Physiologia Kircheriana Experimentalis

must be accumulated, since no surface can be conceived there except a circular one. Just as herrings in barrels, so will those congregated [souls] endure punishments worthy of their sins—for as long as God shall be God, that is, devoid of any end—all the more bitter, the closer they are to the center of the earth, throughout perpetual eternities. Let the Christian mind learn from this to depart from sins and to pursue the good, lest the sentence of the most just judge cast it into this most horrific place of torments, into this formidable abyss of perpetual shadows, where, with all the bolts of the earthly mass locked, no light ever shines, no day dawns, and it pays the penalties of everlasting horror. But let these things said incidentally suffice.

PARADOX III.

In the center of the earth, no one will be able to stand or be fixed upon his feet.

For since (as we have shown in the preceding) all heavy bodies in the center of the earth conform themselves according to the center of gravity, and yet the center of gravity cannot be in the feet, the extremities of the human body, therefore it will necessarily adhere to the center of the earth either by the navel or a part near to it, as appears in the figure.

A circular diagram representing the center of the earth with a human figure positioned such that the center of the earth coincides with the center of the body (near the navel), with the head and feet extending in opposite directions toward the surface.

From this arises another paradox: that a man stretched out in this position tends upward at one and the same time with both halves of his body—with his feet on one side and with his head and chest on the other.

If, however, by divine power a leaden sphere of proportionate magnitude, with a diameter of six or seven feet, were placed in the center of the earth, I say that a man, with his gravity not resisting the same sphere, could stand in a natural position and walk around it, as appears in the following figure.

From this it also follows that if a surface equal in diameter were superimposed upon the said leaden sphere AB, a man could stand upright nowhere except at the central point of the said surface; likewise, a small globule N cast onto the said surface would rest nowhere except at that single point through which the line of direction drawn from the center passes, which is the shortest of all lines drawn from the center of the earth to the surface; again, this globule would rest at any point of the leaden sphere placed beneath it, since it is everywhere at an equal distance from the center, and the line of direction is everywhere the same. All of which is evident from what has been said.

A geometric diagram showing a sphere (the Earth) with a smaller sphere at its center. A horizontal line A-B is drawn across the inner sphere. A small globule N is shown on the surface of the inner sphere. Arrows indicate the direction of gravity toward the center.

PARADOX IV.

A man placed in the center of the earth could neither eat nor drink.

Let someone be placed by divine power in the center of the earth in such a way that his mouth coincides with the center of the middle; I say that he can neither eat nor drink in this position; for since, in this position, the body is inverted no matter which way it turns, and constantly presses with its head toward the center of the earth, it will be unable to transmit food or drink into the stomach, seeing as he is entirely inverted on all sides and tends upward everywhere with his feet; however, as soon as his head has emerged from the center even by the interval of a foot, then he will indeed be able to swallow as far as that part which corresponds to the center, but no further; for he will always transmit food the better, the further his mouth is removed from the center. But these things are clear.