INDUCTIVE EPOCH OF HIPPARCHUS. 191 



one who had shown extraordinary sagacity and re- 

 markable desire of truth in every part of science. 

 Pliny, after mentioning him and Thales, breaks out 

 into one of his passages of declamatory vehemence ; 

 " Great men ! elevated above the common standard 

 of human nature, by discovering the laws which 

 celestial occurrences obey, and by freeing the 

 wretched mind of man from the fears which 

 eclipses inspired. Hail to you and to your genius, 

 interpreters of heaven, worthy recipients of the 

 laws of the universe, authors of principles which 

 connect gods and men ! " Modern writers have 

 spoken of Hipparchus with the same admiration ; 

 and even the exact but severe historian of astrono- 

 my, Delambre, who bestows his praise so sparingly, 

 and his sarcasm so generally ; who says 7 that it is 

 unfortunate for the memory of Aristarchus that his 

 work has come to us entire, and who cannot refer 8 

 to the statement of an eclipse rightly predicted by 

 Halicon of Cyzicus without adding, that if the story 

 be true, Halicon was more lucky than prudent ; 

 loses all his bitterness when he comes to Hippar- 

 chus 9 . "In Hipparchus," says he, "we find one of 

 the most extraordinary men of antiquity ; the very 

 greatest, in the sciences which require a combina- 

 tion of observation with geometry." Delambre adds, 

 apparently in the wish to reconcile this eulogium 

 with the depreciating manner in which he habitu- 

 ally speaks of all astronomers whose observations 

 7 Astronomic Ancienne, i. 75. 8 i. 17- 9 * 186. 



