Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c9.94

c9.94

The first hypothesis by which men endeavoured to explain the phenomena of the celestial motions, was that of an uniform motion in a circle, which had the earth for its centre. This hypothesis was, however, of no longer continuance than till instruments of tolerable exactness were directed to the heavens. It was then immediately discovered, that the earth was not the centre of this uniform motion; and the earth was therefore supposed to be placed at a certain distance from the centre of the orbit, while the planet revolved in the circumference of it with the same velocity as before. Both these steps may be accounted necessary; and in however many places of the earth, and however cut off from mutual intercourse, astronomy had begun to be cultivated, I have no doubt that these two suppositions would have succeeded one another, just as they did among the Greek astronomers.