COPERNICUS.

OPERNICUS began to think over the various suggestions which had been

thrown out by the ancients for the explanation of the appearances which the sky presented to the sight. He remembered that Pythagoras had supposed that the grand central fire of the universe--the sun—was stationary, and that the planets revolved in order and harmony round that brilliant mass. Could this guess be the key to the truth? Thought might catch the secret upon due inquiry. Doubt, prejudice, and difficulty stood before him to oppose his progress, but at last, conviction having been matured within him, he rises to new effort, and, forsaking the useless and untenable determinations of ignorant authority, set out on a voyage of discovery into the far-distant spaces of the sky. Borne away, in the pellucid car of imagination, after flashing

he reached the sun.

There, in the azure canopy, he saw the stars, no longer stationary, but floating along through immensity; in the unimaginable harmony of regulated motion, he beheld

"Each with undeviating aim,

In eloquent silence, through the depths of space
Pursued its wondrous way."

All seemed explained. Complexity vanished, and simplicity appeared. The sweep of those worlds which inhabited the far splendours of space was periodical, calculable, and precise. They whirled along their diverse orbits in the same direction, and filled the same belt in the radiance through which they sped their ceaseless career. The earth was no longer the monarch of motion; his sceptre was given to the sun, while the faithful moon, accompanying her lord in his exile,

seemed to devote herself to the task of comforting him in hours of gloom, and to circle him with her love.

There were

Not all at once did the simple beauty of truth attract and charm. still moments when error retained its power, and prejudice refused to yield; but decision came at last, and when experiment, frequently and carefully repeated, had verified the deductions of reason, he announced, with modesty, the new theory of astronomy, and became, by that announcement, the founder of a new dynasty of thinkers-sealed up an old epoch and unsealed a new.