SEQUEL TO COPERNICUS. 407 



he says, "The earth, then, being supposed to be 

 at rest (for that now appears to us the more true 

 opinion)." And in his tract On the Cause of the 

 Tides, he says, " If the tide of the sea be the ex- 

 treme and diminished limit of the diurnal motion 

 of the heavens, it will follow that the earth is 

 immovable ; or at least that it moves with a much 

 slower motion than the water." In the Descriptio 

 Globi InteUectualis he gives his reasons for not 

 accepting the heliocentric theory. " In the system 

 of Copernicus there are many and grave diffi- 

 culties: for the threefold motion with which he 

 encumbers the earth is a serious inconvenience ; 

 and the separation of the sun from the planets, with 

 which he has so many affections in common, is 

 likewise a harsh step : and the introduction of so 

 many immovable bodies into nature, as when he 

 makes the sun and the stars immovable, the bodies 

 which are peculiarly lucid and radiant; and his 

 making the moon adhere to the earth in a sort 

 of epicycle ; and some other things which he as- 

 sumes, are proceedings which mark a man who 

 thinks nothing of introducing fictions of any kind 

 into nature, provided his calculations turn out 

 well." We have already explained that, in attri- 

 buting three motions of the earth, Copernicus had 

 presented his system encumbered with a complexity 

 not really belonging to it. But it will be seen 

 shortly, that Bacon's fundamental objection to this 

 system was his wish for a system which could be 



