292 THE POLL Y OF DOGMA. 



to be really divided into two unequal portions, although, 

 theoretically, the sun ought to occupy exactly the same space 

 of time in passing from the spring to the autumn, as from the 

 autumn to the spring equinox. 



The fact pointed out and attested by Hipparchus had an 

 influence which he never anticipated on the progress of science. 

 In opposition to all the systems previously designed by man, 

 it followed, in the first place, that the movement of the sun, in 

 relation to a mean movement, must sometimes be accelerated, 

 sometimes be retarded ; that the solar arc described in a given 

 time would be greater in winter than in summer. 



Astronomers who, trammelled by particular theories, were 

 unable and unwilling to accept of any new light, immediately 

 hastened to raise, as is invariably the case with those who 

 defend a bad cause, a subsidiary and damaging question. 

 They asked whether those inequalities of the sun's movement 

 were real, or only apparent ; whether they were more than a 

 mere optical phenomenon, arising from the sun's position 

 vis-a-vis to an observer placed on the earth's surface. And 

 they unhesitatingly pronounced in favour of the appearance, 

 and against the reality. 



But man, says an old adage, is always punished after the 

 manner of his sin. Dogmatic and obstinate authority in- 

 volved our anti-revolutionary astronomers in fresh complica- 

 tions. Such is the case, too, very frequently, in the domain 

 of theology ! 



Does the sun the sun as each of us beholds him ever 



