In The Midst Of All

For A Traveler Going From Any Place Toward The North, That Pole Of The Daily Rotation Gradually Climbs Higher, While The Opposite Pole Drops Down An Equal Amount.

Not Only The Phenomena Of The Others Followed From This, But Also It So Bound Together Both The Order And Magnitude Of All The Planets And The Spheres And The Heaven Itself, That In No Single Part Could One Thing Be Altered Without Confusion Among The Other Parts And In All The Universe.

For When A Ship Is Floating Calmly Along, The Sailors See Its Motion Mirrored In Everything Outside, While On The Other Hand They Suppose That They Are Stationary, Together With Everything On Board. In The Same Way, The Motion Of The Earth Can Unquestionably Produce The Impression That The Entire Universe Is Rotating.

In So Many And Such Important Ways, Then, Do The Planets Bear Witness To The Earth's Mobility.

Therefore, In The Course Of The Work I Have Followed This Plan: I Describe In The First Book All The Positions Of The Orbits Together With The Movements Which I Ascribe To The Earth, In Order That This Book Might Contain, As It Were, The General Scheme Of The Universe.