son, yet,
when I considered how absurd my doctrine would appear, I long hesitated
whether I should publish my book, or whether it were not better to
follow the example of the Pythagoreans and others, who delivered their
doctrine only by tradition and to friends." [Sidenote: He fears being
accused of heresy.] He concludes: "If there be vain babblers who,
knowing nothing of mathematics, yet assume the right of judging on
account of some place of Scripture perversely wrested to their purpose,
and who blame and attack my undertaking, I heed them not, and look upon
their judgments as rash and contemptible."

Copernicus clearly recognized not only the relative position of the
earth, but also her relative magnitude. He says the magnitude of the
world is so great that the distance of the earth from the sun has no
apparent magnitude when compared with the sphere of the fixed stars.

[Sidenote: Early correction of the Copernican theory.] To the earth
Copernicus attributed a triple motion--a daily rotation on her axis, an
annual motion round the sun, a motion of declination of the axis. The
latter seemed to be necessary to account for the constant direction of
the pole; but as this was soon found to be a misconception, the theory
was relieved of it. With this correction, the doctrine of Copernicus
presents a clear and great advance, though in the state in which he
offered it he was obliged to retain the mechanism of epicycles and
eccentrics, because he considered the planetary motions to be circular.
It was the notion that, since the circle is the most simple of all
geometrical forms, it must therefore be the most natural, which led to
this imperfection. His work was published in 1543. He died a few days
after he had seen a copy.

Against the opposition it had to encounter, the heliocentric theory made
its way slowly at first. Among those who did adopt it were some whose
connexion served rather to retard its progress, because of the ultraism
of their views, or the doubtfulness of their social position. [Sidenote:
Giordano Bruno of Nola.] Such was Bruno, who contributed largely to its
introduction into England, and who was the author of a work on the
Plurality of Worlds, and of the conception that every star is a sun,
having opaque planets revolving round it--a conception to which the
Copernican system suggestively leads. Bruno was born seven years after
the death of Copernicus. He became a Dominican, but, like so many other
tho