nothing opposes it;
and even the whole atmosphere is carried round: And for that reason in the
Earth's course all the things in the air are not left behind by us nor do
they seem to move toward the West: Wherefore also the clouds {227} are at
rest in the air, unless the force of the winds drive them; and objects
which are projected into the air fall again into their own place. But those
foolish folk who think that towers, temples, and buildings must necessarily
be shaken and overthrown by the Earth's motion, may fear lest men at the
Antipodes should slip off into an opposite orbe, or that ships when sailing
round the entire [249]globe should (as soon as they have dipped under the
plane of our horizon) fall into the opposite region of the sky. But those
follies are old wives' gossip, and the rubbish of certain philosophizers,
men who, when they essay to treat of the highest truths and the fabrick of
the universe, and hazard anything, can scarce understand aught _ultra
crepidam_. They would have the Earth to be the centre of a circle; and
therefore to rest motionless amid the rotation. But neither the stars nor
the wandering globes move about the Earth's centre: the high heaven also
does not move circularly round the Earth's centre; nor if the Earth were in
the centre, is it a centre itself, but a body around a centre. Nor is it
confident with reason that the heavenly bodies of the Peripateticks should
attend on a centre so decadent and perishable as that of the Earth. They
think that Nature seeks rest for the generation of things, and for
promoting their increase while growing; and that accordingly the whole
Earth is at rest. And yet all generation takes place from motion, without
which the universal nature of things would become torpid. The motion of the
Sun, the motion of the Moon, cause changes; the motion of the Earth awakens
the internal breath of the globe; animals themselves do not live without
motion, and the ceaseless activity of the heart and arteries. For of no
moment are the arguments for a simple straight motion toward the centre,
that this is the only kind in the Earth, and that in a simple body there is
one motion only and that a simple one. For that straight motion is only a
tendency toward their own origin, not of the parts of the Earth only, but
of those of the Sun also, of the Moon, and of the rest of the sphaeres
which also move in an orbit. Joannes Costaeus, who raises doubts concerning
the cause of th