The gradual acceptance of the Copernican theory of the universe Part 18

Besides, if the air does not move so rapidly as the earth, a man living in a very high tower, however quiet the air, ought then always to feel the strongest wind and the greatest disturbance of the air.

Since mountains and towers are moved with the earth, and the air would not be accompanying them at an equal speed, it would necessarily follow that they would precede the air by cleaving and cutting and ploughing through it which ought to make a great wind perceptible.

Eighthly; if a person stood in some very high tower or other high place and aimed from that tower at some spot of earth perpendicularly below his eye, and allowed a very heavy stone to fall following that perpendicular line, it is absolutely certain that that stone would land upon the spot aimed at perpendicularly underneath. But if the earth is moved, it would be impossible for the stone to strike that spot.

This I prove first: because either the air moves at an unequal rate with the earth; or it moves equally rapidly. If not equally, then it is certain the stone could not land at that spot, since the earth's movement would outstrip the stone borne by the air. If equally rapidly, then again the stone could not land at that spot, since although the air was moving in itself at an equal speed, yet on that account it could not carry the stone thus rapidly with itself and carrying it downward falling by its own weight, for the stone tending by gravity towards the center resists the carrying of the air.

You will say: if the earth is moved in a circle, so are all its parts; wherefore that stone in falling not only moves in a circle by the carrying of the air, but also in a circle because of its own nature as being part of the earth and having the same motion with it.

Verily this answer is worthless. For although the stone is turned in a circle by its own nature like the earth, yet its own natural gravity impeded it so that it is borne along that much the less swiftly, unlike the air or the earth, both of which are in their natural places and which in consequence have no gravity as a stone falling from on high has.

Lastly; because although the stone is moved in the world by its own nature like the whole earth, yet it is not borne along as swiftly as the whole earth. For as one stone by its own weight falls from the heaven following its own direct motion straight to the center just as a part of the earth, so also the whole earth itself would fall; and yet it would not fall so swiftly as the whole earth, for although the stone would be borne along in its sphere like the whole earth just as a part of it, yet it would not be borne along as swiftly as the whole earth; and so, in whatever way it is said, the motion of the earth ought always to outstrip the stone and leave it a long distance behind. Thus a stone could never fall at the point selected or a point perpendicularly beneath it. This is false. Ergo.

Ninthly: If the earth is moved in a circular orbit, it ought to pa.s.s from the west through the meridian to the east; consequently the air ought to move by the same path. But if this were so, then if an archer shot toward the east, his arrow ought to fly much farther than if he shot toward the west. For when he shot toward the east, the arrow would fly with the natural movement of the air and would have that supporting it. But when he shot toward the west, he would have the motion of the air against him and then the arrow would struggle against it. But it is certain the arrow ought to go much farther and faster when the movement of the air is favorable to it then when against it, as is obvious in darts sent out with a favoring wind.

Ergo.

Similarly not a few other arguments can be worked out, but there are none as valuable for proof as the foregoing ones. Though these were written by me with a flying pen far from books and sick in bed with a broken leg, yet they seem to me to have so much value that I do not see any way by which they could rightly be refuted. These I have written for your gracious lords.h.i.+ps in grat.i.tude for your goodwill on the occasion of our conversation at your dinner four days ago; and I ask for them that you meditate on them justly and well.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

(of references cited.)

I

GENERAL WORKS.

Addis and Arnold: _Catholic Dictionary_, 2nd edit. London, 1884.

Bailly: _Histoire de l'Astronomie Moderne depuis la Fondation de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie, jusqu' a l'Epoque de 1730_. 3 vol. Paris, 1785.

Berry, Arthur: _Short History of Astronomy_. New York, 1912.

Cajori, Florian: _The Teaching and History of Mathematics in the United States_. Was.h.i.+ngton, 1890. (Bureau of Education, No. 3.)

Delambre, J.B.J.: _Histoire de l'Astronomie Ancienne_. Paris, 1817.

----: _Histoire de l'Astronomie du Moyen Age_. Paris, 1819.

----: _Histoire de l'Astronomie Moderne_. Paris, 1821.

De Morgan, Augustus: _A Book of Paradoxes_. 2 vol. 2nd edit. ed. by David Eugene Smith. Chicago, 1915.

Di Bruno, Joseph Faa: _Catholic Belief, or a short and simple exposition of Catholic Doctrine_. Author's American edit. 375th thousand. New York, [1912.]

Jacoby, Harold: _Astronomy, a Popular Handbook_. New York, 1913.

Janssen, J.: _History of the German People at the Close of the Middle Ages_. Trans. by Mitch.e.l.l and Christie. 2 vol. St. Louis, no date.

Lecky, Wm. E. Hartpole: _History of England in the 18th Century_. 8 vol. New edit. New York, 1892.

Libri, C.: _Histoire des Sciences Mathematiques en Italie depuis la Renaissance des Lettres_. 2me edit. 4 vol. Halle, 1865.

Milman, Henry H.: _History of Latin Christianity_. 8 vol. in 4. New York, 1899.

Owen, John: _The Skeptics of the Italian Renaissance_. 2nd edit. New York, 1893.

Peignot, G.: _Dictionnaire Critique Litteraire et Bibliographique des Princ.i.p.aux Livres Cond.a.m.nes au Feu, Supprimes on Censures_. 2 vol.

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Putnam, George Haven: _The Censors.h.i.+p of the Church of Rome_. 2 vol.

New York, 1907.

Rashdall, Hastings: _Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages_. 2 vol. Oxford, 1895.

Smith, David Eugene: _Rara Arithmetica_. Boston, 1908.

Snyder, Carl: _The World Machine: The Cosmic Mechanism_. London, 1907.

Stephen, Leslie: _History of English Thought in the 18th Century_. 2 vol. 3rd edit. New York, 1902.

Taylor, Henry Osborne: _The Mediaeval Mind_. 2nd edit. London, 1914.

Walsh, J.J.: _Catholic Churchmen in Science_. 2nd series.

Philadelphia, 1909.

----: _The Popes and Science_. Knights of Columbus edit. New York, 1911.

Wegg-Prosser, F.R.: _Galileo and his Judges_. London. 1889.

Whewell, William: _History of the Inductive Sciences from the Earliest to the Present Time_. New edit. revised. 3 vol. London, 1847.

White, Andrew D.: _History of the Welfare of Science with Theology in Christendom_. 2 vol. New York, 1898.

Windle, B.C.A.: _A Century of Scientific Thought and Other Essays_.

London, 1915.

Young, Charles: _Manual of Astronomy_. Boston, 1902.

II

SPECIAL WORKS.

Allaben, Frank: _John Watts de Peyster_. 2 vol. New York, 1908.