Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/298

292 Greek astronomers had conceived the heliocentric motions of the planets, but this true theory was set aside by the ingenious Ptolemy, who assumed the earth as the center of motion, and explained the apparent motions of the planets by epicycles so well that his theory became the one adopted in the schools of Europe during fourteen centuries. The Ptolemaic theory flattered the egotism of men by making the earth the center of motion, and it corresponded well with old legends and myths, so that it became inwoven with the literature, art and religion of those times. Dante's construction of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise is derived from the Ptolemaic theory of the universe. His ponderous arrangement of ten divisions of Paradise, with ten Purgatories and ten Hells, is said by some critics to furnish convenient places for Dante to put away his friends and his enemies, but it is all derived from the prevailing astronomy. Similar notions will be found in Milton, but modified by the ideas of Copernicus, which Milton had learned in Italy. The Copernican theory won its way slowly, but surely, because it is the system of nature, and all discoveries in theory and practical astronomy helped to show its truth. Kepler's discoveries in astronomy, Galileo's discovery of the laws of motion and Newton's discovery of the law of gravitation, put the Copernican theory on a solid foundation. Yet it was many years before the new theories were fully accepted. Dr. Johnson thought persecution a good thing, since it weeds out false men and false theories. The Copernican and Newtonian theories have stood the test of observation and criticism, and they now form the adopted system of astronomy.

The laws of motion, together with the law of gravitation, enable the astronomer to form the equations of motion for the bodies of our solar system; it remains to solve these equations, to correct the orbits, and to form tables of the Sun, Moon and the planets. This work was begun more than a century ago, and it has been repeated for the principal planets several times, so that now we have good tables of these bodies. In the case of the principal planets the labor of determining their orbits was facilitated by the approximate orbits handed down to us by the ancient astronomers; and also by the peculiar conditions of these orbits. For the most part the orbits are nearly circular; the planets move nearly in the same plane, and their motions are in the same directions. These are the conditions Laplace used as the foundation of the nebular hypothesis. With approximate values of the periods and motions, and under the other favoring conditions, it was not difficult to form tables of the planets. However the general problem of determining an orbit from three observations, which furnish the necessary and sufficient data, was not solved until about a century ago. The orbits of comets were first calculated with some precision. Attention was called to these bodies by their threatening aspects, and by the terror they inspired