A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



earth where I live, are held to be the greatest in dignity 

 of station and in love for all sciences and for mathe- 

 matics, so that you, through your position and judg- 

 ment, can easily suppress the bites of slanderers, al- 

 though the proverb says that there is no remedy 

 against the bite of calumny.'* 



In chapter X. of book I., "On the Order of the 

 Spheres," occurs a more detailed presentation of the 

 system, as follows: 



"That which Martianus Capella, and a few other 

 Latins, very well knew, appears to me extremely note- 

 worthy. He believed that Venus and Mercury re- 

 volve about the sun as their centre and that they can- 

 not go farther away from it than the circles of their 

 orbits permit, since they do not revolve about the 

 earth like the other planets. According to this theory, 

 then, Mercury's orbit would be included within that of 

 Venus, which is more than twice as great, and would 

 find room enough within it for its revolution. 



" If, acting upon this supposition, we connect Saturn, 

 Jupiter, and Mars with the same centre, keeping in 

 mind the greater extent of their orbits, which include 

 the earth's sphere besides those of Mercury and Venus, 

 we cannot fail to see the explanation of the regular 

 order of their motions. He is certain that Saturn, 

 Jupiter, and Mars are always nearest the earth when 

 they rise in the evening that is, when they appear over 

 against the sun, or the earth stands between them and 

 the sun but that they are farthest from the earth when 

 they set in the evening that is, when we have the sun 



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