688 COSMOS. 



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 

 (propter aliqucm locum scripturce male ad situm proposition 

 detortum,} he should despise so presumptuous an attack. It 

 was, indeed, universally known that the celebrated Lac- 

 tantius, who however could not be reckoned among mathema- 

 ticians, had spoken childishly (pueriliter) of the form of the 

 earth, deriding those who held it to be spherical. On mathe- 

 matical subjects one should write only to mathematicians. In 

 order to show that, deeply penetrated with the truth of his 

 own deductions, 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." 

 Astrology and improvements in the calendar long procured 

 protection for astronomy from the secular and ecclesiastical 

 powers, as chemistry and botany were long esteemed as purely 

 subservient auxiliaries to the science of medicine. 



The strong and free expressions employed by Copernicus 

 sufficiently refute the old opinion, that he advanced the 

 system w r hich bears his immortal name as an hypothesis con- 

 venient for making astronomical calculations, and one which 

 might be devoid of foundation. " By 110 other arrangement," 

 he exclaims with enthusiasm, " have I been able to find so 

 admirable a symmetry of the universe, and so harmonious a 

 connection of orbits, as by placing the lamp of the world, 

 (lucernam mundi,} the sun, in the midst of the beautiful temple of 

 nature as on a kingly throne, ruling the whole family of circling 

 stars that revolve around him (circumagentem gubernam as- 

 trorum familiam.y* Even the idea of universal gravitation or 



* Quis enim in hoc pulcherrimo templo lampadem hanc in alio vel 

 meliori loco poneret, quam unde totum simul possit illuminare? Si- 

 quidem non inepte quidam lucernam mundi, alii mentem, alii rectorem 

 vocant. Trismegistus visibilem Deum, Soplioclis Electra intuentem 

 omnia. Ita profecto tanquam in solio regali Sol residens circuma- 

 gentem gubernat Astrorum familiam : Tellus quoque minime fraudatur 

 lunari ministerio, sed ut .Aristoteles de animalibus ait, maximam Luna 

 cum terra cognationem habet. Concepit interea a Sole terra, et im- 

 pregnatur annuo partu. Invenimus igitur sub hac ordinatione admi- 



