Gassendi was a bitter opponent of the supposedly Aristotelian school-philosophy of the time; and was on the whole the leader of those who in the seventeenth century followed Epicurean methods in thought. He is the author of a life of Epicurus, and an exposition of his philosophy. He was also an opponent of Descartes, being the most important contemporary supporter of empiricism as against the essentially idealistic method of Descartes. He is important also as a popularizer of the Copernican system, by his Life of Copernicus, and his _Institutio Astronomica_ (1647). [6] A dog trained to turn a spit, by running about in a rotary cage attached to it. The French has simply: "as a _dog_ makes a wheel turn, when he runs about in it." [7] Cyrano had probably learned this from his master Gassendi. _Cf_. his "Epistola XX. de apparente magnitudine solis," 1641. Modern Gassendis say the sun is 1,300,000 times greater than the earth in volume, 316,000 times in mass. [8] _Ingenuously_. The two words were interchangeable in the seventeenth century. [9] Iron pyrites. [10] _Supports, feeds_; cf. Shakspere, _Richard III_. "I'll be at charges for a looking-glass, And entertain a score or two of tailors." [11] St. Augustine. CHAPTER IV. _Of how at last he set out again for the Moon, tho without his own Will._ Next Day, and the Days following, we had some Discourses to the same purpose: But some time after, since the hurry of Affairs suspended our Philosophy, I fell afresh upon the design of mounting up to the Moon. So soon as she was up, I walked about musing in the Woods, how I might manage and succeed in my Enterprise; and at length on St. John's[1] Eve, when they were at Council in the Fort, whether they should assist the Wild Natives of the Country against the _Iroqueans_; I went all alone to the top of a little Hill at the back of our Habitation, where I put in Practice what you shall hear. I had made a Machine which I fancied might carry me up as high as I pleased, so that nothing seeming to be wanting to it, I placed my self within, and from the Top of a Rock threw my self in the Air: But because I had not taken my measures aright, I fell with a sosh in the Valley below.