EARLIEST PREDECESSORS OF COPERNICUS 323 



THE EAELIEST PEEDECESSOES OF COPEENICUS 



By Dr. CHARLES R. EASTMAN, 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



nnHE first glimmerings of perception that presage the discovery of 

 -*- great truths, whether coeval with, or long antecedent to complete 

 apprehension, possess for most minds a fascinating interest. Whether 

 it be abstract ideas, epoch-making inventions or discoveries of funda- 

 mental laws, such as gravitation or evolution, matters not ; the names of 

 those who have contributed largely toward intellectual progress, even 

 if they fell short of the whole truth — if they merely prepared the way for 

 final discover} 7 — become universally reverenced, or acquire at least a ro- 

 mantic interest, by virtue of their heraldry. In natural science, as else- 

 where, it is right and fitting that a high place be reserved for the ad- 

 vance prophets who have preceded the great expounders of Nature's truths. 



By common consent of mankind, the Copernican cosmogony ranks 

 as one of the immortal triumphs of genius, whence it follows that not 

 only the monk of Frauenburg, and the scarcely less famous defenders 

 of his theor}', but also his remote predecessors, are entitled to an exalted 

 position amongst those favored mortals who have been permitted, in 

 one age or another, to wrest from Nature the solution of her deepest 

 mysteries. Yet because of the absolute originality of the great six- 

 teenth-century astronomer's discovery; because, furthermore, the antici- 

 pators of his theory failed to convert the world to their belief; and 

 because Copernicus himself knew nothing of his real predecessors, it 

 has come about that too little credit is commonly bestowed upon ancient 

 forerunners of our modern system. 



There is abundant and undisputed testimony to show that in the 

 minds of at least two astronomers prior to the Christian era, namely, 

 Aristarchus of Samos, and Seleuchus the Chaldsean, the essential fea- 

 tures of our modern system were clearly recognized, and elaborated not 

 only into a working hypothesis, but into a valid explanation of the uni- 

 verse. It is impossible to view this achievement in its manifold relations 

 to human progress, without being impressed with the pathetic and re- 

 markable fact that a ray of divine intelligence should have shone forth 

 for an instant in that far-off period, kindling here and there a momen- 

 tary spark ; sparks that, although revealing the true order of the cosmos, 

 were not finally to illumine the world until after the lapse of centuries. 



No demonstration is necessary to show that the beginning of 

 astronomical knowledge is a subject in which all intelligent persons 



