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the earth changes its position–a test which
failed completely with the rough means of
observation then available. The radical de-
fect of all solar systems previous to the time
of Kepler (1609 A.D.) was the slavish yield-
ing to Plato’s dictum demanding uniform
circular motion for the planets, and the con-
sequent evolution of the epicycle, which was
fatal to any conception of a dynamical the-
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