paid little attention, presented the opinions quoted as more than vague speculations; none of them gave any substantial reasons for, much less a proof of, their views; and Coppernicus, though he may have been glad, after the fashion of the age, to have the support of recognised authorities, had practically to make a fresh start and elaborate his own evidence for his opinions.
It has sometimes been said that Coppernicus proved what earlier Writers had guessed at or suggested; it would perhaps be truer to say that he took up certain floating ideas, which were extremely vague and had never been worked out scientifically, based on them certain definite fundamental principles, and from these principles developed mathematically an astronomical system which he shewed to be at least as capable of explaining the observed celestial motions as any existing variety of the traditional Ptolemaic system. The Coppernican system, as it left the hands of the author, was in fact decidedly superior to its rivals as an explanation of ordinary observations, an advantage which it owed quite as much to the mathematical skill with which it was developed as to its first principles; it was in many respects very much simpler; and it avoided certain fundamental difficulties of the older system. It was however liable to certain serious objections, which were only overcome by fresh evidence which was subsequently brought to light. For the predecessors of Coppernicus there was, apart from variations of minor importance, but one scientific system which made any serious attempt to account for known facts; for his immediate successors there were two, the newer of which would to an impartial mind appear on the whole the more satisfactory, and the further study of the two systems, with a view to the discovery of fresh arguments or fresh observations tending to support the one or the other, was immediately suggested as an inquiry of first-rate importance.
76. The plan of the De Revolutionibus bears a general resemblance to that of the Almagest. In form at least the book is not primarily an argument in favour of the motion of the earth, and it is possible to read much of it without ever noticing the presence of this doctrine.
Coppernicus, like Ptolemy, begins with certain first prin-
