Page:A Collection of Esoteric Writings.djvu/338

324 complete exposition of the Esoteric Philosophy connected with those subjects; nor do they amonut to a denial of the possibility of any other conception, or the correctness of any other view, which may be entertained with respect to other phases of the Cosmos. In elucidating Esoteric Philosophy, it is not seldom necessary to adopt the same course, that is almost always adopted, for the sake of convenience, by a teacher of astronomy, in explaining to the student the relation between the zenith, the pole, the equator, the ecliptic and the horizon; the definitions of right ascension and declination, latitude and longitude; the causes of the change of seasons, the application of spherical trignometrytrigonometry [sic] for the solution of astronomical problems, and various other subjects, with reference to the geocentric system. The assumption that the Earth is the fixed centre, and that all the heavenly bodies revolve round it, is doubtless wrong; but such a conception is found necessary for the easier explanation of the subjects above enumerated. Again, when at a further stage of progress the heliocentric system is expounded, the sun is assumed to occupy in space a fixed position. This assumption is equally erroneous, as it is now ascertained that the sun has a proper motion in space. Suppose, a professor of astronomy, taking into consideration all these motions, and ascertaining the complicated and peculiar curve which a given point on the Earth's surface traces in space, were to begin to account to his pupils for these most ordinary phenomena: is it not evident that he and his students would soon get into a terrible state of confusion? Can it be contended, under such circumstances, that every teacher of astronomy, at the present time, who places the geocentric system before his students, for the purpose of giving certain explanations, is ignorant of the heliocentric system and the proper motion of the so-called fixed stars in space? or that he is giving a wrong explanation of the phenomena dealt with; or that he is speaking in riddles which require an Œdipus for their solution; or that he is employing allegorical language for the purpose of wilfully misleading his students and testing their powers of discrimination between fact and