THE FIRST BOOKE 



Of the Naturall and Morall Historic of the 

 East and West Indies. 



CHAP. i. Of tlie opinions of some Authors, which supposed 

 that Hie Heavens did not extend to the new-found ivorld. 



THE Ancients were so farre from conceypt that this new- LlB - T - 

 found world was peopled by any Nation, that many of them 

 could not imagine there was any land on that part; and 

 (which is more worthie of admiration) some have flatly 

 denyed that the Heavens (which we now beholde) could 

 extend thither. For although the greatest part (yea, the 

 most famous among the Philosophers) have well knowne 

 that the Heaven was round (as in effect it is), and by that 

 meanes did compasse and comprehend within it self the 

 whole earth ; yet many, (yea, of the holy doctors of greatest 

 authoritie) have disagreed in opinion vpon this point ; sup 

 posing the frame of this vniversall world to bee fashioned 

 like vnto a house ; whereas the roofe that covers it invirons 

 onely the upper part and not the rest ; inferring by their 

 reasons, that the earth should else hang in the middest of 

 the ayre, the which seemed vnto them voyd of sense. For 

 as we see in every building, the ground-worke and founda 

 tion on the one side, and the cover opposite vnto it, even so 

 in this great building of the world, the Heaven should re- 

 maine above on the one part, and the earth vnder it. The 

 glorious Chrysostome (a man better seene in the studie of 

 holy Scriptures then in the knowledge of Philosophic) 

 seemes to be of this opinion, when in his Commentaries 



