Pierre Borel was a Protestant physician and counselor to the French court who, inspired by the atomistic philosophy of his recently deceased compatriot Descartes and also of Lucretius, published A New Treatise Proving a Multiplicity of Worlds (1658). Although scientifically naïve in parts, it was among the first of a wave of seventeenth century books enthusiastically endorsing pluralism and "aerial navigation" as "the way whereby one can learn the pure truth concerning the plurality of worlds." A like-minded contemporary of his was Cyrano de Bergerac.