COSMOS, VOL. II - World eBook Library

DISCOVERIES IN THE CELESTIAL SPACES. 689
attraction (appetentia quadam natumlis parttlus inditci) towards
the sun as the centre of the world (centrum mimdi,} and
which is inferred from the force of gravity in spherical bodies,
seems to have hoveied before the mind of this great man, as
is proved by a remarkable passage in the 9th chapter of the
1st Book De Revolutionfaw.*
On considering the different stages of the development of
cosmical contemplation, we are able to trace from the earliest
ages faint indications and presentiments of the attraction of
masses, and of centrifugal forces. Jacobi, in his researches on
random uiundi symmetriam ac certum harmonise nexum motus et magnitndinis
orbium : qualis alio modo reperiri non potest. (Nicol. Copern.
De Jtevol. Orbium Calestium, lib. i. cap. 10, p. 9 b.) In this passage,
which is not devoid of poetic grace and elevation of expression, we recognise,
as in all the works of the astronomers of the 17th century, traces of
long acquaintance with the beauties of classical antiquity. Copernicus
had in his mind Cic. Somn. Scip. c. 4; Plin. ii. 4; and Mercur. Tris-
195 and 201. The allusion to the
meg., lib. v. (ed. Cracov, 1586,) pp.
Electro, of Sophocles is obscure, as the sun is never anywhere expressly
termed " all-seeing," as in the Iliad and the Odyssey, and also in the
CJioephorcB of ./Eschylus, (v. 980,) which Copernicus would not probably
have called Electro,. According to Bockh's conjecture, the allusion is
to be ascribed to an imperfect recollection of verse 869 of the (Edipus
Coloneus of Sophocles. It very singularly happens that quite lately, in
an otherwise instructive memoir (Czynski, Kopernik et ses Travaux,
1847, p. 102), the Electro, of the tragedian is confounded with electric
currents. The passage of Copernicus, quoted above, is thus rendered :
" If we take the sun for the torch of the universe, for its spirit and its
guide if Trismegistes call it a God, and if Sophocles consider it to
be an electrical power which animates and contemplates all that is contained
in creation ."
* Pluribus ergo existentibus centris, de centro quo quo muncli non
temere quis dubitabit, an videlicet fuerit istud gravitatis terrenae, an.
aliud. Equidem existimo, gravitatem non aliud esse, quam appetentiarn
quandam naturalem partibus inditam a divina providentia officis
universorum, ut in unitatem integritatemque suam sese conferant in
formam globi coeuntes. Quam affectionem credibile est etiam Soli,
Lunas, cceterisque errantium fulgoribus inesse, ut ejus efficacia in ea qua
se reprasentant rotunditate permaneant, quaa nihilominus multis modis
suos efficiunt circuitus. Si igitur et terra faciat alios, utpote secundum
centrum (mundi), necesse erit eos esse qui similiter extrinsecus in
multis apparent, in quibus invenimus annuum circuitum. Ipse
denique Sol medium mundi putabitur possidere, quse omnia ratio
ordinis, quo ilia sibi invicem succedunt, et mundi totius harmonia noa
docet, si modo rem ipsam ambobus (ut aiunt) oculis inspiciamus."
(Copern. De Revol. orb. ccel, lib. i. cap. 9, p. 7, b.)
2 Y