Foscarini, Paolo Antonio An Epistle to Fantoni 1661, tr. Salusbury, Thomas

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well to this of Copernicus, as to the Vulgar Opinion; so that they
are both alike concerned in the solution of it: But so far as it
opposeth that of Copernicus, its answer is easy from the First
Maxim.

But that which is added in the Fourth Classe, That it follow­
eth from this Opinion, that Hell (for that it is included by the
Earth, as is commonly held) doth move circularly about the
Sun, and in Heaven, and that so Hell it self will be found to be
in Heaven; discovers, in my judgment, nothing but Ignorance
and Calumny, that insinuate the belief of their Arguments ra­
ther by a corrupt sense of the Words, than by solid Reasons
taken from the bosome of the Nature of things. For in this
place Heaven is no wise to be taken for Paradice, nor according
to the Sense of Common Opinion, but (as hath been said above)

according to the Copernican Hypothesis, for the subtilest and
Purest Aire, far more tenuous and rare than this of ours; where­
upon the Solid Bodies of the Stars, Moon, and Earth, in their
Circular and Ordinary Motions, do passe thorow it, (the Sphære
of Fire being by this Opinion taken away.) And as according
to the Common Opinion it was no absurdity to say, That Hell
being demerged in the Centre of the Earth and of the World it
self, hath Heaven and Paradice above and below it, yea and on
all sides of it, and that it is in the middle of all the Cœlestial
Bodies (as if it were posited in a more unworthy place) so, nei­
ther in this will it be deemed an Error, if from the other System,
which differeth not much from the Vulgar one, those or the like
things follow as do in that. For both in that of Copernicus, and
the Vulgar Hypothesis, Hell is supposed to be placed amongst the
very dreggs of the Elements, and in the Centre of the Earth it
self, for the confinement and punishment of the damned. There­
fore we ought not for want of Reasons to trifle away time in
vain and impertinent strife about words, since their true Sense
is clouded then with no obscurity, and in regard that it is very
clear to any man indued with a refined Intellect, and that hath
but an indifferent judgment in the Liberal Arts, and especially
in the Mathematicks, that the same, or not very different Gon­
sequences do flow from both these Opinions.

Heaven accord­
ing to Copernicus
is the same with
the most tenuous
Æther; but dif­
ferent from Para­
dice, which sar­
passeth all the
Heavens.

By these Maxims and their Interpretations it appears, that
the Pythagorick and Copernican Opinion is so probable, that its
possible it may exceed even the Ptolemaick in probability; and
since there may be deduced from it a most ordinate Systeme, and
a mroe admirable and mysterious Hypothesis of the World
than from that of Ptolomy: the Authorities of Sacred Scripture
and Theological Tenents in the mean while not opposing it, be­
ing opportunely and appositely (as I have shown how they may