Oliver Cromwell’s space cadet relative

QUESTION Did Oliver Cromwell’s brother-in-law propose a space mission? JOHN WILKINS (1614-1672) was an Anglican clergyman and founder of the Royal Society. He was an advocate of natural theology, which saw scientific discoveries as the works of God. Wilkins studied at Oxford and Cambridge, and in 1656, he married Robina French, the widowed sister of Oliver Cromwell.

Believing the Moon and planets were inhabited because God would never create a world without someone to live on it, he postulated space travel could be beneficial because Earth could trade with extraterrestrials. These ideas were outlined in his books The Discovery Of A World In The Moone in 1638 and A Discourse Concerning A New Planet in 1640. Wilkins experimented with building spacecraft at Wadham College, Oxford. While many of his claims were fanciful, he achieved some notable scientific hits, notably by coining the word ‘cell’ in biology.

K. M. Evans, Cardiff. QUESTION Is the Biblical book of Ecclesiasticus another name for Ecclesiastes? ECCLESIASTES and Ecclesiasticus are different books. They are examples of early Hebrew ‘wisdom literature’.

Ecclesiasticus is part of the Apocrypha, works which are religious in character, but are not generally accepted to be on the same level of inspiration as the 66 books of the Bible.

Ecclesiasticus (commonly called the Wisdom of Sirach) is a work of ethical teachings from 200 BC, written by the Jewish scribe Ben Sira of Jerusalem. Ecclesiastes is a different book, considered to be authored by King Solomon.

It follows the Book of Proverbs, mainly written by Solomon and precedes the Song of Solomon, and forms part of the Old Testament.

Robin Miles, Canterbury, Kent.