"Astronomical Facts. It is by such calculations that man has been able to ascertain, not only the distances from the planets to the earth, and, consequently, from each other, but their actual magnitude, their true figure... their respective masses, their mean densities, the principal circumstances of the fall of heavy bodies on the surface of each of them, &c."
January 1, 1970
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Philosophy_of_Mathematics_(Comte)