When I was going to Bed at night , he came into my Chamber , and spoke to me to this purpose : I should not have come to disturb your Rest , had I not thought that one who hath found out the secret , of Travelling so far in Twelve hours space , had likewise a charm against Lassitude . But you know not , added he , what a pleasant Quarrel I have just now had with our Fathers , upon your account ? They 'll have you absolutely to be a Magician ; and the greatest favour you can expect from them , is to be reckoned only an Impostor : The truth is , that Motion which you attribute to the Earth , is a pretty nice Paradox ; and for my part I 'll frankly tell you , That that which hinders me from being of your Opinion , is , That though you parted yesterday from Paris , yet you might have arrived to day in this Country , without the Earth's turning : For the Sun having drawn you up , by the means of your Bottles , ought he not to have brought you hither ; since according to Ptolemy , and the Modern Philosophers , he marches obliquely , as you make the Earth to move ? And besides , what great Probability have you to imagine , that the Sun is immoveable , when we see it go ? And what appearance is there , that the Earth turns with so great Rapidity , when we feel it firm under our Feet ? Sir , replied I to him , These are , in a manner , the Reasons that oblige us to think so : In the first place , it is consonant to common Sense , to think that the Sun is placed in the Center of the Universe ; seeing all Bodies in nature , standing in need of that radical Heat , it is fit he should reside in the heart of the Kingdom , that he may be in a condition , readily to supply the Necessities of every Part ; and that the Cause of Generations , should be placed in the middle of all Bodies , that it may act there with greater Equality and Ease : After the same manner , as Wise Nature hath placed the Genitals in Man , the Seeds in the Center of Apples , the Kernels in the middle of their Fruits ; and in the same manner , as the Onion , under the cover of so many Coats that encompass it , preserves that precious Bud , from which Millions of others are to have their being , for an Apple is in it self a little Universe ; the Seed , hotter than the other parts thereof , is its Sun , which diffuses about it self that natural Heat , which preserves its Globe : And in the Onion , the Germ is the little Sun of that little World , which vivifies and nourishes the vegetative Salt of that little mass . Having laid down this , then , for a ground , I say , That the Earth standing in need of the Light , Heat , and Influence of this great Fire , it turns round it , that it may receive in all parts alike , that Virtue which keeps it in Being . For it would be as ridiculous to think , that that vast luminous Body , turned about a point , that it has not the least need of ; as to imagine , that when we see a roasted Lark , that the Kitchin-fire must have turned round it . Else , were it the part of the Sun to do that drudgery , it would seem that the Physician stood in need of the Patient ; that the Strong should yield to the Weak ; the Superior serve the Inferior ; and that the Ship did not sail about the Land , but the Land about the Ship. Now if you cannot easily conceive , how so ponderous a Body can move ; Pray , tell me , are the Stars and Heavens , which , in your Opinion , are so solid , any way lighter ? Besides , it is not so difficult for us , who are assured of the Roundness of the Earth , to infer its motion from its Figure : But why do ye suppose the Heaven to be round , seeing you cannot know it , and that yet , if it hath not this Figure , it is impossible it can move ? I object not to you your Excentricks nor Epicycles , which you cannot explain but very confusedly , and which are out of doors in my Systeme . Let 's reflect only on the natural Causes of that Motion . To make good your Hypothesis , you are forced to have recourse to Spirits or Intelligences , that move and govern your Spheres . But for my part , without disturbing the repose of the supreme Being , who , without doubt , hath made Nature entirely perfect , and whose Wisdom ought so to have compleated her , that being perfect in one thing , she should not have been defective in another : I say , that the Beams and Influences of the Sun , darting Circularly upon the Earth , make it to turn , as with a turn of the Hand , we make a Globe to move ; or , which is much the same , that the Steams which continually evaporate from that side of it , which the Sun shines upon , being reverberated by the Cold of the middle Region , rebound upon it , and striking obliquely , do of necessity make it whirle about in that manner .

The Explication of the other Motions is less perplexed still ; for pray , consider a little — At these words the Vice-Roy interrupted me : I had rather , said he , you would excuse your self from that trouble ; for I have read some Books of Gassendus on that subject : And hear what one of our Fathers , who maintained your Opinion one day , answered me . Really , said he , I fancy that the Earth does move , not for the Reasons alledged by Copernicus ; but because Hell-fire , being shut up in the Center of the Earth , the damned who make a great bustle to avoid its Flames , scramble up to the Vault , as far as they can from them , and so make the Earth to turn , as a Turn-spit makes the Wheel go round , when he runs about in it .

We applauded that Thought , as being a pure effect of the Zeal of that good Father : And then the Vice-Roy told me , That he much wondered , how the Systeme of Ptolemy , being so improbable , should have been so universally received . Sir , said I to him , most part of Men , who judge of all things by the Senses , have suffered themselves to be perswaded by their Eyes ; and as he who Sails along a Shoar , thinks the Ship immoveable , and the Land in motion ; even so Men turning with the Earth round the Sun , have thought that it was the Sun that moved about them . To this may be added , the unsupportable Pride of Mankind , who perswade themselves , that Nature hath only been made for them ; as if it were ●ikely that the Sun , a vast Body , Four ●undred and thirty four times bigger than ●he Earth , had only been kindled to ripen ●heir Medlars , and plumpen their Cabbage . ●or my part , I am so far from complying ●ith their Insolence , that I believe the Pla●…ets are Worlds about the Sun , and that ●…e fixed Stars are also Suns , which have ●…anets about them , that 's to say , Worlds , which because of their smallness , and that their borrowed light cannot reach us , are not discernable by Men in this World : For in good earnest , how can it be imagined , that such spacious Globes are no more but vast Desarts ; and that ours , because we live in it , hath been framed for the habitation of a dozen of proud Dandyprats ? How , must it be said , because the Sun measures our Days and Years , that it hath only been made , to keep us from running our Heads against the Walls ? No , no , if that visible Deity shine upon Man , it 's by accident , as the King's Flamboy by accident lightens a Porter that walks along the Street : But , said he to me , if , as you affirm , the fixed Stars be so many Suns , it will follow , that the World is infinite ; seeing it is probable , that the People of that World , which moves about that fixed Star , you take for a Sun , discover above themselves other fixed Stars , which we cannot perceive from hence , and so others in that manner in infinitum .

Never question , replied I , but as God could create the Soul Immortal , He could also make the World Infinite ; if so it be that Eternity is nothing else , but an illimited Duration , and an infinite , a boundless Extension : And then God himself would be Finite , supposing the World not to be infinite , seeing he cannot be where nothing is , and that he could not encrease the greatness of the World , without adding somewhat to his own Being , by beginning to exist , where he did not exist before . We must believe then , that as from hence we see Saturn and Jupiter ; if we were in either of the Two , we should discover a great many Worlds which we perceive not , and that the Universe extends so in infinitum .

I' faith , replied he , when you have said all you can , I cannot at all comprehend that Infinitude . Good now , replied I to him , do you comprehend the Nothing that is beyond it ? Not at all . For when you think of that Nothing , you imagine it at least to be like Wind or Air , and that is a Being : But if you conceive not an Infinite in general , you comprehend it at least in particulars ; seeing it is not difficult to fancy to our selves beyond the Earth , Air , and Fire which we see , other Air , and other Earth , and other Fire . Now Infinitude is nothing else , but a boundless Series of all these . But if you ask me , How these Worlds have been made , seeing Holy Scripture speaks only of one that God made ? My answer is , That I have no more to say : For to oblige me to give a Reason for every thing , that comes into my Imagination , is to stop my Mouth , and make me confess , that in things of that nature , my Reason shall always stoop to Faith. He ingeniously acknowledged to me , that his Question was to be censured , but bid me pursue my notion : So that I went on , and told him , That all the other Worlds , which are not seen , or but imperfectly believed , are no more , but the Scum that purges out of the Suns . For how could these great Fires subsist without some matter , that served them for Fewel ? Now as the Fire drives from it the Ashes that would stifle it , or the Gold in a Crucible , separates from the Marcasite and Dross , and is refined to the highest Standard ; nay , and as our Stomack discharges it self by vomit , of the Crudities that oppress it ; even so these Suns daily evacuate , and reject the Remains of matter , that might incommode their Fire : But when they have wholly consumed that matter , which entertains them ; you are not to doubt , but they spread themselves abroad on all sides , to seek for fresh Fewel , and fasten upon the Worlds , which heretofore they have made , and particularly upon those that are nearest : Then these great Fires , reconcocting all the Bodies , will as formerly force them out again , Pell-mell from all parts ; and being by little and little purified , they 'll begin to serve for Suns , to other little Worlds , which they procreate by driving them out of their Spheres : And that without doubt , made the Pythagoreans foretel the universal Conflagration .

This is no ridiculous Imagination , for New-France where we are , gives us a very convincing instance of it . The vast Continent of America , is one half of the Earth , which in spight of our Predecessors , who a Thousand times had cruised the Ocean , was not at that time discovered : Nor , indeed , was it then in being , no more than a great many Islands , Peninsules , and Mountains that have since started up in our Globe ; when the Sun purged out its Excrements to a convenient distance , and sufficient Gravity , to be attracted by the Center of our World , either in small Particles , perhaps , or , it may be also , altogether in one lump . That is not so unreasonable , but that St. Austin would have applauded to it , if that Country had been discovered in his Age. Seeing that great Man , who had a very clear Wit , assures us , That in his time , the Earth was flat like the floor of an Oven , and that it floated upon the Water , like the half of an Orange : But if ever I have the honour to see you in France , I 'll make you observe , by means of a most excellent Celescope , that some Obscurities , which from hence appear to be Spots , are Worlds a forming .

My Eyes that shut with this Discourse , obliged the Vice-Roy to withdraw . Next Day , and the Days following , we had some Discourses to the same purpose : But some time after , since the hurry of Affairs suspended our Philosophy , I fell afresh upon the design of mounting up to the Moon .

So soon as she was up , I walked about musing in the Woods , how I might manage and succeed in my Enterprise ; and at length on St. John's-Eve , when they were at Council in the Fort , whether they should assist the Wild Natives of the Country a-against the Iroqueans ; I went all alone to the top of a little Hill , at the back of our Habitation , where I put in Practice what you shall hear . I had made a Machine , which I fancied might carry me up as high as I pleased , so that nothing seeming to be wanting to it , I placed my self within , and from the Top of a Rock , threw my self in the Air : But because I had not taken my measures aright , I fell with a sosh in the Valley below . Bruised as I was , however , I returned to my Chamber , without loosing courage , and with Beef-Marrow I anointed my Body , for I was all over mortified from Head to Foot : Then having taken a dram of Cordial Waters to strengthen my Heart , I went back to look for my Machine ; but I could not find it , for some Soldiers , that had been sent into the Forest , to cut wood for a Bonefire , meeting with it by chance , had carried it with them to the Fort : Where after a great deal of guessing what it might be , when they had discovered the invention of the Spring , some said , that a good many Fire-Works should be fastened to it , because their Force carrying them up on high , and the Machine playing its large Wings , no Body but would take it for a Fiery Dragon . In the mean time I was long in search of it , but found it at length in the middle of the Market-place of Kebeck , just as they were setting Fire to it . I was so transported with Grief , to find the Work of my Hands in so great Peril , that I ran to the Souldier , that was giving Fire to it , caught hold of his Arm , pluckt the Match out of his Hand , and in great rage threw my self into my Machine , that I might undo the Fire-Works , that they had stuck about it ; but I came too late , for hardly were both my Feet within , when whip , away went I up in a Cloud : The Horror and Consternation I was in , did not so confound the faculties of my Soul , but I have since remembred all that happened to me at that instant . For so soon as the Flame had devoured one tire of Squibs , which were ranked by six and six , by means of a Train , that reached every half-dozen ; another tire went off , and then another ; so that the Salt-Peter taking Fire , put off the danger by encreasing it . However , all the combustible matter being spent , there was a period put to the Fire-work ; and whilst I thought of nothing less , than to knock my Head against the top of some Mountain , I felt , without the least stirring , my elevation continuing ; and adieu Machine , for I saw it fall down again towards the Earth . That extraordinary Adventure puffed up my Heart with so uncommon a Gladness ; that , ravished to see my self delivered from certain danger , I had the impudence to philosophize upon it . Whilst then with Eyes and Thought I cast about , to find what might be the cause of it , I perceived my flesh blown up , and still greasy with the Marrow , that I had daubed my self over with , for the Bruises of my fall : I knew that the Moon being then in the Wain , and that it being usual for her in that Quarter , to suck up the Marrow of Animals ; she drank up that wherewith I was anointed , with so much the more force , that her Globe was nearer to me , and that no interposition of Clouds weakened her Attraction .