The birth of Columbus was soon followed by that of Copernicus, the
first after Aristarchus to demonstrate the true system of the
world. In him more than in any of his contemporaries do we see the
struggle between the old forms of thought and the new. It seems
almost pathetic and is certainly most suggestive of the general
view of knowledge taken at that time that, instead of claiming
credit for bringing to light great truths before unknown, he made
a labored attempt to show that, after all, there was nothing
really new in his system, which he claimed to date from Pythagoras
and Philolaus. In this connection it is curious that he makes no
mention of Aristarchus, who I think will be regarded by
conservative historians as his only demonstrated predecessor. To
the hold of the older ideas upon his mind we must attribute the
fact that in constructing his system he took great pains to make
as little change as possible in ancient conceptions.
Luther, the greatest thought-stirrer of them all, practically of
the same generation with Copernicus, Leonardo and Columbus, does
not come in as a scientific investigator, but as the great
loosener of chains which had so fettered the intellect of men that
they dared not think otherwise than as the authorities thought.
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