Page:The Discovery of a World in the Moone, 1638.djvu/51

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
34
The Discovery

who with Democritus esteeme some blinde chance, and not any wise providence to be the framer of all things.

3. The opinion of more worlds has in ancient time beene accounted a heresie, and Baronius affirmes that for this very reason, Virgilius was cast out of his Bishopricke, and excommunicated from the Church.[1]

4. A fourth argument there is urged by Aquinas, if there be more worlds than one, then they must either be of the same, or of a diverse nature, but they are not of the same kinde,[2] for this were needlesse, and would argue an improvidence, since one would have no more perfection than the other; not of divers kinds, for then one of them could not be called the world or universe, since it did not containe universall perfection, I have cited this argument, because it is so much stood upon by Iulius Cæsar la Galla,[3] one that has pur-

  1. Annal. Eccl. A.D. 748.
  2. Ibid.
  3. De Phænom. in orbe lunæ.
posely