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WILKINS, John. A Discourse concerning a New World & another Planet, London: for John Maynard, 1640. 2 parts in one volume, small 8°, engraved general title, additional printed titles in each part, engraved and woodcut diagrams and illustrations, one full-page (lacking gathering M-Q in pt. I, duplicates of the corresponding signatures of pt. II bound in instead, margin of engraved title lightly soiled, a few light spots), contemporary calf (rebacked and recornered). FIRST EDITION OF PART II, third edition of part I. Norman 2240; STC 25641.
"Addressed to the common reader, the primary aim was to make known and to defend the new world picture of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo by showing its agreement with reason and experience against subservience to Aristotelian doctrines and literal biblical interpretation ... The central argument was borrowed from Galileo: the moon is not a shining disk or whatever else men have imagined, but a world with neutral features much like the earth. And if so, then the moon might also be inhabited..." (DSB). In the 1640 edition of part I, Wilkins added a section to this suggesting the possibility of men travelling to the moon. He also discusses "the problems connected with this, such as gravity and the nature and height of the atmosphere. In the Discourse accompanying the 1640 edition, Wilkins discusses the controversial question of the earth's motion, supporting the arguments of Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo that the earth behaved as other planets" (Norman).
"Addressed to the common reader, the primary aim was to make known and to defend the new world picture of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo by showing its agreement with reason and experience against subservience to Aristotelian doctrines and literal biblical interpretation ... The central argument was borrowed from Galileo: the moon is not a shining disk or whatever else men have imagined, but a world with neutral features much like the earth. And if so, then the moon might also be inhabited..." (DSB). In the 1640 edition of part I, Wilkins added a section to this suggesting the possibility of men travelling to the moon. He also discusses "the problems connected with this, such as gravity and the nature and height of the atmosphere. In the Discourse accompanying the 1640 edition, Wilkins discusses the controversial question of the earth's motion, supporting the arguments of Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo that the earth behaved as other planets" (Norman).