last, however, he yielded to the entreaty of several distinguished characters; but what do you think was the consequence?--on the day they took him the first printed copy of his book, he died: so he made use of the shortest way to escape from all the contradictions he had been anticipating. Listen to me, said the Marchioness: let us be just to every body: it certainly is difficult to imagine we turn round the sun, for we never change places; we rise in the morning where we went to rest at night----I see from your look that you are going to tell me, that as the earth moves altogether----. Assuredly, said I, it is the same thing as going to sleep in a boat which was sailing down a river; on waking, you would find yourself in the same boat, and in the same part of the boat. Yes, replied she, but here is a difference; when I awoke I should find an alteration in the shore, and that would prove that the boat had changed its place: it is not so with respect to the earth, I there find every thing as I left it. No, no, madam, you may observe an alteration in the shore, as you do in the boat: you will recollect that beyond all the planets are the fixed stars, these are what we must consider the objects on the shore. I am on the earth; the earth describes a large circle round the sun; when I look to the middle of this circle I find the sun, and were not its brightness so dazzling as to render the stars invisible, I should constantly see, by looking beyond the centre, some of the fixed stars opposite to the sun; by viewing them however at night, I can easily determine how they were situated in the day, which renders my observations equally accurate. If the earth remained in the same place I should always find the same fixed stars answering to the situation of the sun, but as the earth moves on in her orbit, I necessarily see other fixed stars at the point which I had before examined. Such is our shore, which is every day varying; and as the earth goes round the sun in a year, I observe the sun, during that space of time, successively answering to different fixed stars which compose a circle; this circle is called the Zodiac; shall I shew it you by tracing a figure on the earth? No, said she, I can dispense with that; it would give my park too learned an appearance. I think I have heard that a philosopher, shipwrecked on an island with which he was unacquainted, cried out to his companions on perceiving some lines and circles drawn on the sand; _courage, my friends! the island is inhabited; here are the footsteps of men_. You must consider that such _footsteps_ ought not to be seen here.