SEARCHERS AFTER NATURE'S TRUTHS 301 



center of the solar system, and that the earth did not 

 stand still, but moved around the sun as did all the 

 other planets. 



''What makes the sun and stars seem to move 

 around the earth," he said, ''is that we are moving. 

 It is just the same if you are riding in a carriage. 

 The trees and houses seem to go past you in the 

 opposite direction from the way you are going. 

 You know they do not move, it is you who are 

 moving. In the same way it is the motion of our 

 earth itself which makes the stars seem to move 

 around it." 



Great was the consternation created in the world! 

 Such a thought was wicked ! It could not be believed ! 

 "How could it be possible," men said, "for our 

 earth to be anything but the center of the universe? 

 Was it not made for us, and was not the sun made to 

 warm us and light us by day, and the moon and 

 stars to give us hght by night?" So in their self- 

 importance they would not listen to the thought of 

 that great searcher after truth. 



The book in which Copernicus set down what he 

 had found was printed and placed in his hands just 

 before he died. Some people read it and beheved 

 what it stated. One of these was Galileo, an Italian, 

 who was born in Italy just twenty-four years after 

 the death of Copernicus. He heard that the Dutch 

 had found a way to make distant objects look nearer 

 by using lenses. He grasped the idea at once and 

 made his first telescope. With it he searched the 

 heavens for more knowledge of the sun, moon and 

 planets. How Galileo has opened the eyes of man- 



