Part 13 (1/2)

In 1710 Pope (1688-1744) refers to ”our Copernican system,”[374] and Addison (1671-1719) in the _Spectator_ (July 2, 1711) writes this very modern pa.s.sage:

”But among this set of writers, there are none who more gratify and enlarge the imagination, than the authors of the new philosophy, whether we consider their theories of the earth or heavens, the discoveries they have made by gla.s.ses, or any other of their contemplations on nature.... But when we survey the whole earth at once, and the several planets that lie within its neighborhood, we are filled with a pleasing astonishment, to see so many worlds hanging one above another, and sliding around their axles in such an amazing pomp and solemnity. If, after this, we contemplate those wide fields of aether, that reach in height as far as from Saturn to the fixed stars, and run abroad almost to an infinitude, our imagination finds its capacity filled with so immense a prospect, as puts it upon the stretch to comprehend it. But if we yet rise higher, and consider the fixed stars as so many vast oceans of flame, that are each of them attended with a different set of planets, and still discover new firmaments and new lights, that are sunk farther in those unfathomable depths of aether, so as not to be seen by the strongest of our telescopes, we are lost in such a labyrinth of suns and worlds, and confounded with the immensity and magnificence of nature.

”Nothing is more pleasant to the fancy, than to enlarge itself by degrees, in its contemplation of the various proportions which its several objects bear to each other, when it compares the body of man to the bulk of the whole earth, the earth to the circle it describes round the sun, that circle to the sphere of the fixed stars, the sphere of the fixed stars to the circuit of the whole creation, the whole creation itself to the infinite s.p.a.ce that is everywhere diffused around it; ... But if, after all this, we take the least particle of these animal spirits, and consider its capacity wrought into a world, that shall contain within those narrow dimensions a heaven and earth, stars and planets, and every different species of living creatures, in the same a.n.a.logy and proportion they bear to each other in our own universe; such a speculation, by reason of its nicety, appears ridiculous to those who have not turned their thoughts that way, though, at the same time, it is founded on no less than the evidence of a demonstration.”[375]

[Footnote 374: Pope: _Works_, VI, 110.]

[Footnote 375: Addison: _Spectator_, No. 420, (IV, 372-373). An interesting contrast to this pa.s.sage and a good ill.u.s.tration of how the traditional phraseology continued in poetry is found in Addison's famous hymn, written a year later:

”Whilst all the stars that round her [earth] burn And all the planets in their turn, Confirm the tidings as they roll, And spread the truth from pole to pole.

”What though in solemn silence all Move round this dark terrestrial ball; What though no real voice nor sound Amidst their radiant orbs be found;

”In reason's ear they all rejoice, And utter forth a glorious voice; Forever singing, as they s.h.i.+ne, 'The hand that made us is divine'.”]

A little later, Cotton Mather declared (1721) that the ”Copernican hypothesis is now generally preferred,” and ”that there is no objection against the motion of the earth but what has had a full solution.”[376] Soon the semi-popular scientific books took up the Newtonian astronomy. One such was described as ”useful for all sea-faring Men, as well as Gentlemen, and Others.”[377]

”Newtonianisme pour les Dames” was advertised in France in the forties.[378] By 1738 when Pope wrote the _Universal Prayer_:

”Yet not to earth's contracted span Thy goodness let me bound Or think thee Lord alone of man, When thousand worlds are round,”

the Copernican-Newtonian astronomy had become a commonplace to most well-educated people in England. To be sure, the great John Wesley (1770) considered the systems of the universe merely ”ingenious conjectures,” but then, he doubted whether ”more than Probabilities we shall ever attain in regard to things at so great a distance from us.”[379]

[Footnote 376: Mather: _Christian Philosopher_, 75, 76.]

[Footnote 377: Leadbetter: _Astronomy_ (1729).]

[Footnote 378: In de Maupertius: _Ouvrages Divers_, (at the back).]

[Footnote 379: Wesley: _Compendium of Natural Philosophy_, I, 14, 139.]

The old phraseology, however, did recur occasionally, especially in poetry and in hymns. For instance, a hymnal (preface dated 1806) contains such choice selections as:

”Before the pondr'ous earthly globe In fluid air was stay'd, Before the ocean's mighty springs Their liquid stores display'd”--

and:

”Who led his blest unerring hand Or lent his needful aid When on its strong unshaken base The pondr'ous earth was laid?”[380]

[Footnote 380: Dobell: _Hymns_, No. 5, No. 10.]

But too much importance should not be attributed to such pa.s.sages; though poetry and astronomy need not conflict, as Keble ill.u.s.trated:[381]

”Ye Stars that round the Sun of Righteousness In glorious order roll....”

[Footnote 381: Keble: _Christian Year_, 279.]

By the middle of the 18th century in England, one could say with Horne ”that the Newtonian System had been in possession of the chair for some years;”[382] but it had not yet convinced the common people, for as Pike wrote in 1753, ”Many Common Christians to this day firmly believe that the earth really stands still and that the sun moves all round the earth once a day: neither can they be easily persuaded out of this opinion, because they look upon themselves bound to believe what the Scripture a.s.serts.”[383]

[Footnote 382: Horne: _Fair, Candid, Impartial Statement ..._, 4.]