carried round the sun and advance progressively through the path of
the zodiac, which motion causes years, and seasons of the year, which
are spring, summer, autumn, and winter. They likewise rotate upon
their own axis, just as our Earth does, and this rotation causes days,
and times of the day, that is, morning, mid-day, evening, and
night. And moreover, some of them also have moons, which are called
satellites, which perform their revolutions around their globes in
stated times, as the moon does around ours. The planet Saturn, because
it is so very far distant from the sun, has also a great luminous
ring, which supplies that earth with much, although reflected, light.
How is it possible for any one who is acquainted with these facts, and
thinks from reason, to assert that such bodies are uninhabited?

4. I have, moreover, spoken with spirits [to the effect] that men may
be led to believe that there are more earths in the universe than one,
by considering the immensity of the starry heaven with its innumerable
stars, each of which, in its own place, that is, in its own system, is
a sun, and like our sun, but differs in magnitude. Any one who rightly
weighs these facts must conclude that so immense a whole cannot but be
the means to an end which is the final end of creation, and that this
end is a heavenly kingdom, in which the Divine may dwell with angels
and men. For the visible universe, that is, the heaven resplendent
with such an innumerable multitude of stars, which are so many suns,
is merely a means for the existence of earths, and of human beings
upon them, from whom a heavenly kingdom [may be formed]. From these
considerations a rational man cannot but think that a means so immense
to an end so great was not provided for a human race, and a heaven
from them, from one earth only. What would this be to the Divine,
who is infinite, and to whom thousands, yea, myriads, of earths,
all filled with inhabitants, would be but a little thing and almost