So that, according to these men, the number of ætherial Spirits must needs be infinite : for if that be true that some of our Mathematicians say : if a stone could fall from the starry heaven, or eighth sphere, and should pass every hour an hundred miles, it would be 65 years or, or more, before it would come to ground, by reason of the great distance of heaven from earth, which contains, as some say, 170 millions 803 miles, besides those other heavens, whether they be crystalline or watery, which Maginus adds, which peradventure hold as much more, how many such spirits may it contain?
1899, Robert Burton, The Universal Anthology, volume XIII, The Clarke Company, page 227