122 DISSERTATION SECOND. [part i. 



The language in which Ptolemy speaks of the epicycles 

 is not a little curious, and very conformable to the notion, 

 that he considered them as merely the means of expressing 

 a general law. After laying down the hypothesis of certain 

 epicycles, and their dimensions, it is usual with him to add, 

 tf these suppositions will save the phenomena." Save is 

 the literal translation of the Greek word, which is always a 

 part of the verb Sai^e<r, or some of its compounds. Thus, 

 in treating of certain phenomena in the moon's motion, he 

 lays down two hypotheses, by either of which they may 

 be expressed; and he concludes, "in this way the simili- 

 tude of the ratios, and the proportionality of the times, will 

 be saved (^tot^u^mro) on both suppositions." ' It is plain 

 from these words, that the astronomer did not here consid- 

 er himself as describing any thing which actually existed, 

 but as explaining two artifices, by either of which, certain 

 irregularities in the moon's motion may be represented, in 

 consistence with the principle of uniform velocity. The 



1 Mathematica Syntaxis, Lib. IV. p. 223 of the Paris edi- 

 tion. iVIilton, the extent and accuracy of whose erudition 



can never be too much admired, had probably in view this phra- 

 seology of Ptolemy, when he wrote the following lines:— 



" He his fabrick of the Heavens 



Hath left to their disputes, perhaps to move 

 His laughter at their quaint opinions wide 

 Hereafter, when they come to model Heaven 

 And calculate the stars, how they will wield 

 The mighty frame, how build, unbuild, contrive 

 To save appearances, how gird the sphere 

 With centrick and eccentrick scribbled o'er, 

 Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb." 



The obsolete verb to salve is employed by Bacon, and many 

 other of the old English writers in the same sense with 2«£«» in 

 the work of Ptolemy here referred to. " The schoolmen were 

 like the astronomers, who, to salve phenomena, framed to their 

 conceit ecceni ricks and epicycles ; so they, to salve the practice 

 of (he church, had devised a great number of strange positions. '" 

 Boom. 



