But before questions of the absolute beginning of
things, or of the boundary beyond which nothing exists, our means
of inquiry are quite powerless.
Another example of the ancient method is found in the great work
of Copernicus. It is remarkable how completely the first expounder
of the system of the world was dominated by the philosophy of his
time, which he had inherited from his predecessors. This is seen
not only in the general course of thought through the opening
chapters of his work, but among his introductory propositions. The
first of these is that the universe--mundus--as well as the earth,
is spherical in form. His arguments for the sphericity of the
earth, as derived from observation, are little more than a
repetition of those of Ptolemy, and therefore not of special
interest. His proposition that the universe is spherical is,
however, not based on observation, but on considerations of the
perfection of the spherical form, the general tendency of bodies--
a drop of water, for example--to assume this form, and the
sphericity of the sun and moon. The idea retained its place in his
mind, although the fundamental conception of his system did away
with the idea of the universe having any well-defined form.
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