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Kopernikus, there was not lacking even in ancient times another opinion,
presumably first expressed by Demokritos, tbe greatest natural pbilosopber
of antiquity, wliich opinion was this, that tbe sun is similar in rank to
the stars. He also held that tbe milky way is a collection of
sun-resembling stars. Neither did Giordano Bruno consider the sun to be
the middle point of tbe world, but similar in rank to tbe other stars.
This view was also afterwards expressed by Descartes and Swedenborg.
Swedenborg added a remarkable expression concerning the system of tbe
milky way, wbicb has afterwards in a somewhat changed form been
taken up by a number of authors in tbe field of cosmology. He bad,
like Descartes before bim, been much occupied by tbose lines around
a magnet called by us lines of force, whicli he believed depended upon
emanations of magnetic matter from tbe magnet. Such conceptions are
already found in Lucretius, who probablv borrowed tbem from
Demokritos, as also in a highly developed form in Descartes. The lines of
force lie most closely together around tbe axis of the magnet, with
wbicb when most nearly adjacent they run parallel. Now Swedenborg
supposed that everything in the world is constructed according to a
common plan. Therefore the arrangement of the least parts of the
magnetic matter should be mirrored in that system of order which
ought to pre vail between the suns. Now since the suns are seen to be
packed most closely along the milky way, it follows that this ought to
correspond to an axis in the system of the suns. Swedenborg has not
expressed himself concerning the remarkable circumstance that this axis
should likely be straiglit, in which case the milky way ought to look
like a semicircle in the sky. But instead this arrangement forms a closed
belt around the vault of heaven. One can certainly also suppose
magnetic lines of force which form a circle, as for example in a ring-shaped
magnet, and we mav form a picture of the milky way in this
manner, but it would be peculiar if Swedenborg had not mentioned that
he had such a thought in case he really did think of this possibility. This
explains why Nyrén1, who has expressed himself in regard to
Sweden-borg’s view of this matter, considered that it must be supposed that
Swedenborg by »axis» meant something quite different from other
authors, namely, »aequator». If this had been the case, .Swedenborg s
opinion would have closely agreed with that which was expressed
sixteen years later, and probably independentlv, by the Englishman
1 See Vierteljahrschrift der Astronomischen Gesellschaft, 1879. — The contribution
of Professor Nyrén will follow in this series of papers. — Ed.
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