Note 847 — Chapter IX

Gassendi, Vita Copernici. Biogr. Univ. Montucla. Kästner. Playfair. Gassendi, p. 14-22, gives a short analysis of the great work of Copernicus, de orbium Cœlestium Revolutionibus, p. 22. The hypothesis is generally laid down in the first of the six books. One of the most remarkable passages in Copernicus is his conjecture that gravitation was not a central tendency, as had been supposed, but an attraction common to matter, and probably extending to the heavenly bodies, though it does not appear that he surmised their mutual influences in virtue of it: gravitatem esse affectionem non terræ totius, sed partium ejus propriam, qualem soli etiam et lunæ cæterisque astris convenire credibile est. These are the words of Copernicus himself, quoted by Gassendi, p. 19.