The Universe, Wrought For Us

For What Could Be More Beautiful Than The Heavens Which Contain All Beautiful Things.

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.

There May Be Babblers, Wholly Ignorant Of Mathematics, Who Dare To Condemn My Hypothesis, Upon The Authority Of Some Part Of The Bible Twisted To Suit Their Purpose. I Value Them Not, And Scorn Their Unfounded Judgment.

Therefore I Would Not Have It Unknown To Your Holiness, The The Only Thing Which Induced Me To Look For Another Way Of Reckoning The Movements Of The Heavenly Bodies Was That I Knew That Mathematicians By No Means Agree In Their Investigation Thereof.

Yet The Widespread Planetary Theories, Advanced By Ptolemy And Most Other Astronomers, Although Consistent With The Numerical Data, Seemed Likewise To Present No Small Difficulty. For These Theories Were Not Adequate Unless They Also Conceived Certain Equalizing Circles, Which Made The Planet Appear To Move At All Times With Uniform Velocity Neither On Its Deferent Sphere Nor About Its Own Epicycle's Center.