Translation Hide
The Divine Institutes

Chap. XXIV.--Of the Antipodes, the Heaven, and the Stars.

How is it with those who imagine that there are antipodes ¹ opposite to our footsteps? Do they say anything to the purpose? Or is there any one so senseless as to believe that there are men whose footsteps are higher than their heads? or that the things which with us are in a recumbent position, with them hang in an inverted direction? that the crops and trees grow downwards? that the rains, and snow, and hail fall upwards to the earth? And does any one wonder that hanging gardens ² are mentioned among the seven wonders of the world, when philosophers make hanging fields, and seas, and cities, and mountains? The origin of this error must also be set forth by us. For they are always deceived in the same manner. For when they have assumed anything false in the commencement of their investigations, led by the resemblance of the truth, they necessarily fall into those things which are its consequences. Thus they fall into many ridiculous things; because those things which are in agreement with false things, must themselves be false. But since they placed confidence in the first, they do not consider the character of those things which follow, but defend them in every way; whereas they ought to judge from those which follow, whether the first are true or false.

What course of argument, therefore, led them to the idea of the antipodes? They saw the courses of the stars travelling towards the west; they saw that the sun and the moon always set towards the same quarter, and rise from the same. But since they did not perceive what contrivance regulated their courses, nor how they returned from the west to the east, but supposed that the heaven itself sloped downwards in every direction, which appearance it must present on account of its immense breadth, they thought that the world is round like a ball, and they fancied that the heaven revolves in accordance with the motion of the heavenly bodies; and thus that the stars and sun, when they have set, by the very rapidity of the motion of the world ³ are borne back to the east. Therefore they both constructed brazen orbs, as though after the figure of the world, and engraved upon them certain monstrous images, which they said were constellations. It followed, therefore, from this rotundity of the heaven, that the earth was enclosed in the midst of its curved surface. But if this were so, the earth also itself must be like a globe; for that could not possibly be anything but round, which was held enclosed by that which was round. But if the earth also were round, it must necessarily happen that it should present the same appearance to all parts of the heaven; that is, that it should raise aloft mountains, extend plains, and have level seas. And if this were so, that last consequence also followed, that there would be no part of the earth uninhabited by men and the other animals. Thus the rotundity of the earth leads, in addition, to the invention of those suspended antipodes.

But if you inquire from those who defend these marvellous fictions, why all things do not fall into that lower part of the heaven, they reply that such is the nature of things, that heavy bodies are borne to the middle, and that they are all joined together towards the middle, as we see spokes in a wheel; but that the bodies which are light, as mist, smoke, and fire, are borne away from the middle, so as to seek the heaven. I am at a loss what to say respecting those who, when they have once erred, consistently persevere in their folly, and defend one vain thing by another; but that I sometimes imagine that they either discuss philosophy for the sake of a jest, or purposely and knowingly undertake to defend falsehoods, as if to exercise or display their talents on false subjects. But I should be able to prove by many arguments that it is impossible for the heaven to be lower than the earth, were is not that this book must now be concluded, and that some things still remain, which are more necessary for the present work. And since it is not the work of a single book to run over the errors of each individually, let it be sufficient to have enumerated a few, from which the nature of the others may be understood.

Translation Hide
Institutions Divines

XXIV.

Ceux qui tiennent qu'il y a des antipodes, tiennent-ils un sentiment raisonnable? Y a-t-il quelqu'un assez extravagant pour se persuader qu'il y ait des hommes qui aient les pieds en haut et la tête en bas; que tout ce qui est couché en ce pays-ci, soit suspendu en celui-là ; que les herbes et les arbres y croissent en descendant, et que la pluie et la grêle y tombent en montant? Faut-il s'étonner que l'on ait mis les jardins suspendus de Babylone au nombre des merveilles de la nature, puisque les philosophes suspendent aussi des mers, des villes et des montagnes? Cherchons la source de cette erreur, et nous trouverons sans doute qu'elle procède de la même cause que les autres. Quand les philosophes, trompés par l'ombre de la vraisemblance, ont une fois admis un faux principe, il faut qu'ils admettent aussi les conséquences qui s'en tirent. Ils tombent de fausseté en fausseté; ils embrassent indiscrètement la première, et au lieu d'examiner la seconde qui se présente, ils la soutiennent par toute sorte de moyens, au lieu de juger de la première par la seconde. Comment donc se sont-ils engagés à soutenir qu'il y a des antipodes? En observant le mouvement et le cours des astres, ils ont remarqué que le soleil et la lune se couchent toujours du même côté et se lèvent toujours de même. Mais ne pouvant découvrir l'ordre de leur marche, ni deviner comment ils passaient de l’Occident à l'Orient, ils se sont imaginé que le ciel était rond, tel que sa vaste étendue le fait paraître; que le monde même était rond comme une boule, que le ciel tournai t continuellement, et qu'en tournant il ramenait le soleil et les astres de l'Occident à l'Orient. C'est ce qui les a portés à faire des globes d'airain, sur lesquels ils ont gravé des figures monstrueuses auxquelles ils ont donné le nom d'astres. Le ciel étant rond, il fallait que la terre, qui est renfermée dans son étendue, fût aussi ronde. Que si elle est ronde, elle regarde le ciel de tous côtés de la même manière, et lui oppose de tous côtés des mers, des plaines et des montagnes. Il suit encore de là qu'il n'y a aucune partie qui ne soit habitée. Voilà comment la rondeur que l'on a attribuée au ciel a donné occasion d'inventer les antipodes. Quand l'on demande à ceux qui défendent ces opinions monstrueuses, comment il se peut faire, que ce qui est sur la terre ne tombe pas vers le ciel, ils répondent : que c'est parce que les corps pesants tendent toujours vers le milieu comme les rayons d'une roue, et que les corps légers, comme les nuées, la fumée, le feu, s'élèvent en l'air. J'avoue que je ne sais ce que je dois dire de ces personnes qui demeurent opiniâtres dans leurs erreurs, et qui soutiennent leurs extravagances, si ce n'est que quand ils disputent, ils n'ont point d'autre dessein que de se divertir ou de faire paraître leur esprit. Il me serait aisé de prouver, par des arguments invincibles, qu'il est impossible que le ciel soit au-dessous de la terre. Mais je suis obligé de finir ce livre-ci, ce que je ne saurais faire pourtant sans y ajouter auparavant quelques matières de grande importance. Comme on ne peut réfuter les erreurs de tous les philosophes, je me contenterai d'en avoir représenté quelques-unes par lesquelles on jugera des autres.