A century and a half after Copernicus followed the second great
step, that taken by Newton. This was nothing less than showing
that the seemingly complicated and inexplicable motions of the
heavenly bodies were only special cases of the same kind of
motion, governed by the same forces, that we see around us
whenever a stone is thrown by the hand or an apple falls to the
ground. The actual motions of the heavens and the laws which
govern them being known, man had the key with which he might
commence to unlock the mysteries of the universe.
When Huyghens, in 1656, published his Systema Saturnium, where he
first set forth the mystery of the rings of Saturn, which, for
nearly half a century, had perplexed telescopic observers, he
prefaced it with a remark that many, even among the learned, might
condemn his course in devoting so much time and attention to
matters far outside the earth, when he might better be studying
subjects of more concern to humanity. Notwithstanding that the
inventor of the pendulum clock was, perhaps, the last astronomer
against whom a neglect of things terrestrial could be charged, he
thought it necessary to enter into an elaborate defence of his
course in studying the heavens.
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