276 PREFACE TO THE 



astronomers, Bacon often says, insist on explaining the 

 retardation of the inferior orbs by giving them a proper 

 motion of their own, opposite to that which they derive 

 from the starry heaven : surely it would be simpler to 

 say that all the orbs move in the same direction with 

 unequal velocities ; the inequality depending on their 

 remoteness from the prime mover. 



Compare with this the following lines of Lucretius : 



" Quanto quaeque magis sint terram sidera propter, 

 Tanto posse minus cum cceli turbine ferri: 

 Evanescere enim rapidas illius, et acreis 

 Imminui subter, vireis; ideoque relinqui 

 Paullatim solem cum posterioribu' signis, 

 Inferior multum quum sit quam fervida signa: 

 Et magis hoc lunam ; " &C. 1 



But it was probably not from Lucretius that Bacon de- 

 rived this way of considering the matter. For Telesius, 

 whom Bacon esteemed " the best of the novelists," and 

 whose pastoral philosophy, as he has not unhappily 

 called it, was contented with vague speculations as to 

 the causes of phenomena without any accurate knowl- 

 edge of their details, had suggested to his followers that 

 it was nowise necessary to resolve the motion of the sun 

 into the motion of the starry heaven and the motion of 

 his own orb, and that on the contrary this composition 

 of motions is unintelligible. You may see, he affirms, 

 with your own eyes the way in which the sun, moving 

 with one motion only, advances continually from east 

 to west, and alternately towards the north and south ; all 

 that is necessary is to admit that the poles on which he 

 revolves are not constantly at the same distance from 

 the poles of heaven, but on the contrary are always 

 receding from or advancing towards them. 2 



Amongst those who called themselves Telesians the 



1 Lucret. v. 622. 2 Telesius, De Rer. Nat. iv. 25. 



