ciples or postulates, but on account of their novelty takes a little more trouble than his predecessor (cf. chapter ii., § 47) to make them at once appear probable. With these postulates as a basis he proceeds to develop, by means of elaborate and rather tedious mathematical reasoning, aided here and there by references to observations, detailed schemes of the various celestial motions; and it is by the agreement of these calculations with observations, far more than by the general reasoning given at the beginning, that the various postulates are in effect justified.
His first postulate, that the universe is spherical, is supported by vague and inconclusive reasons similar to those given by Ptolemy and others; for the spherical form of the earth he gives several of the usual valid arguments, one of his proofs for its curvature from east to west being the fact that eclipses visible at one place are not visible at another. A third postulate, that the motions of the celestial bodies are uniform circular motions or are compounded of such motions, is, as might be expected, supported only by reasons of the most unsatisfactory character. He argues, for example, that any want of uniformity in motion
77. The discussion of the possibility that the earth may move, and may even have more than one motion, then follows, and is more satisfactory though by no means conclusive. Coppernicus has a firm grasp of the principle, which Aristotle had also enunciated, sometimes known as that of relative motion, which he states somewhat as follows:—
