pe
out with sponges those old women's tales of so rapid a spinning round of
the heavens borrowed from certain inconsiderate philosophers. The sun is
not propelled by the sphaere of Mars (if a sphaere there be) and by his
motion, nor Mars by Jupiter, nor Jupiter by Saturn. The sphaere, too, of
the fixed stars, seems well enough regulated except so far as motions which
are in the Earth are ascribed to the heavens, and bring about a certain
change of phaenomena. The superiors do not exercise a despotism over the
inferiors; for the heaven of {219} philosophers, as of theologians, must be
gentle, happy, and tranquil, and not at all subject to changes: nor shall
the force, fury, swiftness, and hurry of a _Primum Mobile_ have dominion
over it. That fury descends through all the celestial sphaeres, and
celestial bodies, invades the elements of our philosophers, sweeps fire
along, rolls along the air, or at least draws the chief part of it,
conducts the universal aether, and turns about fiery impressions (as if it
were a solid and firm body, when in fact it is a most refined essence,
neither resisting nor drawing), leads captive the superior. O marvellous
constancy of the terrestrial globe, the only one unconquered; and yet one
that is holden fast, or stationary, in its place by no bonds, no heaviness,
by no contiguity with a grosser or firmer body, by no weights. The
substance of the terrestrial globe withstands and sets itself against
universal nature. Aristotle feigns for himself a system of philosophy
founded on motions simple and compound, that the heavens revolve in a
simple circle, its elements moving with a right motion, the parts of the
earth seeking the earth in straight lines, falling on its surface at right
angles, and tending together toward its centre, always, however, at rest
therein; accordingly also the whole Earth remains immovable in its place,
united and compacted together by its own weight. That cohaesion of parts
and aggregation of matter exist in the Sun, in the Moon, in the planets, in
the fixed stars, in fine in all those round bodies whose parts cohaere
together and tend each to their own centres; otherwise the heaven would
fall, and that sublime ordering would be lost: yet these coelestial bodies
have a circular motion. Whence the Earth too may equally have her own
motion: and this motion is not (as some deem it) unsuitable for the
assembling or adverse to the generation of things. For since it is innate