead of Lan­guage.

When I since reflected on this Miracu­lous Invention, I no longer wondred, that the Young-Men of that Country, were more knowing at Sixteen, or Eighteen years Old, than the Gray-Beards of our Climate; for knowing how to Read as soon as Speak, they are never without Lectures, in their Chambers, their Walks, the Town, or Travelling; they may have in their Pockets, or at their Girdles, Thir­ty of these Books, where they need but wind up a Spring, to hear a whole Chap­ter, and so more, if they have a mind to hear the Book quite through; so that you ne­ver want the Company of all the great Men, Living and Dead, who entertain you with Living Voices. This Present employ­ed me about an hour; and then hanging them to my Ears, like a pair of Pendants, I went a Walking; but I was hardly at End of the Street, when I met a Mul­titude of People very Melancholy.

Four of them carried upon their Shoul­ders, a kind of a Herse, covered with Black: I asked a Spectator, what that Pro­cession, [Page 123] like to a Funeral in my Country, meant? He made me answer, that that naughty [...] called so by the Peo­ple, because of a knock he had received up­on the Right Knee; who being convicted of Envy and Ingratitude, died the day before; and that Twenty Years ago, the Parliament had Condemned him to die in his Bed, and then to be interred after his Death. I fell a Laughing at that Answer. And he asking me, why? You amaze me, said I, that that which is counted a Blessing in our World, as a long Life, a peaceable Death, and an Honourable Burial, should pass here for an exemplary Punishment. What, do you take a Burial, for a preci­ous thing then, replyed that Man? And, in good earnest, can you conceive any thing more Horrid, than a Corps crawling with Worms, at the discretion of Toads, which feed on his Cheeks; the Plague it self Clothed with the Body of a Man? Good God! The very thought of having, even when I am Dead, my Face wrapt up in a Shroud, and a Pike-depth of Earth upon my Mouth, makes me I can hardly fetch breath. The Wretch whom you see carried here, besides the disgrace of being thrown into a Pit, hath been Condemned, to be attended by an Hundred and Fifty [Page 124] of his Friends; who are strictly charged, as a Punishment for their having loved an envious and ungrateful Person, to appear with a sad Countenance at his Funeral; and had it not been that the Judges took some compassion of him, imputing his Crimes partly to his want of Wit, they would have been commanded to Weep there also. All are Burnt here, except Male­factors: And, indeed, it is a most ratio­nal and decent Custom: For we believe, that the Fire having separated the pure from the impure, the Heat by Sympathy reassembles the natural Heat, which made the Soul, and gives it force to mount up, till it arrive at some Star, the Country of certain people, more immaterial and intel­lectual than us; because their Temper ought to suit with, and participate of the Globe which they inhabit.

However, this is not our neatest way of Burying neither; for when any one of our Philosophers comes to an Age, wherein he finds his Wit begin to decay, and the Ice of his years, to numm the Motions of his Soul, he invites all his Friends to a sumptuous Banquet; then having declared to them the Reasons, that move him to bid farewel to Nature, and the little hopes he has, of adding any thing more to his worthy Actions, they shew him Favour; [Page 125] that's to say, they suffer him to Dye, or otherwise are severe to him, and command him to Live. When then, by plurality of Voices, they have put his Life into his own Hands, he acquaints his dearest Friends with the day and place. These purge, and for Four and Twenty hours abstain from Eating; then being come to the House of the Sage, and having Sacrificed to the Sun, they enter the Chamber, where the generous Philosopher waits for them on a Bed of State; every one embraces him, and when it comes to his turn, whom he loves best, having kissed him affectionately, leaning up­on his Bosom, and joyning Mouth to Mouth, with his right hand he sheaths a Dagger in his Heart. The Loving Friend parts not his Lips from his Friends Lips, till he find him expired; and then pulling out the Steel, and putting his Mouth close to the Wound, he sucks down his Blood, till a Second succeed him, then a Third, Fourth, and so all the Company: Four or Five Hours after, every one has a Young Wench, of Sixteen or Seventeen Years of Age, brought to him; and during Three or Four days, whilst they are tasting the Plea­sures of Love, they seed on nothing but the Flesh of the Deceased, which they eat raw; to the end that if from an Hun­dred Embracements any thing Spring, [Page 126] they may be assured it is their old Friend Revived.

I interrupted this Discourse, saying to him that told me all, That this Manner of Acting much resembled the ways of some People of our World; and so pursued my Walk, which was so long, that when I came back, Dinner had been ready Two Hours. They asked me, why I came so late? It is not my Fault, said I to the Cook, who complained: I asked what it was a Clock several times in the Street, but they made me no answer, but by opening their Mouths, shutting their Teeth, and turning their Faces awry.

How, cried all the Company, did not you know by that, that they shewed you what it was a Clock? Faith, said I, they might have held their great Noses in the Sun long enough, before I had un­derstood what they meant. It's a Com­modity, said they, that saves them the Trou­ble of a Watch; for with their Teeth they make so true a Dial, that when they would tell any Body the Hour of the day, they do no more but open their Lips, and the shadow of that Nose, falling upon their Teeth, like the Gnomon of a Sun-Dial, makes the precise time. Now that you may know the reason, why all People in this Country have great Noses; assoon as a Woman is [Page 127] brought to Bed, the Midwife carries the Child to the Master of the Seminary; and exactly at the years end, the Skillful being assembled, if his Nose prove shorter than the standing Measure, which an Alderman keeps, he is judged to be a Flat Nose, and delivered over to be gelt. You'l ask me, no doubt, the Reason of that Barbarous Custom, and how it comes to pass, that we, amongst whom Virginity is a Crime, should enjoyn Continence by force; but know, that we do so, because after Thirty Ages expe­rience we have observed, that a great Nose is the mark of a Witty, Courteous, Assable, Generous and Liberal Man; and that a little Nose is a Sign of the contrary: Wherefore of Flat Noses we make Eunuchs, because the Republick had rather have no Children at all, than Children like them. He was still a speaking, when I saw a man come in stark Naked; I presently sat down and put on my Hat to shew him Honour, for these are the greatest Marks of Respect, that can be shew'd to any in that Coun­try. The Kingdom, said he, desires you would give the Magistrates notice, before you return to your own World; because a Mathematician hath just now undertaken before the Council, that provided when you are returned home, you would make a certain Machine, that he'l teach you how [Page 128] to do; he'l attract your Globe, and joyn it to this. Good now, (said I to my Land­lord, when the other was gone) tell me why that Messenger carried at his Girdle, Privy Members of Brass; a thing I have often seen, whilst I was in my Cage, but durst not ask the Reason, because I was always environed by the Queens Maids of Ho­nour, whom I feared to offend, if in their presence I had talked of such a foul Subject? He made me this answer: The Females here, no more than the Males, are not so ungrateful, as to blush at the sight of that which Forged them; and Virgins are not ashamed to love upon us, in Memory of Mother Nature, the only thing that repre­sents her best. Know then, that the Scarf wherewith that Man is Honoured, and which for a Medal has the Bauble of a Man hanging at it, is the Badg of a Gen­tleman, and the Mark to distinguish the Cavalier from the Clown. This seemed to me, to be so extravagant a Paradox, that I could not forbear Laughing. I look upon that, replyed I, to be a very extra­ordinary Custom, for in our World, to wear a Sword is the Badg of a Gentleman. But, my dear little Man, cried my Host without startling, what, are the great Men of your World Mad then; to make osten­tation [Page 129] of an Instrument, that's the mark of a Hang man, made only to destroy us; and in a word, the sworn Enemy of all that has Life? And on the contrary, to hide a Member, without which, we had been ranked among the things that are not; the Prometheus of every Animal, and the indefatigable Repairer of the Frailties of Nature? Unhappy Country! where the Marks of Generation are Ignominious, and those of Destruction Honourable: In the mean time, you call that Member the shame­ful Privy-Parts, as if any thing were more Glorious, than to give Life, or any thing more disgraceful, than to take it away. During all this Discourse, we went on with our Dinner; and as soon as we rose from Table, we went to take the Air in the Garden; where taking Occasion to speak of the Generation, and Conception of things, he said to me, You must know, that the Earth, converting it self into a Tree, from a Tree into a Hog, and from a Hog into a Man, is an Argument, that all things in Nature, aspire to be Men; since that is the most perfect Being, as being a Quintes­sence, and the best devised Mixture in the World; which alone unites the Animal and Rational Life into one. None but a Pedant will deny me this, when we see that a Plumb-Tree, by the Heat of its Germ, [Page 130] as by a Mouth, sucks in and digests the Earth that's about it; that a Hog devours the Fruit of this Tree, and converts it into the Substance of it self; and that a Man feeding on that Hog, reconcocts that dead Flesh, unites it to himself, and makes that Animal to revive under a more Noble Spe­cies. So the Man whom you see, perhaps threescore years ago, was no more but a Tuft of Grass in my Garden; which is the more probable, that the Opinion of the Pythagorean Metamorphosis, which so many Great Men maintain, in all likelyhood has only reached us, to engage us into an En­quiry after the truth of it; as, in reality, we have found that Matter, and all that has a Vegetative or Sensitive Life, when once it hath attained to the period of its Perfection, wheels about again, and de­scends into its Inanity, that it may return upon the Stage, and Act the same Parts over and over. I went down extreamly satisfyed to the Garden, and was beginning to rehearse to my Companion, what our Master had taught me; when the Physiog­nomist came to conduct us to Supper, and afterwards to Rest.

Next Morning, so soon as I awoke, I went to call up my Antagonist. It is, said I, accosting him, as great a Miracle to find a great Wit, like yours, buried in Sleep, as [Page 131] to see Fire, without Heat and Action: He bore with this ugly Compliment; but, (cryed he, with a Cholerick kind of Love) will you never leave these Fabulous Terms? Know, that these Names defame the Name of a Philosopher; and that seeing the wise Man sees nothing in the World, but what he conceives, and judges may be concei­ved, he ought to abhor all those Expressi­ons of Prodigies, and extraordinary Events of Nature, which Block heads have invent­ed, to excuse the Weakness of their Under­standing.

I thought my self then obliged in Con­science, to endeavour to undeceive him; and therefore, said I, though you be very stiff and obstinate in your Opinions, yet I have plainly seen supernatural Things hap­pen. Say you so, continued he; you lit­tle know, that the force of Imagination, is able to cure all the Diseases, which you at­tribute to supernatural Causes, by reason of a certain natural Balsam, that contains Qua­lities quite contrary to the qualities of the Diseases that attack us; which happens, when our Imagination informed by Pain, searches in that place for the specifick Re­medy, which it applies to the Poiso [...]. That's the reason, why an able Physician [...] your World, advises the Patient to make use of an Ignorant Doctor, whom he esteems [Page 132] to be very knowing, rather than of a very Skilful Physician, whom he may imagine to be Ignorant; because he fancies, that our Imagination labouring to recover our Health, provided it be assisted by Remedies, is able to cure us; but that the strongest Medicines are too weak, when not applied by Imagination. Do you think it strange, that the first Men of your World lived so many Ages, without the least Knowledge of Physick? No. And what might have been the Cause of that, in your judgement; unless, their Nature was as yet in its force, and that natural Balsam in vigour, before they were spoilt by the Drugs, wherewith Physicians consume you; it being enough then for the recovery of ones Health, ear­nestly to wish for it, and to imagine him­self cured? So that their vigorous Fancies, plunging into that vital Oyl, extracted the Elixir of it, and applying Actives to Pas­sives, in almost the twinkling of an Eye, they found themselves as sound as before: Which, notwithstanding the Depravation of Nature, happens even at this day, though somewhat rarely; and is by the Multitude called a Miracle: For my part, I believe not a jot on't, and have this to say for my self, that it is easier for all these Doctors to be mistaken, than that the other may not easi­ly come to pass: For I put the Question to [Page 133] them; A Patient recovered out of a Feaver, heartily desired, during his sickness, as it is like, that he might be cured, and, may be, made Vows for that effect; so that of neces­sity he must either have dyed, continued sick, or recovered: Had he died, then would it have been said, kind Heaven hath put an end to his Pains; Nay, and that ac­cording to his Prayers, he was now cured of all Diseases, praised be the Lord: Had his Sickness continued, one would have said, he wanted Faith; but because he is cured, it's a Miracle forsooth. Is it not far more likely, that his Fancy being excited by violent Desires, hath done its Duty, and wrought the Cure? For grant he hath escaped, what then? must it needs be a Mi­racle? How many have we seen, pray, and af­ter many solemn Vows and Protestations, go to pot with all their fair Promises and Resolutions.

But, at least, replied I, to him, if what you say of that Balsam be true, it is a mark of the Rationality of our Soul; seeing with­out the help of our Reason, or the Concur­rence of our Will, she Acts of her self; as if being without us, she applied the Active to the Passive. Now, if being separated from us she is Rational, it necessarily follows, that she is Spiritual; and if you acknow­ledge her to be Spiritual, I conclude she is [Page 134] immortal; seeing Death happens to Ani­mals, only by the changing of Forms, of which Matter alone is capable. The Young Man at that, decently sitting down upon his Bed, and making me also to sit, discour­sed, as I remember, in this manner: As for the Soul of Beasts, which is Corporeal, I do not wonder they Die; seeing the best Harmony of the four Qualities may be dis­solved, the greatest force of Blood quelled, and the loveliest Proportion of Organs dis­concerted; but I wonder very much, that our intellectual, incorporeal, and immortal Soul, should be constrained to dislodge, and leave us by the same Cause, that makes an Ox to perish. Hath she covenanted with our Body, that as soon as he should re­ceive a prick with a Sword in the Heart, a Bullet in the Brain, or a Musket-shot through the Chest, she should pack up and be gone;—and if that Soul were Spiritual, and of her self so Rational, that being sepa­rated from our Mass, she understood as well as when Clothed with a Body; why cannot Blind Men, born with all the fair ad­vantages of that intellectual Soul, imagine what it is to see? Is it, because they are not as yet deprived of Sight, by the Death of all their Senses? How! I cannot then make use of my Right Hand, because I have a Left.—And in fine, to make a just [Page 135] comparison, which will overthrow all that you have said; I shall only alledge to you a Painter, who cannot work without his Pen­cil: And I'll tell you, that it is just so with the Soul, when she wants the use of the Senses. O yes, but added he—In the mean time, they'l have this Soul, which can only act imperfectly, because of the loss of one of her Tools, in the course of Life, to be able then to work to Perfecti­on, when after our death, she hath lost them all. If they tell me, over and over a­gain, that she needeth not these Instru­ments, for performing her Functions, I'll tell them e'en so, That then all the Blind about the Streets, ought to be Whipt at a Carts-Arse, for playing the Counterfeits, in pretending not to See a bit. He would have gone on in such impertinent Argu­ments, had not I stopt his Mouth, by desir­ing him to forbear, as he did for fear of a quarrel; for he perceived I began to be in a heat: So that he departed, and left me admiring the People of that World, a­mongst whom even the meanest have Na­turally so much Wit; whereas those of ours have so little, and yet so dearly bought. At length my Love for my Country, took me off of the desire and thoughts I had of staying there, I minded nothing now but to be gone; but I saw so much impossibi­lity [Page 136] in the matter, that it made me quite peevish and melancholick. My Spirit ob­served it, and having asked me, What was the reason, that my Humor was so much al­tered? I frankly told him the Cause of my Melancholy; but he made me such fair Promises concerning my Return, that I re­lied wholly upon him. I acquainted the Council with my design; who sent for me, and made me take an Oath, that I should relate in our World, all that I had seen in that. My Pass ports then were expeded, and my Spirit having made necessary Provi­sions for so long a Voyage, asked me, What part of my Country I desired to light in? I told him, that since most of the Rich Youths of Paris, once in their life time, made a Journey to Rome; imagining atter that, that there remained no more worth the do­ing or seeing, I prayed him to be so good as to let me imitate them: But withal, said I, in what Machine shall we perform the Voy­age, and what Orders do you think the Mathematician, who talked t'other day of joyning this Globe to ours, will give me? As to the Mathematician, said he, let that be no hinderance to you; for he is a Man who promises much, and performs little or nothing. And as to the Machine, that's to carry you back, it shall be the same which brought you to Court. How, said I, will [Page 137] the Air become as solid as the Earth, to bear your steps? I cannot believe that: And it is strange, replied he, that you should believe, and not believe. Pray why should the Witches of your World, who march in the Air, and conduct whole Armies of Hail, Snow, Rain, and other Meteors, from one Province into another, have more Power than we? Pray have a little better opinion of me, than to think I would impose upon you. The truth is, said I, I have received so many good Offices from you, as well as Socrates, and the rest, for whom you have so great kindness, that I dare trust my self in your hands, as now I do, resigning my self heartily up to you. I had no soon­er said the word, but he rose like a Whirl-wind, and holding me between his Arms, without the least Uneasiness, he made me pass that vast space, which Astronomers reckon betwixt the Moon and us, in a day and a halfs time; which convinced me, that they tell a Lye, who say that a Mill-stone would be Three Hundred Threescore, and I know not how many years more, in falling from Heaven, since I was so short a while, in dropping down from the Globe of the Moon upon this. At length, about the beginning of the Second day, I perceived I [Page 138] was drawing near our World; since I could already distinguish Europe from Africa, and both from Asia, when I smelt Brimstone, which I saw steaming out of a very high Mountain, that incommoded me so much that I fainted away upon it. I cannot tell what befel me afterwards; but coming to my self again, I found I was amongst Briers on the side of a Hill, amidst some Shep­herds, who spake Italian. I knew not what was become of my Spirit, and I ask­ed the Shepherds if they had not seen him. At that word they made the sign of the Cross, and looked upon me, as if I had been a Devil my self: But when I told them that I was a Christian, and that I begg'd the Charity of them, that they would lead me to some place, where I might take a little rest; they conducted me into a Village, a­bout a Mile off; where no sooner was I come, but all the Dogs of the place, from the least Cur, to the biggest Mastiff, flew upon me, and had torn me to pieces, if I had not found a House, wherein I saved my self: But that hindered them not to con­tinue their Barking and Bawling, so that the Master of the House began to look up­on me with an Evil Eye; and really I think, as people are very apprehensive, when Accidents which they look upon to be ominous happen, that man could have [Page 139] delivered me up as a Prey to these accursed Beasts, had not I be thought my self, that that which madded them so much at me, was the World from whence I came; be­cause being accustomed to bark at the Moon, they smelt I was come from thence, by the scent of my Cloaths, which stuck to me, as a Sea-smell hangs about those, who have been long on Ship-board, for sometime af­ter they come ashore. To Air my self then, I lay three or four hours in the Sun, upon a Terrass-walk; and being afterwards come down, the Dogs, who smelt no more that influence which had made me their Enemy, left barking, and peaceably went to their several homes. Next day I parted for Rome, where I saw the ruins of the Triumphs of some great Men, as well as of Ages: I ad­mired those lovely Relicks; and the Repairs of some of them made by the Modern. At length, having stayed there a fortnight in Company of Monsieur de Cyrano my Cousin, who advanced me Money for my Return, I went to Civita vecchia, and embarked in a Galley that carried me to Marseilles. Du­ring all this Voyage, my mind run upon no­thing, but the Wonders of the last I made. At that time I began the Memoires of it; and after my return, put them into as good order, as Sickness, which confines me to Bed, would permit. But foreseeing, that it will [Page 140] put an end to all my Studies, and Travels; that I may be as good as my word to the Council of that World; I have begg'd of Monsieur le Bret, my dearest and most con­stant Friend, that he would publish them, with the History of the Republick of the Sun, that of the Spark, and some other Pieces of my Composing, if those who have Stolen them from us, restore them to him, as I ear­nestly adjure them to do.

THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD OF THE SUN.