THE NEW SCIENCE 19 



of petrified wood, the horns of a moose,"' etc. The prime incentive 

 here, it is to be noted, is not usefulness. 



The best scientific work of the period was done in Astronomy.^® 

 This is directly due to the invention of the telescope and apparatus 

 for grinding lenses. From the earliest records of the work of the 

 Royal Society, papers were read on astronomical observations.'^ 

 Comets were reported; new stars were discovered; the milky way 

 was seen to be a multitude of distant stars ; eclipses were accurate- 

 ly predicted.'* All scientific men were interested in this work, so 

 that it became fashionable to look at the heavens. Sorbiere found 

 a public telescope when he was in London. "Dans le pare le Roy 

 a fait dresser un grand mast pour des Telescopes, avec lesquels 

 ]\Ionsieur de Chevalier Robbert Moray me fit voir Saturne, et les 

 Satellites du Jupiter",'''' 



It was during this period that the struggle between the old 

 Ptolemaic theory of the cosmogony and the comparatively new 

 Copernican theory came to a final issue. The earth ceased to be 

 the center of the universe, and, like other visible planets, began to 

 move around the sun. What caused them to move ? What was the 

 course of their movement? men began to ask. The questions were 

 fully answered and the answer was mathematically demonstrated 

 by the greatest scientist of the period, — Sir Isaac Newton. In him 

 were combined all the elements of the new science. He used the 

 latest and the most improved mechanical apparatus; he tested his 

 own theories by numerous experiments, and urged others to do 

 the same; he demonstrated his conclusions by mathematics. The 

 nobility of his character and the candor of his mind did much to 

 dignify scientific research, and to impress his revolutionary astron- 

 omical ideas upon the minds of men. 



The leading astronomers of this period were: — Huygens, noted 



"•'Phil. Trans. July 10, 1683; Nov. 20, 1683; Jan. 20, 1684; April 20, 1684; 

 Dec. 20, 1684; May 20, 1685; Nov., 1685; Nov.-Dec, 1686; Sept.-Oct., 1687; June, 1693; 

 May, 1694; Nov., 1697; May, 1698; Sept., 1698; April, 1700; Sept.-Oct., 1700; Feb., 

 1701; Jan.-Feb., 1702; Nov.-Dec, 1702; Feb., 1705; Jan.-Mar., 1706; Apr.-June, 1711; 

 July-Sept., 1712; Jan.-Mar., 1717. 



■" Lodge, Oliver J., Pioneers of Science, p. 136. 



""Phil. Trans. Mar., 1665. 



•'«Ibid., Apr. 3, 1665; May 8, 1665; Mar. 12, 1666; July 2, 1666; Aug. 14, 1671; 

 Feb. 21, 1675; Sept., 1699; Sept.-Oct., 1732; Apr., 1733; Oct., 1742. 



™ Sorbiere, Relation D'TJn Voyage En Angleterre, 1669, p. 32. 



