Thus Copernicus’ first impulse to reform the Ptolemaic system originated in his urge to remove a minor blemish from it, a feature which did not strictly conform to conservative Aristotelian principles. He was led to reversing the Ptolemaic system by his desire to preserve it – like the maniac who, pained by a mole on his beloved’s cheek, cut off her head to restore her to perfection. Yet it happened not for the first time in history that a puritan reformer started by attacking a minor imperfection, and ended by realizing that it was a symptom of a deep-rooted and irremediable disease.
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