144 ASTRONOMYANDTHEBIBLE
"Before itbecamepossibleto examine with abso-
lutecertaintytheplaces ofthestars,withaviewto
ascertain theirabsolute fixity, manydifficultprelimi-
nary preparations had to be accomplished. Instru-
mentsofthemostperfectkindmustbeprovided,not
onlyintheiropticalperformances,butintheirspace-
dividingmachinery. Moreover,theplacesofthestars,
asdeterminedbythebesttelescopes,mustbecorrected
foreverypossibleinstrumentalerror. Thetwopoints
towhichthestarsarereferredarethenorthpoleand
thevernal equinox. In case any motions belong to
these points, their amounts and directions mustbe
ascertainedandallowed for. Thentheeffectsofre-
fraction, and of theaberration of light,were indis-
pensabletoaperfectinvestigationoftheabsoluteplaces
ofthestars.
"Alltheseandmanyotherpreliminarymattershav-
ingbeensatisfactorilydetermined, itbecamepossible
toexamine,inthemostcriticalmanner,theplacesof
the stars,andto learnwhetherindeed (ashadbeen
supposedforthousandsofyears) theirconfigurations
wereeternalandunchangeable,orwhethertheymoved
amongthemselveswithamotionrenderedsoslowby
theirimmensedistance,ashithertotohaveescapedthe
mostscrutinizingwatch.
"Fullyarmedwiththenecessaryinstruments,itdid
notrequiremanyyearstodeterminethegrandtruth,
thatamongthetenthousandsofstars which fillthe
heaven,not asolitaryone, inallprobability, is ina
stateofabsoluterest. Manywere foundtomoveso
swiftlythattheirvelocitywasdeterminedinasingle