On The Whole, Geography Is More Indebted To Him For His
Discoveries In Astronomy, And, Above All, For His Setting The Example Of
Carefully Ascertaining Facts, And Not Indulging, So Much As His
Predecessors Had Done, In Conjectures And Hypotheses, Than For Any Actual
Discoveries Or Advances He Made In It.
The eulogium which Pliny has
pronounced on him is very eloquent, and fully deserved.
"Hipparchus can
scarcely receive too high praise: he has proved, more satisfactorily than
any other philosopher, that man is allied to heaven, and his soul derived
from on high. In his time, more than one new star was discovered, or rather
appeared for the first time; and this induced him to believe, that future
ages might witness stars for the first time moving from the immense regions
of space, within the limits of our observation. But the grandeur and
boldness of Hipparchus's mind rested not here: he attempted, and in some
measure succeeded in doing, what seems above human knowledge and power: he
numbered the stars, laid down rules by which their rising and setting might
be ascertained beforehand; and, finally, he constructed an apparatus on
which the position of each star was accurately given, and a miniature
picture of the heavens, with the motions of the celestial bodies, their
rising and setting, increase and diminution. He thus may be said to have
left the heavens as a legacy to that man, if any such were to be found, who
could rival him and follow his steps."
From the time of Hipparchus to that of Ptolemy the geographer, the
Alexandrian school, though rich in philosophers, who devoted their studies
and labour to other branches of physical and metaphysical science, did not
produce one, who improved geography, or the sciences on which it depends,
with the exception of Posidonius.
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