Pouring Forth Its Seas Everywhere, Then, The

Therefore, When I Considered This Carefully, The Contempt Which I Had To Fear Because Of The Novelty And Apparent Absurdity Of My View, Nearly Induced Me To Abandon Utterly The Work I Had Begun.

So If The Worth Of The Arts Were Measured By The Matter With Which They Deal, This Art-which Some Call Astronomy, Others Astrology, And Many Of The Ancients The Consummation Of Mathematics-would Be By Far The Most Outstanding. This Art Which Is As It Were The Head Of All The Liberal Arts And The One Most Worthy Of A Free Man Leans Upon Nearly All The Other Branches Of Mathe Matics. Arithmetic, Geometry, Optics, Geodesy, Mechanics, And Whatever Others, All Offer Themselves In Its Service.

Every Light Has Its Shadow, And Every Shadow Hath A Succeeding Morning.

I Therefore Took This Opportunity And Also Began To Consider The Possibility That The Earth Moved. Although It Seemed An Absurd Opinion, Nevertheless, Because I Knew That Others Before Me Had Been Granted The Liberty Of Imagining Whatever Circles They Wished To Represent The Phenomena Of The Stars, I Thought That I Likewise Would Readily Be Allowed To Test Whether, By Assuming Some Motion Of The Earth's, More Dependable Representations Than Theirs Could Be Found For The Revolutions Of The Heavenly Spheres.

If There Should Chance To Be Any Mathematicians Who, Ignorant In Mathematics Yet Pretending To Skill In That Science, Should Dare, Upon The Authority Of Some Passage Of Scripture Wrested To Their Purpose, To Condemn And Censure My Hypothesis, I Value Them Not, And Scorn Their Inconsiderate Judgement. De Revolutionibus Coelestibus