326 DESCRIPTIO GLOBI INTELLECTUALIS. 



versus terrain descendant, aliquando vertant se ad 

 austrum, aliquando ad boream ; periculum est procul- 

 dubio ne fiant plurimae in coelo impressiones et con- 

 cussiones et reciprocationes et fluctus, atque inde se- 

 quantur condensationes et rarefactiones corporum, quae 

 generationibus et alterationibus viam praestinent et 

 praestruant. Quandoquidem vero ex rationibus physi- 

 cis, atque insuper ex phsenomenis ipsis, plane consta- 

 bit hoc posterius verum esse, atque commenta ilia pri- 

 ora astronomorum de quibus diximus (si quis sanam 

 mentem sumat) naturae prorsus illudere videantur, et 

 rerum reperiantur inania ; consentaneum est, ut etiam 

 opinio de seternitate coelestium, quaa cum illis conjunc- 

 ta est, idem subeat judicium. Quod si quis hie relig- 

 ionem opponat, illi responsum volumus, ethnicam jac- 

 tantiam tantummodo istam seternitatem coelo soli attri- 

 buere, Scripturas Sacras aeternitatem terrae et coelo ex 

 aequo. 1 Neque enim legitur solum, Solem et Lunam 

 ceternos et fideles testes in coelo esse ; 2 sed et illud, gene- 

 rationes advenire et migrare^ Terram autem in ceternum 

 manere. De natura autem labili et caduca utriusque, 

 uno simul oraculo conclusum est : Goelum et Terram 

 pertransire ; verbum autem Domini non pertransire. 8 

 Deinde si quis adhuc instet, negari tamen non posse 



1 Lansberg makes a curious remark as to the difficulties which may arise 

 from a literal interpretation of Scripture. "You may so interpret it," he 

 says, " as to make it interfere not only with astronomy but with geometry; 

 as when it is said that one of the ewers in the Temple was ten cubits across 

 and thirty cubits round." Campanella, in his Apologia pro Galikeo, tells 

 a storv of one Ulysses Albergett.us, who wishing to show that the moon 

 shines by her own light, quoted the text ' Luna non dabit lumen suum ' 

 " faciens vim in ly suum." Ly, it may be well to remark, is used by the 

 schoolmen as rb in Greek; probably because transcribers were often ig- 

 norant of Greek, and copying by eye changed the form of what they did 

 not understand. 



2 " manere," Ecclesiastes, i. 4. 8 Matth. xxiv. 35. 



