The opinion of diverse heavens hath then been caused by diverse motion of the stars and by the appearance of a sky filled with stars revolving around the earth; nor can these luminaries by any means be seen to recede one from another; but, maintaining always the same distance and relation one to another, and a certain course they appear to revolve round the earth, even as a wheel on which are nailed innumerable mirrors revolveth around his own axis. Thus it is considered obvious from evidence of our eyes that theses luminaries have no motion of their own; nor can they wander as birds through air; but they move only by the revolution of the orbs to which they are fixed, whose motion is affected by the divine pulse of some supreme intelligence.
Such is the common opinion. But once the motion is understood of our own mundane star which is fixed to no orb, but impelled by her own intrinsic principle, soul and nature, taketh her course around the sun through the vastness of universal space, and spinneth around her own centre, then this opinion will be dispelled. Then will be opened the gate of understanding of the true principles of nature, and we shall be enabled to advance with great strides along the path of truth which hath been hidden by the veil of sordid and bestial illusions and hath remained secret until to-day, through the injury of time and the vicissitudes of things, ever since they succeed to the daylight of the ancient sages the murky night of the foolhardy sophists.
*Naught standeth still, but all things swirl and whirl
As far is in heaven and beneath is seen.
All things move, now up, now down,
Whether on a long or short course,
Whether heavy or light;
Perchance thou too goest the same path
And to like a goal.
For all things move till overtaken,
As the wave swirled through the water,
So that the same part
Moveth now from above downward
And now from below upward,
And the same hurly-burly
Imparteth to all the same successive fate.*
~Giordano Bruno On the Infinite Universe and Worlds