Note 16 — Astronomy.
Reading edition
The original idea is even attributed to Copernicus. M. Blundevile, in his Treatise on Cosmography, 1594, has the following passage, perhaps the most distinct recognition of authority in our language: “How prooue (prove) you that there is but one world? By the authoritie of Aristotle, who saieth that if there were any other world out of this, then the earth of that world would mooue (move) towards the centre of this world,” &c.
Sir Isaac Newton, in a conversation with Conduitt, said he took “all the planets to be composed of the same matter with the earth, viz. earth, water, and stone, but variously concocted.”