282 THE WORLD MACHINE 



telescopes without tubes, 320 feet long and magnifying 600 

 times. So far from reducing the distance of the stars with the 

 new instruments, they seemed but to recede farther and farther 

 into the depths of space. So long as it was possible to measure 

 angles with accuracy down only to a minute of arc, as in Tycho's 

 day that is to say, an arc the 20,oooth part of a circle this 

 meant merely that the nearest of the stars must be nearly 3500 

 times the mean distance of the earth from the sun. Already 

 it was taxing the limits of credulity. The sun, eighty million 

 miles or more away ; the starry firmament, 3500 times eighty 

 millions ! It was unthinkable ; it was almost unbelievable. 



The new instruments carried these distances almost to infini- 

 tude. The little wire-netting which Gascoigne had stretched 

 across the focus of the telescope made it possible to measure 

 down to a second. The lower limits of stellar distance rose to 

 200,000 times the distance of the sun when this degree of pre- 

 cision had been reached. Yet even with an instrument capable 

 of disclosing this minute variation in the position of a star, 

 no certain change like that predicted by Galileo could be found. 

 One astronomer after another believed that a parallax, a change 

 of position, could be observed. One after another their results 

 were discredited or disproved. Such was the state of the science 

 when Newton was borne in honour to Westminster Abbey. So 

 it was to remain for more than a hundred years thereafter, 

 that is to say, down to the second or third decade of the nine- 

 teenth century. 



Slight wonder, then, if some shadow of a doubt still remained, 

 slight marvel if some of those whose instincts of conservatism 

 made them still cling to the ancient beliefs, might hope that 

 some observation, some event might come which should reveal 

 this new and godless system of the world as the baseless fabric 

 of a dream. Inspired by the magnificent conquests which a 

 few decades of the telescope had achieved, the astronomers 

 did not despair ; they went on observing. As many times 

 happens in the history of invention and discovery, they found 

 not what they sought, but great things none the less. A 

 Columbus in the quest of India reveals the new world ; the 

 observers in search of stellar parallax disclosed the finite velo- 

 city of light. With this came the proof which sets the motion 

 of the earth beyond intelligent doubt. 



Probably the most ancient of physical investigators had at- 



