perfection.

Astronomers assert "that the sun conducts its system with himself in mundane space," but in the same breath they add: "with reference however to the planets it may be regarded as in a state of rest."

Hence astronomers have discovered a motion which is at rest.

If the sun is not fixed, the system of Copernicus falls to ground. Either the sun moves, or does not; a moving sun in a condition of rest, is an impossibility.

If the sun moves, there is no fixed centre, there are no closed or recurrent curves and no plains of orbits. If these must be obtained at any price, the sun must be definitively fixed, it cannot be permitted to move onwards and yet at the same time not to move.

The fact that the sun moves, cannot now be altered and cannot be any longer ignored; and if mathematicians and astronomers do notwithstanding assert, that the sun may with reference to its own planetary system be regarded as fixed, or in a condition of rest, in that the system moves as a whole without any change taking place in the relative position of the planets to each other, or in their relation to the sun; in fact without any alteration taking place in the configuration of the system—we reply, this is one of those meaningless phrases, which should find no place in a scientific discussion. A body which is in motion cannot be in any way regarded as being motionless, it would be just as reasonable to say that a locomotive, dragging a train of carriages full of passengers, could with reference to the latter be regarded as motionless.

The actual meaning of such an assertion is that the planets are attached to the sun in such a manner, that they can neither approach to, nor recede from it, but must follow it whithersoever it goes.

We may in thought pursue a train of hypotheses and suppositions, but they do not thereby acquire reality; still, in a normal condition of the human intellect, it is impossible to conceive that any thing can exist and not exist at the same time.

From this confusion of ideas, it might seem as if theoretical astronomy had got into an untenable position which is irreconcilable with science and ought therefore to endeavour to enter upon a better state, as soon as possible. Theory ought therefore, either to have accepted as a fact, the motion proper to the sun with all its inevitable consequences, or else, to have denied this motion altogether. But the astronomers ignore this alternative, they have decided, once for all and irrevocably that the sun moves and that at the same time it shall be motionless. In this manner science loses its reputation and all learnedly technical expressions and formulas are not sufficient to cover the weak part. The sun cannot be rendered motionless, and if astronomers and men of science of the present day continue to ignore this fact, they need not be surprised at the inevitable consequences of their own acts.

The system of Copernicus presupposes the fixity of the sun, as a "conditio sine qua non." The most abstruse investigations into the "celestial mechanism" could not be made without this axiom be granted. The mathematician must have a fixed point, a fixed central point of action for his coordinates, he wants fixed invariable plains and closed curves, a radius vector describing plains, he wants axes and poles for the orbits, in order that they may describe certain figures in the heaven, and that the plains of the orbits may move,—one of the other.

Naturally astronomers and men of science have never asked themselves the question, how a heavenly body could be fixed in space.

When an astronomer asserts that the Copernician system is the only possible, he