INDUCTIVE EPOCH OF HIPPARCHUS. 193 



tremely perplexed and entangled, so that it is 

 usually looked upon as a mass of arbitrary and 

 absurd complication. Most persons are familiar 

 with passages in which it is thus spoken of 10 . 



He his fabric 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 will they wield 

 The mighty frame ! how build, unbuild, contrive, 

 To save appearances! how gird the sphere 

 With centric and eccentric scribbled o'er, 

 Cycle in epicycle, orb in orb ! 



And every one will recollect the celebrated saying 

 of Alphonso X., king of Castile 11 , when this com- 

 plex system was explained to him ; that " if God 

 had consulted him at the creation, the universe 

 should have been on a better and simpler plan." 

 In addition to this, the system is represented as 

 involving an extravagant conception of the nature 

 of the orbs which it introduces; that they are 

 crystalline spheres, and that the vast spaces which 

 intervene between the celestial luminaries are a solid 

 mass, formed by the fitting together of many masses 

 perpetually in motion; an imagination which is 

 presumed to be incredible and monstrous. 



We must endeavour to correct or remove these 

 prejudices, not only in order that we may do justice 

 to the Hipparchian, or, as it is usually called, Ptole- 

 maic system of astronomy, and to its founder ; but 



10 Paradise Lost, viii. " A. D. 1252. 



VOL. I. 



