Book I. Some have already talk’d of the Inhabitants of the Planets, but went no farther.
of Aſtronomy, when the Earth was firſt aſſerted to be Spherical, and to be ſurrounded with Air, even then there were ſome Men ſo bold as to affirm, there were an innumerable Company of Worlds in the Stars. But later Authors, ſuch as Cardinal Cuʃanus, Brunus, Kepler, (and if we farther may believe him, Tycho was of that opinion too) have furniſhed the Planets with Inhabitants. Nay, Cuʃanusand Brunus have allowed the Sun and fixed Stars theirs too. But this was the utmoſt of their Boldneſs; nor has the ingenious French Author of the Dialogues about the Plurality of Worlds carried this Matter any farther. Only ſome of them have coined ſome Stories of the Men in the Moon, juſt as probable as Lucian’s true Hiſtory; among which I muſt count Kepler’s, which he has diverted us with in his Aſtronomical Dream. But a while ago thinking ſomewhat ſeriouſly of this matter (not that I count my ſelf quicker-fighted than thoſe great Men, but that I had the Happineſs to live after moſt
