20 HISTORY OF ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERY. 



nature; and, struck with the want of this in received hypotheses, he seems to have come 

 to the conclusion that such scenes of complexity could not be true representations of the 

 heavens. It does not appear when his own views became settled; but in the year 1530, 

 the manuscript of his work " On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies" was finished. In 

 this production he disclosed his system : the Earth, a planet revolving round the Sun 

 in an orbit between Venus and Mars ; its rotation upon its axis producing the apparent 

 diurnal procession of the heavens ; the complicated movements of the planets being the 

 consequence of their own motions in space, combined with that of the Earth. It is diffi 

 cult to appreciate fully the freedom of spirit and independence of thought displayed in 

 thus rising superior to the prejudices of centuries, now that the truth of the system has 

 been long settled ; neither is it easy to conceive the delight and awe which must have 

 filled the mind of its author, when, after years of patient and intense application, he was 

 permitted to gaze upon the mechanism of the heavens unveiled, in its simplicity and 

 grandeur, from his mountain home at Frauenburg. 



The prudence of the great discoverer in propounding his views is no less admirable than 

 his sagacity in seizing hold of them. Aware of the obstinacy with which human nature 

 clings to its early imbibed opinions, he was careful not to rouse hostility by an abrupt 

 dogmatic attack upon the ancient theory. He communicated privately with his friends ; 

 Reinhold and Rheticus, astronomers ; Schomberg, a cardinal ; and Gysc, a bishop. With 

 these parties his views found acceptance. They were discussed in their respective circles, 

 and obtained a number of converts ; not, however, without opposition, for Copernicus was 

 satirised upon the stage at Elburg. His work, completed in 1530, was still in manuscript 

 in 1540, notwithstanding repeated efforts to induce him to publish it. An arrangement 

 at length was made, during the latter year, for Rheticus to furnish an account of the manu 

 script volume; and, that being favourably received, Copernicus consented to the appearance 

 of his own production. It was committed into the hands of Rheticus ; Andrew Osiander 

 of Nuremberg superintended the printing, and Cardinal Schomberg bore the expense. 

 But the illustrious author did not live to read his work in print. A copy was handed to 

 him as he lay, a paralytic, upon his bed. He saw it, he touched it, and in a few hours 

 afterwards expired, May 23. 1543. The cathedral of Frauenburg received his ashes 

 without pomp or epitaph, except that upon his tombstone some spheres were cut in relief. 

 The great square of Warsaw has a statue in honour of his memory ; and the civilised 

 world holds his name in reverence, as one whose genius dissipated the illusions of the 

 senses, and discovered the true astronomy. Copernicus is described as a man of ruddy 

 complexion and light hair. A portrait, painted by himself, a half-length, came into the 

 hands of Tycho Brahe, who made it the subject of an epigram to the effect that the whole 

 earth would not contain the whole of the man who whirled the earth itself in ether. 



The scheme of Copernicus was presented to the world in the form of hypothesis. 

 It could not be broached in any other manner, for not until the discovery of the aberra 

 tion of the stars by Bradley, and the determination of the diminution of gravity at the 

 equator by Richter, was demonstration given to the doctrine of the earth's rotation and 

 translation in space. " Astronomers," he remarks, in the dedication of his work to 

 Paul III., " being permitted to imagine circles to explain the motions of the stars, I 

 thought myself equally entitled to examine if the supposition of the motion of the earth 

 would render the theory of these appearances more exact and simple." But, though the 

 resolving the apparent diurnal revolution of the sphere into the actual diurnal motion of the 

 globe in an opposite direction was a pure hypothesis, yet we have so many examples of a 

 real movement on our part producing an apparent antagonistic motion in other bodies, as 

 when we sail along a river or travel on a railway, while there is something so manifestly 

 absurd in supposing the daily revolution of the firmament, that, even if no demonstration 



