And what provokers does the
discovery of the celestial circles bring to new circles of politics and
social life!
The illustrations of Astronomy to this thought are very large. First of
the sciences to assume a perfectly rational form, it presents the
eternal type of the unfolding of the speculative spirit of man. This
springs, no doubt, from the essentially subjective character of
astronomy,--more than all the other sciences a construction of the
creative reason. From the initiative of scientific astronomy, when the
early Greek geometers referred the apparent diurnal movements to
geometrical laws, to the creation of the nebular hypothesis, the
logical filiation of the leading astronomical conceptions obeys
corresponding tidal movements in humanity. Thus it is that
"through the ages one increasing purpose
runs
And the thoughts of men are widened with the
process of the suns."
It was for reasons the Ptolemaic system so long held its sway. It was
for reasons it went, too, when it did, hideous and oppressive
nightmare! The celestial revelations of the sixteenth century came as
the necessary complement of the new mental firmaments then dawning on
the thought of man.
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