412 HISTORY OF FORMAL ASTRONOMY. 



came forwards, we must consider the additional 

 evidence for it which was brought to light by Gali- 

 leo's astronomical discoveries. 



Sect. 3. The Heliocentric Theory confirmed by 

 Facts. Galileo's Astronomical Discoveries. 



THE long interval which elapsed between the last 

 great discoveries made by the ancients and the first 

 made by the moderns, had afforded ample time for 

 the developement of all the important consequences 

 of the ancient doctrines. But when the human 

 mind had been thoroughly roused again into acti- 

 vity, this was no longer the course of events. Dis- 

 coveries crowded on each other; one wide field 

 of speculation was only just opened, when a richer 

 promise tempted the labourers away into another 

 quarter. Hence the history of this period contains 

 the beginnings of many sciences, but exhibits none 

 fully worked out into a complete or final form. 

 Thus the science of statics, soon after its revival, 

 was eclipsed and overlaid by that of dynamics ; and 

 the Copernican system, considered merely with re- 

 ference to the views of its author, was absorbed in 

 the commanding interest of physical astronomy. 



Still, advances were made which had an impor- 

 tant bearing on the heliocentric theory, in other 

 ways than by throwing light upon its physical prin- 

 ciples. I speak of the new views of the heavens 

 which the Telescope gave; the visible inequalities 



