The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing-World

This belief was so fixt in her mind, that it put her into a very Melancholick humor; and then she sent both for her Fly-men and Worm-men, and declared to them the cause of her sadness. 'Tis not so much, said she, the vanishing of those Spirits that makes me Melancholick, but that I should be the cause of their miserable condition, and that those harmless Spirits should, for my sake, sink down into the black and dark abyss of the Earth. The Worm-men comforted the Empress, telling her, That the Earth was not so horrid a Dwelling, as she did imagine; for, said they, not onely all Minerals and Vegetables, but several sorts of Animals can witness, that the Earth is a warm, fruitful, quiet, safe, and happy habitation; and though they want the light of the Sun, yet are they not in the dark, but there is light even within the Earth, by which those Creatures do see that dwell therein. This relation setled her Majesties mind a little; but yet she being desirous to know the Truth, where, and in what condition those Spirits were, commanded both the Fly- and Worm-men to use all labour and industry to find them out; whereupon the Worm-men straight descended into the Earth, and the Fly-men ascended into the Air.