Little Journeys, Volume 16, Number 1, Copernicus Page: 28
30 p. : ill. (some col.); 20 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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LITTLE
JOURNEYSBut his book, "The Revolution of the Heavenly
Bodies," was at last complete. For forty years he had
worked at it, and for twenty-seven years, he himself
says, not a day or a night had passed without his hav-
ing added something to it.
He felt that he had in this book told the truth. If men
wanted to know the facts about the heavens they would
find them here. He had approached the subject with
no preconceived ideas; he had ever been willing to re-
nounce a theory when he had found it wrong. He knew
what all other great astronomers had taught, and out
of them all he had built a Science of Astronomy that
he knew would stand secure.
But what should he do with all this mass of truth he
had discovered ? It was in his own brain, and it was in
the three thousand pages of this book, which had been
re-written five times. In a few years at most his brain
would be stilled in death; and in five minutes, igno-
rance and malice might reduce the book to ashes, and
the forty years' labor of Copernicus-working, dream-
ing, calculating, weeping, praying-would all go for
naught and be but as a tale that is told. Others might
have lived such lives and known as much as he, and
all was lost !
To frankly send the book to Rome and ask the Censor
for the privilege to publish it, was out of the question-
the request would be refused,the manuscript destroyed,
and his own life even might be in danger.
To publish it at home without the consent of his
Bishop would be equally dangerous. There would be a
28
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Hubbard, Elbert. Little Journeys, Volume 16, Number 1, Copernicus, periodical, January 1905; East Aurora, New York. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc799656/m1/40/: accessed July 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .