Dioptrics

...the alternating images of the contents to be seen. But now the telescope original: "Perspicillum" places all these things so clearly before our eyes that one would have to be truly timid to still think it necessary to doubt while enjoying such a sight. Nothing is more certain than that the southern parts of the Moon original: "Luna" abound with many—and indeed immense—mountains, while the northern parts, being lower, receive the moisture flowing down from the south in vast lakes. Those doctrines which Pena had previously brought forth through the benefit of Optics original: "Optices"—doctrines that were drawn from thin visual evidence—were demonstrated through long, interconnected chains of reasoning, such that they were attributed to human Reason rather than to the Eyes. But here, the Eyes themselves are brought into the sight of hidden things, as if a new gateway to heaven had been opened. If anyone should now wish to test the power of Reason upon these new observations: who does not see how far the contemplation of Nature will push its boundaries? We must ask: To what end original: "Cui bono" do these stretches of mountains and valleys and vast spaces of seas exist on the Moon? And can we not suppose that some creature, perhaps less noble than man, inhabits those regions?

No less is decided here that question which, born almost alongside philosophy itself, is debated today by the most noble minds: Can the Earth original: "Terra" be moved (as the theoretical doctrine of the planets strongly requires) without the collapse of heavy things or the disturbance of the motion of the elements? For if the Earth were exiled from the center of the world, some fear that the waters, deserting the globe of the Earth, would flow back to the center of the universe. And yet we see that in the Moon, too, there is the force of moisture, occupying the low basins of that globe. Although that globe is carried around in the ether itself, outside the centers not only of the world but also of our Earth, the abundance of lunar waters is not prevented from clinging steadily to the globe of the Moon, tending toward the center of its own body. Therefore, through this example of the lunar globe, Optics reforms the doctrine of heavy and light things; and here it confirms my introduction to the Commentary on the Movements of Mars original: "commentaria Martis motuum"; a reference to Kepler's seminal 1609 work, Astronomia Nova..

The followers of the Samian philosophy original: "Samiæ philosophiæ"; a reference to the heliocentric (Sun-centered) theory. Kepler credits Pythagoras and Aristarchus, both from the island of Samos, as its ancient originators. (for let me use this name to indicate its inventors, Pythagoras and Aristarchus of Samos)...