In The Midst Of All Dwells The

In The Midst Of All Dwells The Sun.

When, Therefore, I Had Long Considered This Uncertainty Of Traditional Mathematics, It Began To Weary Me That No More Definite Explanation Of The Movement Of The World-machine Established In Our Behalf By The Best And Most Systematic Builder Of All, Existed Among The Philosophers Who Had Studied So Exactly In Other Respects The Minutest Details In Regard To The Sphere.

So If The Worth Of The Arts Were Measured By The Matter With Which They Deal, This Art-which Some Call Astronomy, Others Astrology, And Many Of The Ancients The Consummation Of Mathematics-would Be By Far The Most Outstanding. This Art Which Is As It Were The Head Of All The Liberal Arts And The One Most Worthy Of A Free Man Leans Upon Nearly All The Other Branches Of Mathe Matics. Arithmetic, Geometry, Optics, Geodesy, Mechanics, And Whatever Others, All Offer Themselves In Its Service.

I Shall Now Recall To Mind That The Motion Of The Heavenly Bodies Is Circular, Since The Motion Appropriate To A Sphere Is Rotation In A Circle.

The Earth Together With Its Surrounding Waters Must In Fact Have Such A Shape As Its Shadow Reveals, For It Eclipses The Moon With The Arc Of A Perfect Circle.