97 



by caverns extremely wide and deep, wherein the raja 

 of the sun arc absorbed, whence those shades and that 

 obscurity which we call the spots of the moon. And 

 Xeriophanes sakl, that those immense cavities were in- 

 habited by an: ther race of men, who lived there, just 

 r.s we do upon earth. 



10. Yet it appears from one place in Plutarch, that 

 in his time, as well as of late, it was disputed by many, 

 whether the moon yielded any exhalations or vapours 

 for the production of rain, and the other meteors. 

 He took part with those who held the negative, being 

 persuaded that the moon must be so intensely heated 

 by the never-ceasing action of the sun's rays upon it, 

 that all its humidity must be dried up, so as to render 

 it incapable of furnishing new vapours ; whence he 

 concludes, that there existed there, neither clouds, nor 

 rains, nor winds ; and of course neither plants nor 

 animals. Now this is the very reason alleged bj 

 such of the moderns as oppose the notion of th<*moou'* 

 being inhabited ; whereas the only necessary cotise^ 

 quence is, that the inhabitants of that planet must be 

 entirely different from those of ours, and by their con* 

 stitution fitted to such a clime, and such a habitation* 

 But however this be, it appears from this passage, 

 that the opinion here mentioned, had partizans event 

 in Plutarch's time, who were no less fertile than we 

 are in conjectures to support it. 



VOL v. 



