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looked upon them as so- many suns, about which 

 rolled planets of their own, such as those of our solar 

 system. Nay, they went farther, maintaining that 

 those plants contained inhabitants, whose natures 

 they presume not to describe, though they suppose 

 them to yield to those of ours, neither in beauty nor 

 in dignity. Orpheus is the most ancient author, 

 whose opinion on this subject hath come down to us. 

 Proclus presents us with three verses of that ancient 

 philosopher, wherein he positively asserts, " that the 

 moon was another earth, having in it mountains, val. 

 leys, &c." 



8. Pythagoras, who followed Orpheus in many of 

 his opinions, taught likewise, fcl that the moon was an, 

 earth like ours, replete with animals, whose nature he 

 presumed not to describe," though he was persuaded, 

 they were of a more .noble and elegant kind than ours, 

 and not liable to the same infirmities. 



9. It were easy here to multiply quotations, and 

 shew by a crowd of passages, that this opinion was 

 very common among the ancient philosophers ; but I 

 shall content myself with addmg a remarkable pas. 

 sage of Stobaeus, wherein he gives us Dc-mocntusV opi- 

 nion about the nature of the moon, and the cause of 

 those .spots which we see upon its disk. That great 

 philosopher imagined, that those spots were no other 

 than shades, formed by the excessive height of the 

 lunar niountaius, which intercepted the light from the 

 lower parts of that planet, where the vallies formed 

 themsehes into what appeared to us as shades or spots. 

 Plutarch went far her, allegin.sf, that there were em. 

 bosomed in the moon, vast seas, and profound caverns. 

 These, his conjectures, are built upon the same foun- 

 dation with thosi oi the moderns: tor, sajshe, those 

 deep and extensive shades which appear upon the 

 disk ut that planet, must be occasioned by the vast 

 seas it contains, which are incapable of reflecting so 

 vivid a light, as the more solid and opake parts ; or 



