To Sir Henry Goodyer, and written after Sir Henry had entered the service
of the Earl of Bedford and before Donne's removal from Mitcham to Drury
House, therefore in 1609 or 1610. The reference to "the new astronomy" is
interesting. In 1609 Keppler announced his discovery of some of the laws
governing planetary motion, although it was not until the following year
that the Copernican System was, by the discoveries of Galileo, firmly
established. Donne's mind seems to have been open to the new knowledge,
when Bacon's was firmly closed against it.