If the Lord Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I should have recommended something simpler.
– Alphonso X, the Wise, of Spain (1223-1284),
upon being instructed in Ptolemaic astronomy.
From man or angel the great Architect did wisely to conceal, and not divulge, His secret to be scanned by them who ought Rather admire; or, if they list to try Conjecture, he his fabric of the Heavens Hath left to their disputes, perhaps to move His laughter at their quaint opinions wide Hereafter, when they come to model Heaven And calculate the stars, how they will wield The mighty frame, how build, unbuild, contrive To save appearances, how gird the sphere With centric and eccentric scribbled o’er, Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb.
– John Milton, Paradise Lost, 1667
The new Philosophy calls all in doubt, The Element of fire is quite put out; The Sun is lost, and th’earth, and no mans wit Can well direct him where to looke for it. And freely men confesse that this world’s spent, When in the Planets, and the Firmament They seeke so many new; then see that this Is crumbled out againe to his Atomies. ‘Tis all in peeces, all cohaerence gone; All just supply, and all Relation.
– John Donne, Anatomy of the World, 1611
I have of late–but wherefore I know not–lost all my mirth . . . indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o’erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire,–why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in appreciation how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?
– William Shakespeare, Hamlet Act II, Sc. II. (1603).