SEQUEL TO COPERNICUS. 429 



merits, and pretended to refute them all : but such 

 reasonings now made no converts ; and by this 

 time the mechanical objections to the motion of 

 the earth were generally seen to be baseless, as 

 we shall relate when we come to speak of the pro- 

 gress of mechanics as a distinct science. In the 

 mean time, the beauty and simplicity of the helio- 

 centric theory were perpetually winning the admi- 

 ration even of those who, from one cause or other, 

 refused their assent to it. Thus Riccioli, the last 

 of its considerable opponents, allows its superiority 

 in these respects ; and acknowledges (in 1653) that 

 the Copernican belief appears rather to increase 

 than diminish under the condemnation of the de- 

 crees of the Cardinals. He applies to it the lines 

 of Horace' 1 : 



Per damna per casdes, ab ipso 

 Sumit opes animumque ferro. 



Untamed its pride, unchecked its course, 

 From foes and wounds it gathers force. 



We have spoken of the influence of the motion 

 of the earth on the motions of bodies at its surface ; 

 but the notion of a physical connexion among the 

 parts of the universe was taken up by Kepler in 

 another point of view, which would probably have 

 been considered as highly fantastical, if the result 

 had not been, that it led to by far the most magni- 

 ficent and most certain train of truths which the 

 whole expanse of human knowledge can show. I 



11 Almag. Nov. p. 102. 



