Of All Things Visible, The Highest Is

Every Light Has Its Shadow, And Every Shadow Hath A Succeeding Morning.

Not Only The Phenomena Of The Others Followed From This, But Also It So Bound Together Both The Order And Magnitude Of All The Planets And The Spheres And The Heaven Itself, That In No Single Part Could One Thing Be Altered Without Confusion Among The Other Parts And In All The Universe.

In The First Book I Shall Describe All The Positions Of The Spheres, Along With The Motions Which I Attribute To The Earth, So That The Book Will Contain As It Were The General Structure Of The Universe. In The Remaining Books I Relate The Motions Of The Remaining Stars, And All The Spheres, To The Mobility Of The Earth, So That It Can Be Thence Established How Far The Motions And Appearances Of The Remaining Stars And Spheres Can Be Saved, If They Are Referred To The Motions Of The Earth.

Those Who Know That The Consensus Of Many Centuries Has Sanctioned The Conception That The Earth Remains At Rest In The Middle Of The Heavens As Its Center, Would, I Reflected, Regard It As An Insane Pronouncement If I Made The Opposite Assertion That The Earth Moves.

So, Influenced By These Advisors And This Hope, I Have At Length Allowed My Friends To Publish The Work, As They Had Long Besought Me To Do.