THE NEW COSMOLOGY 



the earth, a freely poised body, balancing itself about 

 its centre, and surrounded on all sides by a fluid medi- 

 um, should not be affected by the universal rotation. 

 Such difficulties, however, do not confront us if we 

 attribute motion to the earth such a small, insignifi- 

 cant body in comparison with the whole universe, 

 and which for that very reason cannot exercise any 

 power over the latter. 



" Simplicio. You support your arguments through- 

 out, it seems to me, on the greater ease and simplicity 

 with which the said effects are produced. You mean 

 that as a cause the motion of the earth alone is just as 

 satisfactory as the motion of all the rest of the universe 

 with the exception of the earth; you hold the actual 

 event to be much easier in the former case than in the 

 latter. For the ruler of the universe, however, whose 

 might is infinite, it is no less easy to move the universe 

 than the earth or a straw balm. But if his power is 

 infinite, why should not a greater, rather than a very 

 small, part of it be revealed to me ? 



" Salviati. If I had said that the universe does not 

 move on account of the impotence of its ruler, I should 

 have been wrong and your rebuke would have been in 

 order. I admit that it is just as easy for an infinite 

 power to move a hundred thousand as to move one. 

 What I said, however, does not refer to him who causes 

 the motion, but to that which is moved. In answer to 

 your remark that it is more fitting for an infinite power 

 to reveal a large part of itself rather than a little, I 

 answer that, in relation to the infinite, one part is not 

 greater than another, if both are finite. Hence it is 

 unallowable to say that a hundred thousand is a larger 



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