590 Professor Pfai/fah'on Mathematical and Physical Science. 



celestial motions; but rt «as laid without seiited, aivd stands at the heat) of ihoM 



efFf ct. It was merely the conjecture of jnen, who, bursting the fetlrts of preju- 



au ingenious niinrl, wftnderinfj throu(»h dice and authority, have established 



thfe re^;i(!)ns of possihdity, cuided by no truth on (he basis of e^iperience and ob- 



«;Vi(Jence, and havin<;; no principle wliich sefvation. He was born at Thorn in 



could give stability to its opinions. De- Prussia, in 1473; he studied at ttie uni- 



inocritus, and the authors of that pliysi- versity of Cracow, beinj; intended at first 



cal system which Lucrttius has so beau, for a physician, though he afterwards en- 



tifully illustrated, were still more fortu- tered into the church. A decided taste 



niitt in some of their conjectures. They for astronomy led him early to the study 



taught that ihe Milky Way is the ligiit of of the science in which he was destined 



a ortat nuinber of small stars, very close to make such an entire revolution ; and) as 



to One another; a maj;nifireiit concep- soon as he found himself fixed and inde- 



^ tion, whicli the latest improvements of pendent, he became a diligent and care- 



"the telescope have fully verified. Yet, as ful observer, 



if to convnide us tiiat they derived this It would be in the higliest degree inte- 



knowledge from no pure or certain resting to know by what steps lie was led 



source, the same philosophers main- to conceive the bold system which re. 



tained, that the sun and the moon are njoves the earth from the centre of the 



bodies no larger than they appear to us world, and ascribes to it a twofold nio- 



to be. Uoi\. It is probable that the complica- 



But, nfttwtthstanding the above, and a tion of so many epicycles and deferents 



few otli6r s^ilenriid conceptions which as were necessary, merely to express the 



shine through the ubscunty nf the ancient laws of the planetary motions, had in* 



lihysics, the"systeni, taken on the whole, duced him to think of all the postible 



iVas full nf error anil inconsistency, suppositions which could be employed 



'J rulh sind falsthoiid met iilmoston terms for the same purpose, in order to disco* 



of equality ; ihe former separated from ver which of them was the simplest, 



its root, experience found no preference It appears extraordinary, that so natu- 



abovfe the latter; to the latter, in fact, it ral a thought should have occurred, at so 



ii'as generally forced to give way, and the late a period, for the first, or nearly for 



dominion of error was finally established, the first lime. We are" assured, by Co- 



i.nitD liACDN. pernicus himself, that one of the first con- 



feubh xverC the speculations of Bacon, siderations which offered itself to his 



iinti tlife rules he laid down for the con- mind, was the effect produced by the 



duct of experimental inquiries, before motion of a spectator, in transferring that 



any such niquiries had yet been iiisti- motion to the objects observed, but as- 



tut'ed. The power and compass of a cribing to it an opposite direction. From 



mind which ciiuld form such a plan be- this principle it immediately followed, 



forehand and trace not merely (he cut- that the rotation of the earth on an axis, 



Jine but many of the must minute rami- from west to east, would produce the ap* 



fications, of sciences which did not yet parent motion of the heavens in the 



txist must be an object of admiration to direction from east to west* 



all succeSdin.; Aires. He is destined, if, In considering some of the objections 



indeed any thin;; in the world besories- which might be made to the system of 



tinert to remain an instantin singulurii the eartli's motion, Copernicus reasons 



nriiong liien; and, as he has had no rival with great soundness, though he is not 



in the tnnes which are past, so is he aware of the full force of his own argu- 



likeiy to have none in those which are to ment. Ptolemy had alleged, thatj if the 



come. Bfl'ore any parallel to him can earth were to revolve on its axis, the vio- 



lie found no't only must a man of the lenceofthe motion would be sufficient to 



same tiileliis be, produced, but he must tear it in pieces, and to dissipate the 



"tie placed in the same circumstances; parts. This argument, it is evident, pro- 



the memory of his predecessor must be ceeds on a confused notion of a cenlrifu- 



f'ffaced, lirtd the lijiht of science, after gal fortie, the effect of which the Egyptian 



lieini: enti'relv exiintiuished, must be astronomer overrated, as much as lie un« 



ac»ain beginning to revive. If a second dervaluet) the firmness and solidity of the 



Bticon i- ever to arise, he must be igno- taith. Wliy, says Copernicus, was he 



■fiiiit of the first. not more alarmed for the safety of the 



cuPERKrct's. heavens, if the diurnal revolution be as- 



In the list 1)1 distinguished astrono- cribed to them, as their motion must be 



■jtt^rs t!S6 Uatftie of Copernicus is pre- ujore rapid, in proponion us iheif magni. 



