142 : Scientific Intelligence. 
only the. of. this. pfition, which beingotibatiqns into the title. 
page. There irk 9 er of his having been the editor ; and 
as the work an ae le, where I cannot find - Tibahame 
ever sojourned, and as the sy was deeply engaged at the time in his 
enormous trigonometrical calculation, some proof of his editorship must 
be given before it is admitted. As the point is of importance, I will 
e, that unless Rheticus had made some stay at Basle, it is very 
unlikely he should have edited a work printed there. He did not edit 
™ rst edition, only because it was found convenient to print it e Nu- 
sil rg instead of at Wittemberg ; and it was accordingly entrusted 
to. Osiander. a if ever there were a connexion between two men, 
and one of them and the book of the other, which made it de- 
sirable ete even necessary that the first should edit the ‘second, it was, 
the case of Rheticus and the first edition of the De Revolutionibus, &c.5 
ad yet ne arrangement could be made by which the sheets oemiaians 
g-could be revised at Wittemberg. It is very unlikely, then, 
that Rheticus should have one Abestocas edition, when, as far as we 
know, a similar impedime 
. The third édition by Miler (fined, 1617), has. no authority as 
: to iio! text above that of the s 
ur, we, thue-c en das to throw the opinion in ceton upon 
. . . . I at it 
een the editor, bean seit stress ought’ to. be laid Eee 
of the-first into the third. person as an emendation ; that is, 
goa be somewhat staggered by _— havings thought it eet: f 
nake such an alte teration.... 
ut, Rhetieus not being. in the recion as I think, for the reasons : 
Mai above, the next best authority on an opinion.of Copernicus i is Gal- 
ileo, Now the latter, in speaking of the phases of Venus, expressly: 
—, o Copernicus the maintenance of se of the tw, aheranienp 
t the planet is either self-luminous or perforated by the solar 2 
Migserslicrantives, he says, in his letter to Veleer Supe vol. ii, -: 
. —: * Al pets gh ah convien ametiere come possibile, 
pur come necessaria una delle dette posizioni.”? And that such 
: fos Opinion of Copernicus is also assumed by the writer of the note 
Sydereus Nuncius in the volume just mentioned, and by that 
even down to our own time ; ; as by Me. Drinkwater Bethune, in wipes sem 
of Galileo. In fact, with the exception of the unsupported story 
tioned at the beginning of this paper, there is nowhere, that,I can fins 
any thing against my conclusion. And. it is to be rem embered, tha’ 
Copernicus nowhere shows any of that acumen in ators of tee 
fone to cali teps. more t thay proportionate to hei. knowlec 
the latter. Palouigatn great promotor of the eld theory,.anc 
0 EE 
