LITTLE But his book, "The Revolution of the Heavenly 

 JOURNEYS Bodies," was at last complete. For forty years he had 



worked at it, and for twenty-seven years, he himself 

 says, not a day or a night had passed without his hav- 

 ing added something to it. 



He felt that he had in this book told the truth. If men 

 wanted to know the facts about the heavens they would 

 find them here. He had approached the subject with 

 no preconceived ideas ; he had ever been willing to re- 

 nounce a theory when he had found it wrong. He knew 

 what all other great astronomers had taught, and out 

 of them all he had built a Science of Astronomy that 

 he knew would stand secure. 



But what should he do with all this mass of truth he 

 had discovered ? It was in his own brain, and it was in 

 the three thousand pages of this book, which had been 

 re-written five times. In a few years at most his brain 

 would be stilled in death; and in five minutes, igno- 

 rance and malice might reduce the book to ashes, and 

 the forty years' labor of Copernicus working, dream- 

 ing, calculating, weeping, praying would all go for 

 naught and be but as a tale that is told. Others might 

 have lived such lives and known as much as he, and 

 all was lost ! 



To frankly send the book to Rome and ask the Censor 

 for the privilege to publish it, was out of the question 

 the request would be refused,the manuscript destroyed, 

 and his own life even might be in danger. 

 To publish it at home without the consent of his 

 Bishop would be equally dangerous. There would be a 

 28 



