366 COSMOS. 



Historical Epochs of the Physical Contemplation of 



experience, without a tolerably accurate observation of the 

 Sun's spots, both their darker portions and the penumbrae." 

 He also conjectures "that the penetration of the philosopher 

 may have been in advance of the results of the science 

 of his age, and that his views may have been influenced 

 by discoveries which have usually been ascribed to later 

 observers." It is, indeed, not only possible, but even 

 highly probable, that in districts where the Sun is obscured 

 for many months, as on the coast of Peru, during the 

 garua, even uncivilized nations may have seen Sun-spots with 

 the naked eye; but no traveller has, as yet, afforded any 

 evidence of such appearances having attracted attention, or 

 having been incorporated among the religious myths of their 

 system of Sun-worship. The mere observation of the rare 

 phenomenon of a Sun-spot, when seen by the naked eye, in 

 the low, or faintly obscured, white, red, or perhaps greenish 

 disc of the Sun, would scarcely have led even experienced 

 observers to conjecture the existence of several envelopes 

 around the dark body of the Sun. Had Cardinal de Cusa 

 known anything of the spots of the Sun, he would assuredly 

 not have failed to refer to these maculae Soils in the many 

 comparisons of physical and spiritual things in which he was 

 too much inclined to indulge. We need only recall the 

 excitement and bitter contention with which the discoveries 

 of Joh. Fabricius and Galileo were received, soon after the 

 invention of the telescope in the beginning of the seventeenth 

 century. I have already referred (Cosmos, vol. ii. p. 692) to 

 the obscurely expressed astronomical views of the Cardinal, 

 who died in 1464, and therefore nine years before the birth of 

 Copernicus. The remarkable passage : " Jam nobis manifes- 

 tum est Terrain in veritate moveri;" *' Now it is evident 

 that the Earth really moves," occurs in lib. ii. cap. 12, 

 De docta Ignorantia. According to Cusa, motion pervades 

 every portion of the celestial regions ; we do not even find a 

 star that does not describe a circle. " Terra non potest esse 

 fixa, sed movetur ut alise stellae;" "The Earth cannot be 

 fixed, but moves like other stars." The Earth, however, does 

 not revolve round the Sun. but the Earth and the Sun rotate 



