A new treatise proving a multiplicity of worlds that the planets are regions inhabited and the earth a star, and that it is out of the center of the world in a third heaven, and turns round before the sun which is fixed : and other most rare and curious things / by Peter Borell ...

Chap. XIX.

By what reason, the World may be proved to have a Soul.

VVHereas Montanus hath here above spoken of the Soul of the World, It will be meet for our present subject, to demon∣strate those Arguments by which this Opinion may be proved, that he may not be judged to have incongruously spoken of it, it being also advantageous for our Dis∣course.

If the World is a reason∣able Creature, as divers Learned Persons have pro∣ved, It may not be strange and ridiculous to believe.

That the Earth hath a moti∣on, nor consequently that it is a moving Star or Planet in∣habited, and that so likewise all the others may be in∣habited: Now if the Earth turns and moves; is it not also needfull to grant, that that whereby it is moved, is as it were, its soul moving it, as our soul moves our bo∣dy? Some have thought, that God is the soul of the World, and that he is in the World, as the soul in man's body; that is to say, all in all, and all in each part; and that therefore the World might have a soul, and be called a living creature, great and round, and as Montanus saith, Is it not more likely,

that this great body by us called the World, is a thing quite contrary then we esteem? The Pythagorians, Xenophon, Plato, and all his Schollers, have taught and believed this opinion; and since them Marsilius Ficinus, and Hierome Fracaster, most renowned Doctors of Phy∣sick; and in our Age Campa∣nella, who alledges Seneca, Origenes, Eusebius, and Gre∣gorius Nazianzenus, as wit∣nesses of it.

But if any one should say, That the World cannot be a living creature, seeing it hath nor feet, nor eyes, nor hands, nor any such member as li∣ving creatures have; I be∣seech him to consider, that

its not requisite it should have some feets, being it treads not upon the other li∣ving creatures; nor eyes, nor ears, because it can neither see nor hear any thing out of it self; but the hands of this living Creature, as those that in it are contained, and we have, are its beams and virtues; its eyes, the Stars; its bloud, the Waters; and so hath other things besides, consonant and correspondent to our members, without having need of the same as we have; Are there not strange and monstrous beasts in re∣spect of us, and yet live well, and are perfect in their kind, doing well enough without such members as we have,

though they have not the same situation with us. How many Fishes is there, that have their mouth in the bel∣ly, the eyes and other mem∣bers in extravagant places? Some Creatures have the gall in their head, and some in their tail; yea, there are some Men, whose head is in their bosome; some likewise may be formed, so as we cannot comprehend nor know how. Its motion sets forth its life; and the flux and reflux of the waters its breath and respi∣ration. There are divers such Reasons to prove the same: but I shall desire the curious Reader to peruse Plato, Sextus, Empiricus, Ficus, Macrobius,

Campanella, and others, to avoid tediousnesse.