APPENDIX C: COPERNICUS 407 



sion, I may point out the influence which the possessors of this science 

 may exercise in the promotion of Christianity among the heathen, 

 whether in subduing their pride, in disabusing them of false beliefs 

 in magic, or in overcoming their material force. 



C. DEDICATION OF 



THE REVOLUTIONS OF THE HEAVENLY BODIES 

 BY NICOLAUS COPERNICUS (1543) 



To POPE PAUL III 



I can easily conceive, most Holy Father, that as soon as some 

 people learn that in this book which I have written concerning the 

 revolutions of the heavenly bodies, I ascribe certain motions to the 

 Earth, they will cry out at once that I and my theory should be re- 

 jected. For I am not so much in love with my conclusions as not to 

 weigh what others will think about them, and although I know that 

 the meditations of a philosopher are far removed from the judgment 

 of the laity, because his endeavor is to seek out the truth in all things, 

 so far as this is permitted by God to the human reason, I still believe 

 that one must avoid theories altogether foreign to orthodoxy. Ac- 

 cordingly, when I considered in my own mind how absurd a perform- 

 ance it must seem to those who know that the judgment of many 

 centuries has approved the view that the Earth remains fixed as centre 

 in the midst of the heavens, if I should on the contrary, assert that the 

 Earth moves ; I was for a long time at a loss to know whether I should 

 publish the commentaries which I have written in proof of its motion, 

 or whether it were not better to follow the example of the Pythag- 

 oreans and of some others, who were accustomed to transmit the 

 secrets of philosophy not in writing but orally, and only to their rela- 

 tives and friends, as the letter from Lysis to Hipparchus bears wit- 

 ness. They did this, it seems to me, not as some think, because of a 

 certain selfish reluctance to give their views to the world, but in 

 order that the noblest truths, worked out by the careful study of great 

 men, should not be despised by those who are vexed at the idea of 

 taking great pains with any form of literature except such as would 

 be profitable, or by those who, if they are driven to the study of phi- 

 losophy for its own sake by the admonitions and the example of others, 

 nevertheless, on account of their stupidity, hold a place among philoso- 



