God, to remove his ways from human sense,
Placed heaven from earth so far, that earthy sight,
If it presumes, might err in things too high,121
And no advantage gain. What if the sun
Be centre to the World, and other stars,
By his attractive virtue and their own
Incited, dance about him various rounds!
Their wandering course, now high, now low, then hid,
Progressive, retrograde, or standing still,
In six thou seest; and what if seven to these
The planet-earth, so steadfast though she seem,
Insensibly three different motions move!130
Which else to several spheres thou must ascribe
Moved contrary with thwart obliquities;
Or save the sun his labor, and that swift
Nocturnal and diurnal rhomb supposed,
Invisible else above all stars, the wheel
Of day and night; which needs not thy belief
If earth, industrious of herself, fetch day
Traveling east, and with her part averse
From the sun's beam meet night, her other part
Still luminous by his ray. What if that light140
Sent from her, through the wide transpicuous air,
To the terrestrial moon, be as a star
Enlightening her by day, as she by night
This earth! reciprocal, if land be there,
Fields and inhabitants. Her spots thou seest
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BOOK VIII.
253
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