The Story of Astronomy by Peter Aughton Page B

he left his substantial private library and half of his estate toward the foundation of a new college, later to be called Harvard College.
Stars and Poetry
    In 1635, at the age of 17, Jeremiah Horrocks returned to his native Lancashire. He had decided that what he wanted from his life was to be able to study the stars and the planets. He needed books on astronomy to achieve his aims and he also needed instruments. The most important astronomical instrument of the day was the telescope; it had been in use for about 20 years and was beginning to become far more readily available. Horrocks tells us that he purchased a “half crown” telescope, probably at a local fair. He knew that better instruments were available, however, and in May 1638 he wrote that
“I have at last obtained a more accurate telescope.”
    We now discover that Jeremiah Horrocks was more than simply an astronomer. He was also a poet. The most prominent astronomer before this time who could also claim to be a poet was the philosopher Omar Khayyam (1044–1122). But when it came to putting his thoughts into verse Jeremiah Horrocks was the equal of his Persian predecessor. He was very thrilled with his new telescope and wrote about it thus:
    Divine the hand which to Urania’s power

Triumphant raised the trophy, which on man

Hath first bestowed the wondrous tube by art

Invented, and in noble daring taught

His mortal eyes to scan the furthest heavens.

Whether he seek the solar path to trace,

Or watch the nightly wanderings of the Moon

Whilst at her fullest splendour, no such guide

From Jove was ever sent, no aid like this

In brightest light such mysteries to display;

Nor longer now shall man with straining eye

In vain attempt to seize the stars. Blest with this

Thou shalt draw down the Moon from heaven, and give

Our Earth to the celestial spheres, and fix

Each orb in its own ordered place to run

Its course sublime in strict analogy.
    During his time at Cambridge, Horrocks corresponded with Herbert Gellibrand (1597–1637), the professor of astronomy at Gresham College in London. Gellibrand, acting in good faith, suggested to Horrocks that he purchase a copy of a book by a Belgian astronomer called Philip Lansberg (1561–1632). Horrocks followed this advice, and he spent the next year trying to fit his observed motions of the planets to Lansberg’s tables. Horrocks met with no success in this endeavor, but in 1636 he befriended a fellow amateur astronomer called William Crabtree (1610–44), who was working at Broughton near Manchester. It was Crabtree who suggested to him that he use the
Rudolphine Tables
, the work of Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe.
    The incident illustrates how long it took for scientific works to circulate in the early 17th century. Gellibrand apparently knew nothing of the works of Kepler and Brahe, or he would certainly not have recommended Lansberg’s tables to Jeremiah Horrocks. We now know that the
Rudolphine Tables
were far in advance of anything else available at that time, but the first people in England to use them were the amateur astronomers Jeremiah Horrocks and William Crabtree. The Copernican system also took a long time to circulate. The Ptolemaic system was still in use by the astrologers at this time, but Horrocks had little regard for it. He soon discovered that theCopernican system was far superior and he put his feelings into verse:
    Why should’st thou try, O Ptolemy, to pass

Thy narrow-bounded world for aught divine?

Why should thy poor machine presume to claim

A noble maker? Can a narrow space

Call for eternal hands? Will thy mansion

Suit great Jove? or can he from such a seat

prepare his lightnings for the trembling Earth?

Fair are the gods you frame forsooth! nor vain

Would be their fears if giant hands assailed them.

Such little world were well the infant sport

Of Jove in darker times; such toys in truth

His cradle might befit, nor would the work

In