



Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Linda Cantoni, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
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http://www.archive.org/details/gradualacceptan00stim)









[Transcriber's Note: Obvious printer errors have been corrected
without note. Other questionable items are marked with a
[Transcriber's Note].]




The Gradual Acceptance

OF THE

Copernican Theory of the Universe


DOROTHY STIMSON, Ph.D.


NEW YORK
1917

COPYRIGHT 1917 BY DOROTHY STIMSON

  Trade Selling Agents
  The Baker & Taylor Co.,
  354 Fourth Ave.,
  New York




TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER




[Illustration: THE SYSTEMS OF THE WORLD IN 1651 ACCORDING TO FATHER
RICCIOLI

(Reduced facsimile of the frontispiece in Riccioli: _Almagestum
Novum_. Bologna, 1651.)]


EXPLANATION

"Astrea, goddess of the heaven, wearing angel's wings and gleaming
everywhere with stars, stands at the right; on the left is Argus of
the hundred eyes, not tense, but indicating by the position of the
telescope at his knee rather than at the eyes in his head, that while
observing the work of God's hand, he appears at the same time to be
worshipping as in genuflexion." (Riccioli: _Alm. Nov._, _Praefatio_,
xvii). He points to the cherubs in the heavens who hold the planets,
each with its zodiacal sign: above him at the top is Mars, then
Mercury in its crescent form, the Sun, and Venus also in the crescent
phase; on the opposite side are Saturn in its "tripartite" form (