lanets, he yields them to be inhabited, he doubts
of the stars; and so doth Tycho in his astronomical epistles, out of a
consideration of their vastity and greatness, break out into some such like
speeches, that he will never believe those great and huge bodies were made
to no other use than this that we perceive, to illuminate the earth, a
point insensible in respect of the whole. But who shall dwell in these vast
bodies, earths, worlds, [3114] "if they be inhabited? rational creatures?"
as Kepler demands, "or have they souls to be saved? or do they inhabit a
better part of the world than we do? Are we or they lords of the world? And
how are all things made for man?" _Difficile est nodum hunc expedire, eo
quod nondum omnia quae huc pertinent explorata habemus_: 'tis hard to
determine: this only he proves, that we are in _praecipuo mundi sinu_, in
the best place, best world, nearest the heart of the sun. [3115]Thomas
Campanella, a Calabrian monk, in his second book _de sensu rerum, cap. 4_,
subscribes to this of Kepler; that they are inhabited he certainly
supposeth, but with what kind of creatures he cannot say, he labours to
prove it by all means: and that there are infinite worlds, having made an
apology for Galileo, and dedicates this tenet of his to Cardinal Cajetanus.
Others freely speak, mutter, and would persuade the world (as [3116]Marinus
Marcenus complains) that our modern divines are too severe and rigid
against mathematicians; ignorant and peevish, in not admitting their true
demonstrations and certain observations, that they tyrannise over art,
science, and all philosophy, in suppressing their labours (saith
Pomponatius), forbidding them to write, to speak a truth, all to maintain
their superstition, and for their profit's sake. As for those places of
Scripture which oppugn it, they will have spoken _ad captum vulgi_, and if
rightly understood, and favourably interpreted, not at all against it; and
as Otho Gasman, _Astrol. cap. 1. part. 1._ notes, many great divines,
besides Porphyrius, Proclus, Simplicius, and those heathen philosophers,
_doctrina et aetate venerandi, Mosis Genesin mundanam popularis nescio
cujus ruditatis, quae longa absit a vera Philosophorum eruditione,
insimulant_: for Moses makes mention but of two planets, [Symbol: Sun] and
[Symbol: Moon-3/4], no four elements, &c. Read more on him, in
[3117]Grossius and Junius. But to proceed, these and such like insolent and
bold attempts, prodigious