DISCOVERIES IN THE CELESTIAL SPACES. 307 



ner, superintended the printing of the work De Rcvolutionibus, 

 and who, although he makes no express declaration of any re- 

 ligious scruples, appears nevertheless to have thought it expe- 

 dient to speak of the new views as of an hypothesis, and not, 

 like Copernicus, as of demonstrated truth. 



The founder of our present system of the universe (for to 

 him incontestably belong the most important parts of it, and 

 the grandest features of the design) was almost more distin- 

 guished, if possible, by the intrepidity and confidence with 

 which he expressed his opinions, than for the knowledge to 

 which they owed their origin. He deserves to a high degree 

 the fine eulogium passed upon him by Kepler, who, in the in- 

 troduction to the Rudolphine Tables, says of him, " Vir fuit 

 maximo ingenio et quod in hoc exercitio (combating preju- 

 dices) magni onomenti est, animo liber." When Copernicus 

 is describing, in his dedication to the pope, the origin of his 

 work, he does not scruple to term the opinion generally ex- 

 pressed among theologians of the immobility and central posi- 

 tion of the earth " an absurd acroama," and to attack the 

 stupidity of those who adhere to so erroneous a doctrine. " If 

 even," he writes, " any empty-headed babblers ((.laraioXoyoi), 

 ignorant of all mathematical science, should take upon them- 

 selves to pronounce judgment on his work through an inten- 

 tional distortion of any passage in the Holy Scriptures (prop- 

 ter aliquem locum scriptures male ad suum propositum detor- 

 turn), he should despise so presumptuous an attack. It was, 

 indeed, universally known that the celebrated Lactantius, 

 who, however, could not be reckoned among mathematicians, 

 had spoken childishly (pueriliter) of the form of the earth, de- 

 riding those who held it to be spherical. On mathematical 

 subjects one should write only to mathematicians. In order 

 to show that, deeply penetrated with' the truth of his own de- 

 ductions, he had no cause to fear the judgment that might be 

 passed upon him, he turned his prayers from a remote corner 

 of the earth to the head of the Church, begging that he would 

 protect him from the assaults of calumny, since the Church 

 itself would derive advantage from his investigations on the 

 length of the year and the movements of the moon." Astrol- 

 ogy and improvements in the calendar long procured protec- 

 tion lor astronomy from the secular and ecclesiastical powers, 

 as chemistry and botany were long esteemed as purely subserv- 

 ient auxiliaries to the science of medicine. 



The strong and free expressions employed by Copernicus 

 sufficiently refute the old opinion that he advanced the sys- 



