The Discovery of a World in the Moone

2. Gross absurdities have been entertained by general opinion.

I shall give an instance of each, so that I may the better prepare the reader to consider things without prejudice, when he shall see that the common opposition against this which I affirm cannot in any way derogate from its truth.

1. Other truths have been formerly accounted as ridiculous as this. I shall specify that of the Antipodes, which has been denied and laughed at by many wise men and great scholars, such as were Herodotus, St. Augustine, Lactantius, the Venerable Bede, Lucretius the poet, Procopius, and the voluminous Abulensis, with others. Herodotus counted it so horrible an absurdity that he could not forbear laughing to think of it: original: "Γελῶ δὲ ὁρῶν γῆς περιόδες γράψαντας, πολλὲς" (I laugh to see how many have written about the orbits of the earth)