The consideration that there could be no
need of any such economy, because the supply was infinite, might
have been theoretically acknowledged, but was not practically
felt. The fact is that magnificent as was the conception of
Copernicus, it was dwarfed by the conception of stretches from
star to star so vast that the whole orbit of the earth was only a
point in comparison.
An indication of the extent to which the difficulty thus arising
was felt is seen in the title of a book published by Horrebow, the
Danish astronomer, some two centuries ago. This industrious
observer, one of the first who used an instrument resembling our
meridian transit of the present day, determined to see if he could
find the parallax of the stars by observing the intervals at which
a pair of stars in opposite quarters of the heavens crossed his
meridian at opposite seasons of the year. When, as he thought, he
had won success, he published his observations and conclusions
under the title of Copernicus Triumphans. But alas! the keen
criticism of his successors showed that what he supposed to be a
swing of the stars from season to season arose from a minute
variation in the rate of his clock, due to the different
temperatures to which it was exposed during the day and the night.
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