Celestial Worlds Discovered

Celestial Worlds Disco

Christiaan Huygens, T. Childe

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136247729
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Storia
• Subtopic: Storia mondiale

First published in 1968. A reissue of the posthumous 1698 edition of Christian Huygen's The Celestial Worlds Discover'd or Conjecture concerning the Inhabitants, Plants and Productions of the Worlds in the Plants, including original figures and diagrams, with an index from 1968.

NEW

CONJECTURES

Concerning the

Planetary Worlds,

THEIR

INHABITANTS

AND

PRODUCTIONS.

Written by CHRISTIANUS HUYGENS, and infcrib’d to his Brother CONSTANTINE HUYGENS.

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BOOK the Firft.

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AMan that is of Copernicus’s Opinion, that this Earth of ours is a Planet, carry’d round and enlighten’d by the Sun, like the reft of them, cannot but fometimes have a fancy, that it’s not improbable that the reft of the Planets have their Drefs and Furniture, nay and their Inhabitants too as well is this Earth of ours: Efpecially if he confiders the later Difcoveries made fince Copernicus’s time of the Atten dents of Jupiter and Saturn,and the Champain and hilly Countrys in the Moon, which are an Argument of a relation and kin between our Earth and them, as well as a proof of the Truth of that Syftem. This has of ten been our talk, I remember, good Brother, over a large Telefcope, when we have been viewing thofe Bodies, a ftudy that your continual bufinefs and abfence have interrupted for this many years. But we were always apt to conclude, that ’twas in vain to enquire after what Nature had been pleafed to do there, feeing there was no likeli hood of ever coming to an end of the Enquiry. Nor could I ever find that any Philofophers, thofe bold Heros, either antient or modern, ventur’d fo far. At the very birth of Aftronomy, when the Earth was firft afferted to be Spherical, and to he furrounded with Air, even then there were fome men fo bold as to affirm, there were an innumerable company of Worlds in the Stars. But later Authors, fuch as Cardinal Cufanus, Brutnus, kepler,(and if we may believe him, Tycho was of that opinion too) have furnifh’d the Planets with Inhabitants. Nay, Cufanus and Brunus have allow’d the Sun and fixed Stars theirs too. But this was the utmoff of their boldnefs; nor has the ingenious French Author of the Dialogues about the Plurality of Worlds carry’d the bufinefs any farther. Only fome of them have coined fome pretty Fairy Stories of the Men in the Moon, juft as probable as Lucian’s true Hiftory; among which I muft count kepler’s,which he has diverted us with in his Aftronomical Dream, But a while ago thinking fomewhat ferioufly of this matter (not that I count my felf quicker fighted than thofe great Men, but that I had the happinefs to live after moff of them) methoughts the enquiry was not fo impracicable, nor the way fo ftopt up with Difficulties, but that there was very good room left for probable Conjectures. As they came in to my head, I clapt them down into common places, and fhall now try to digeft them into fome tolerable Method for your better conception of them, and add fomewhat of the Sun and Fixt Stars, and the Extent of that Univerfe of which our Earth is but an inconfiderable point. I know you have fuch an efteem and reverence for any thing that belongs to Heaven, that I perfwade my felf you will read what I have written without pain: I’m fure I writ it with a great deal of plea fure; but as often before, fo now, I find the faying of Archytas true, even to the Letter, That tho a Man were admitted into Heaven to view the wonderful Fabrick of the World, and the Beauty of the Stars, yet what would otherwife be Rapture and Extafe, would be but a melancholyAmazement if he had not a Friend to communicate it to. I could wifh indeed that all the World might not be my Judges, but that I might chufe my Readers, Men like you, not ignorant in Afironomy and true Philofophy; for with fuch I might promite my felf a favourable hearing, and not need to make an Apology for daring to vent any thing new to the World. But becaufe I am aware what other hands it’s likely to fall into, and what a dreadful Sentence I may expect from thofe whofe Ignorance or Zeal is too great, it may be worth the while to guard my felt beforehand againft the Affaults of thofe fort of People.

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Some have already tall’d of the Inhabitants of the Plmets, but wert no farther.

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There’s one fort who knowing nothing of Geometry or Mathematicks, will laugh at it as a whimfical and ridiculous undertaking. It’s mere Conjuration to them to talk of meafuring the Diftance or Magnitude of the Stars: And for the Motion of the Earth, they count it, if not a falfe, at leafs a precarious Opinion; and no wonder then if they take what’s built upon fuch a flippery Foundation for the Dreams of a fanciful Head and a difiemper’d Brain. What fhould we anfwer to thefe Men, but that their Ignorance is the caufe of their Diflike, and that if they had more Senfe they would have fewer Scruples? But few people having had an opportunity of profecuting thefe Studies, either for want of Parts, Learning, or Leifure, we cannot blame their Ignorance; and if they refolve to find fault with us for fpending time in fuch matters, becaufe they do not underftand the ufe of them, we muf’r appeal to properer Judges.

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The objections of ignorant Cavillers prevented

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The other fort, when they hear us talk of new Lands, and Animals endued with as much Reafon as themfelves, will be ready to fly out into religious Exclamations, that we fet up our Conjecures againif the Word of God, and broach Opinions direaly oppofite to Holy Writ. For we do not there read one word of the Pro duaion of fuch Creatures, no not fo much as of their Exiftence; nay ra ther we read the quite contrary. For, That only mentions this Earth with its Animals and Plants, and Man the Lord of them; but as for Worlds in the Sky, ’tis wholly filent. Either thefe Men refolve not to underftand, or they are very ignorant; For they have been anfwer’d fo often, that I am almoft afham’d to repeat it: That it’s evident God had no defign to make a particular Enumeration in the Holy Scriptures, of all the Works of his Creation. When therefore it is plain that under the general name of Stars or Earth are comprehended all the Heavenly Bodies, even the little Gentlemen round yupiter and Saturn,why muft all that multitude of Beings which the Almighty Creator has been pleafed to place upon them, be excluded the Privilege, and not fuffer’d to have a fhare in the Expreffion? And thefe Men themfelves can’t but know in what fenfe it is that all things are faid to be made for the ufe of Man, not certainly for us to flare or peep through a Telefcope at; for that’s little better than nonfenfe. Since then the greateft part of God’s Creation, that innumerable multitude of Stars, is plac’d out of the reach of any man’s Eye; and many of them, it’s likely, of the beft Glaffes, fo that they don’t feem to belong to us; is it filch an unreafonable Opinion, that there are fome reafonable Creatures who fee and admire thofe glorious Bodies at a nearer diftance?

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Thefe Conjectures do not cnotrasict the holy Scriptures.

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But perhaps they’ll fay, it does not become us to be fo curious and inquifitive in thefe things which the Supreme Creator feems to have kept for his own knowlege: For fence he has not been pleafed to make any farther Dif covery or Revelation of them, it feems little better than prefumption to make any inquiry into that which he has thought fit to hide. But thefe Gentlemen muft be told, that they take too much upon themfeives when they pretend to appoint how far and no farther Men fhall go in their Searches, and to fet bounds to other Mens Induftry; juft as if they had been of the Privy Council of Heaven: as if they knew the Marks that God has plac’d to Knowlege: or as if Men were able to pafs thofe Marks. If our Forefathers had been at this rate fcrupulous, we might have been igno rant ftill of the Magnitude and Figure of the Earth, or of fuch a place as America. The Moon might have fhone with her own Light for all us,and we might have ftood up to the ears in Water, like the Indians at every Eclipfe: and a hundred other things brought to light by the late Difcoveries in Aftronomy had ftill been unknown to us. For what can a Man imagine more abftrufe, or lefs likely to be known, than what is now as clear as the Sun? That vigorous Induftry, and that piercing Wit were given Men to make advances in the fearch of Nature, and there’s no reafon to put any flop to fuch Enquiries. I muff acknowlege ftill that what I here intend to treat of is not of that nature as to admit of a certain knowlege; I can’t pretend to affert any thing as pofitively true (for that would be madnefs) but only to advance a probable guefs, the truth of which every one is at his own libel ty to examine. If any one therefore fhall gravely tell me, that I have fpent my time idly in a vain and fruitlefs enquiry after what by my own acknowlegement I can never come to be fure of; the anfwer is, that at this rate he would put down all Natural Philofophy as far as it concerns it felf in fearching into the Nature of things: In fuch noble ,and fublime Studies as thefe, ’tis a Glory to arrive at Probability, and the fearch it fell rewards the pains. But there are many degrees of Probable, Tome nearer Truth than others, in the deter mining of which lies the chief exer cife of our Judgment. But befides the Noblenefs and Pleafure of the Studies, may not we be fo bold asto fay ,they are no fmall help to the advancement of Wifdom and Morality? fo far are they from being of no ufe at all. For here we may mount from this dull Earth, and viewing it from on high, confider whether Nature has laid out all her coat and finery upon this fmall fpeck of Dirt. So, like Travellers in to other diffant Countrys, we (hall be better able to judg of what’s done at home, know how to make a true eftimate of; and fet its own value up on every thing. We fhall be lefs apt to admire what this World calls great, (hall nobly defpife thofe Trifles the generality of Men fet their Affecions on, when we know that there are a multitude of filch Earthsinhabited and adorned as well as our own. And we (hall worfhip and reverence that God the Maker of all thefe things; we fhall admire and adore his Providence and wonderful Wifdom which is difplayed and manifefted all over the Univerfe, to the confufion of thofe who would have the Earth and all things formed by the fhuffling Concourfe of Atoms, or to be without beginning. But to come to our purpofe.

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This Enquiry not over curious.

Conjectures not useless, because not certain.

These Studies useful to Religion.

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And now becaufe the chief Argument for the proof of what we intend will be taken from the difpofition of the Planets, among which without doubt the Earth mull be counted in the Copernican Syftem, I fhall here firff of all draw two Figures. The firm is a Defcription of the Orbs the Planets move in, in that order that they are placed round the Sun, drawn as near as can be in their true Proportions, like what you have feen in my Clock at home. The fecond fhows the Proportions of their Magnitudes in refpecd of one another and of the Sun, which you know is upon that fame Clock of mine too. In the firff the middle Point or Center is the Place of the Sun, round which, in an order that every one knows, are the Orbits of Mercury, Venus,the Earth with that of the Moon about it; then thofe of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn: and about the two laff the (mall Circles that their Attendents march in: about Jupiter four, and about Saturn five. Which Circles as well as that of the Moon are drawn larger than their true Proportion would admit, other wife they could not have been feen. You may eafily apprehend the Vaft nefs of thefe Orbits by this, that the diftance of the Earth from the Sun is ten or twelve thoufand of the Earth’s Diameters. Almoff all thefe Circles are in the fame Plane, declining very little from that in which the Earth moves, call’d the Plane of the Ecliptick. This Plane is cut obliquely by the Axis upon which the Earth turns it felt round in 24 hours, whence arife the Succeffions of Day and Night: The Axis of the Earth always keeping

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Copernicus’s System explain’d.

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Fig. 1

the fame Inclination to the Ecliptick (except a (mall change beft known to Aftronomers) while the Earth it felf is carry’d in its yearly Courfe round the Sun, caufes the regular Order of the Seafons of the Year: as you may fee in all Aftronomers Books. Out of which I (hail tranfcribe hither the Periods of the Revolutions of the Planets, viz. Saturn moves round the Sun in 29 Years, 174 Days, and 5 Hours: Jupiter finifhes his Courfe in i i Years, 317 Days, and 15 Hours: Mars his in about 687 Days. Our Year is 365 Days 6 Hours: Venus’s 224 Days 18 Hours: and Mercury’s 88 Days. This is the now commonly receiv’d Syftem, invented by Copernicus,and very agreeable to that frugal Simplicity Nature fhows in all her Works. If any one is refolved to find fault with it, let him firft be fure he underftands it. Let him firflr fee in the Books of Aftronomers with how much greater eafe and plainnefs all the Motions of the Stars, and Appearances in the Heavens are explained and demonffrated in this than either in that of Ptolomy or Tycho. Let him confider that Difcovery of Kepler,that the diflances of the Planets from the Sun, as well of the Earth as the reft, are in a fixt certain proportion to the times they fpend in their Revolutions. Which Proportion it’s fince obferved that their Satellites keep round Jupiter and Saturn. Let him examine what a contrctiaory Motion they are fain to invent for the folution of the Polar Star’s changing its diflance from the Pole. For that Star in the end of the Little Bear’s Tail which now defcribes fo fmall a Circle round the Pole, that it is not above two Degrees and twen ty Minutes, was obferved about 1820 Years ago, in the time of Hipparchus,to be above 12: and will within a few ages more be forty five Degrees diftant from it: and after 25000 years more will return to the fame place it is now in. Now if with them we allow the Heavens to be turned upon their own Axis, at this rate they muff have a new Axis every day: a thing moll abominably abfurd, and repugnant to the nature of all motion.Whereas

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Arguments for the truth of it.

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Fig. 2

nothing is eafier with Copernicus than to give us fatisfaaion in this matter. Then he may impartially weigh thofe Anfwers that Galileus, Gaffendus, Kepler, and others have given to all Objecions propofed, which have fo fatisfied all Scruples, that generally all Aftronomers now adays are brought over to our fide, and allow the Earth its Motion and Place among the Planets. If he cannot be fatisfied with all this, he is either one whofe Dulnefs can’t comprehend it, or who has his Faith at another man’s difpofal, and fo for fear of Galileo’s fate dare not own it.

In the other Figure you have the Globes of the Planets, and of the Sun, reprefented to your eyes as plac’d near one another. Where I have obferv’d the fame Proportion, of their Diameters to that of the Sun, that I publifh’d to the World in my Book of the Appearances of Saturn: namely, the Diameter of the Ring round turn is to that of the Sun as II is to 37; that of Jupiter as 2 to I I; that of Mars as 1 to 166; of the Earth as I to III; and of Venus as 1 to 84: to which I fhall now add that of Mercury obferv’d by Hevelius in the Year 1661, but calculated by my felf, and found ...