and thin than our air." 14 Hence Milton's "impressions in the air," as well as the aerial vapors "15 like which souls rose to the Limbo of Vanities, may have come from Galileo. In The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce Milton remarks of attempts to explain the words of Jesus in Matthew 19. 8-9: Both which are too foul hypotheses to save the phenomena of our Savior's answer to the Pharisees about this matter. And I trust anon by the help of an infallible guide to perfect such Prutenick Tables as shall mend the astronomy of our wide expositors.16 The Prutenic Tables were made by Erasmus Reinhold, "who, although not admitting the Earth's motion, professed a great admiration for the system of Copernicus, and used it in computing new astronomical tables, the Prutenicae Tabulae' (1551), which were largely instrumental in introducing to astronomers the kinetic combinations originated by Copernicus. The 'Prutenicae Tabulae' were especially employed by the commission which in 1582 effected the Gregorian reform of the calendar. Whilst not believing in the Earth's motion, the members of this commission did not hesitate to use tables founded on a theory of the precession of the equinoxes and attributing a certain motion to the earth." 17 Hence, to use the Prutenic Tables was not of necessity to adhere to Copernicus. Passing from Milton's prose writings to Paradise Lost, we find that though Galileo receives high honor, the astronomical references of the poems are not chiefly Copernican. Some are neutral, neither Ptolemaic nor Copernican, many clearly Ptolemaic, and a less, though considerable, number as clearly Copernican. In addition, Milton debates the merits of the two systems. Of his neutral references, some are popular, as when he writes, just as we now might: The setting sun Slowly descended, and with right aspect Levelled his evening rays.18 Some show classical influence, as when we read that 14 Dialogo, p. 60. 15 P. L. 3. 445. 16 Book 1, chap. 2. 17 Professor Pierre Duhem, Catholic Encyclopedia 9. 54. 18 P. L. 4, 540-3. the sun Declined was hasting now with prone career To th' Ocean Isles.10 The form of the following is determined by the Bible: The sun shall in mid heaven stand still A day entire, and night's due course adjourn, Some are indeterminate, and would be acceptable either to Ptolemy or Copernicus. Of this sort is Milton's conception of the universe as limited and globular. A considerable number of passages are clearly Ptolemaic; the following are representative. Milton says of the souls which rise from earth as they pass toward the Limbo of Vanities: They pass the planets seven, and pass the fixt, And that crystalline sphere whose balance weighs These are the ten spheres of the old astronomy. In their morning And when high noon hast gained, and when thou fall'st. With the fixt stars, fixed in their orb that flies, In mystic dance not without song, resound His praise.22 Adam is also a Ptolemaic when he attempts to induce Raphael to prolong his visit by saying: Scarce the sun Hath finished half his journey, and scarce begins His other half in the great zone of heaven.23 In describing the angelic dance Raphael uses a Ptolemaic illus tration: Mystical dance, which yonder starry sphere Of planets and of fixt in all her wheels 19 Ibid. 4. 352-4. Ibid., 5. 171-9. 20 Ibid., 12. 263-5. 21 Ibid., 3. 481-3. Resembles nearest, mazes intricate, In telling of the creation he makes the sun His longitude through heaven's high road, and says of the moon: Less bright the moon But opposite in levelled west was set, His mirror with full face borrowing her light In that aspect, and still that distance keeps Till night. Then in the west her turn she shines, Here we have not merely the revolution of all the heavens about the earth, but also the conception of the moon as smooth and polished like a mirror. This was a Peripatetic belief. Satan is also a Ptolemaic; he thus addresses the earth: Terrestrial heaven, danced round by other heavens In thee concentring all their precious beams Is centre, yet extends to all, so thou These and other passages that might be added show that Milton naturally and easily wrote in Ptolemaic terms. But over against these are expressions of Copernicanism the more striking in number because both popular and poetic usage were on the other side. Milton often refers to the telescope with approval, yet at the time of its invention some of the Aristotelians refused even to look through the instrument, and others declared that it was deceptive." In his Dialogue Galileo makes the Peripatetic say: Nè ho sin qui prestato molta fede all'occhiale novamente introdotto; anzi, seguendo le pedate degli altri filosofi peripatetici miei consorti, ho creduto esser fallicie e inganni dei cristalli quelle che altri hanno ammirate per operazioni stupende." Milton's complete acceptance of the telescope is a long step toward approval of the Galilean astronomy, which depended on telescopic demonstrations. Milton follows the new astronomy in describing the moon: The moon, whose orb Through optic glass the Tuscan Artist views At evening from the top of Fesole, Rivers or mountains in her spotty globe." The rough and irregular character of its surface was one of the matters on which Galileo insisted against the followers of Aristotle. He discusses the subject at length, and describes many experiments proving that if the surface of the moon were like a mirror it could not give light as it does.30 Many of the eminences of the moon were, he writes, "simili alle nostre più aspre e scoscese montagne." 31 He speaks also of the "piazze" of the moon, and of open spaces more and less shining. In mentioning "rivers" Milton is not following Galileo, who held that there was no water on the moon.22 31 The sun-spots to which Milton compares Satan (P. L. 3. 588) were phenomena to which Galileo had given much study. About the time he discovered them they were also observed by Christopher Scheiner, a Jesuit father, who explained them as little planets moving around the sun within the orbit of Mercury. Others made them vane illusioni de cristalli" in the telescope. Galileo came to the conclusion that the spots were attached to the solar disc, and that their motion was caused by the rotation of the sun. Having established this, he pointed out that the apparent movements of the spots could be caused only by movements of the earth.33 Milton seems to accept Galileo's observations and conclusions in the passage: A spot like which perhaps Astronomer in the sun's lucent orb Through his glazed optic tube yet never saw." The logical conclusion of this belief is acceptance of the motions of the earth. Some of Milton's expressions about the earth itself are also in the manner of Galileo. In describing the creation he wrote: Earth self-balanced on her centre hung. 25 Galileo considers the earth a " corpo pensile e librato sopra'l suo ,, 36 and as centro," sospesa e librata nella circonference dell' orbe magno " of its orbit. Milton also makes the earth one of the heavenly bodies. Satan in looking on the universe for the first time asks: In which of all these shining orbs hath man But all these shining orbs his choice to dwell? " Uriel answers: Look downward on that globe whose hither side Galileo's opponents denied that the earth could shine like the other heavenly bodies, but he was convinced that it was illumined by the sun and gave off light in the same manner as the moon.39 Indeed, he makes it one of the planets, as Milton tells that Raphael saw it as he descended, Not unconform to other shining globes." This may mean no more than that the earth gave off light as did the moon. Yet perhaps Milton had its motion also in mind, for Galileo used the similarity of the earth to the planets in its reflection of light to establish a probability that it must like them be mobile, while the sun and fixed stars, which shine with their own light, do not revolve.41 One of Galileo's discoveries was that the planet Venus goes through phases like those of the moon, and consequently shines by light reflected from the sun. He also inferred from her phases that she revolved about the sun. To her crescent shape and reflected light Milton refers in the lines: Hither as to their fountain other stars 35 P. L. 7. 242. 38 Ibid., 3. 722-4. "Dialogo, p. 290. Dialogo, p. 135. 3o Dialogo, p. 76, 80, 108. 37 P. L. 3. 668-70. 40 P. L. 5. 259. |