In The Midst Of All Dwells The

In The Midst Of All Dwells The Sun. For Who Could Set This Luminary In Another Or Better Place In This Most Glorious Temple, Than Whence He Can At One And The Same Time Brighten The Whole.

Yet The Widespread Planetary Theories, Advanced By Ptolemy And Most Other Astronomers, Although Consistent With The Numerical Data, Seemed Likewise To Present No Small Difficulty. For These Theories Were Not Adequate Unless They Also Conceived Certain Equalizing Circles, Which Made The Planet Appear To Move At All Times With Uniform Velocity Neither On Its Deferent Sphere Nor About Its Own Epicycle's Center.

In First Place We Must Observe That The Universe Is Spherical. This Is Either Because That Figure Is The Most Perfect, As Not Being Articulated, But Whole And Complete In Itself; Or Because It Is The Most Capacious And Therefore Best Suited For That Which Is To Contain And Preserve All Things.

Hence I Feel No Shame In Asserting That This Whole Region Engirdled By The Moon, And The Center Of The Earth, Traverse This Grand Circle Amid The Rest Of The Planets In An Annual Revolution Around The Sun. Near The Sun Is The Center Of The Universe. Moreover, Since The Sun Remains Stationary, Whatever Appears As A Motion Of The Sun Is Really Due Rather To The Motion Of The Earth.

We Regard It As A Certainty That The Earth, Enclosed Between Poles, Is Bounded By A Spherical Surface.