144 GALILEO AND HIS JUDGES. 



and much farther from us than the Sun. Then as 

 regards the stars, a Centauri, the nearest of them, 

 is calculated to be more than 20,000,000,000,000 

 miles distant ; but this calculation supposes the truth 

 of the Copernican theory, and that we may not seem 

 to argue in a circle, we will not use it, but content 

 ourselves with saying that, from certain reasons about 

 which there can be no mistake, we are sure that 

 the distance of the stars is very considerably greater 

 than even the remotest planet in our own system, 

 which is Neptune. Now, this planet's distance from 

 the Sun is computed at 2,775,000,000 miles, and if, 

 indeed, he is carried daily round the Earth in a 

 circle, it must be with a velocity exceeding that 

 of light ; the stars, therefore, with a velocity far 

 greater still. Now, nothing with which we are 

 acquainted moves with so great a speed as light 

 or, as some men call it, radiant energy, meaning 

 thereby to include heat as well as light in the term 

 a speed estimated at 186,000 miles in a second 

 of time. Are we then to believe that the stars are 

 carried in a circle round the Earth every day at a 

 velocity much exceeding even this ? It seems almost 

 enough to ask such a question without pausing for 

 the answer. The simple rotation of the Earth on 

 its own axis explains all the phenomena without 

 resorting to such extreme suppositions as those just 

 mentioned. 



It is remarkable that no one of any note at least, 

 in modern times, for I am not so sure about the 



