LETTER XXII. COPERNICUS.--GALILEO. "They leave at length the nether gloom, and stand Before the portals of a better land; To happier plains they come, and fairer groves, The seats of those whom Heaven, benignant, loves; A brighter day, a bluer ether, spreads Its lucid depths above their favored heads; And, purged from mists that veil our earthly skies, Shine suns and stars unseen by mortal eyes."-- Virgil.

In order to appreciate the value of the contributions which Galileo made to astronomy, soon after the invention of the telescope, it is necessary to glance at the state of the science when he commenced his discoveries For many centuries, during the middle ages, a dark night had hung over astronomy, through which hardly a ray of light penetrated, when, in the eastern part of civilized Europe, a luminary appeared, that proved the harbinger of a bright and glorious day. This was Copernicus, a native of Thorn, in Prussia. He was born in 1473. Though destined for the profession of medicine, from his earliest years he displayed a great fondness and genius for mathematical studies, and pursued them with distinguished success in the University of Cracow. At the age of twenty-five years, he resorted to Italy, for the purpose of studying astronomy, where he resided a number of years. Thus prepared, he returned to his native country, and, having acquired an ecclesiastical living that was adequate to his support in his frugal mode of life, he established himself at Frauenberg, a small town near the mouth of the Vistula, where he spent nearly forty years in observing the heavens, and meditating on the celestial motions. He occupied the upper part of a humble farm-house, through the roof of which he could find access to an unobstructed sky, and there he carried on his observations. His instruments, however, were few and imperfect, and it does not appear that he added any thing to the art of practical astronomy. This was reserved for Tycho Brahe, who came a half a century after him. Nor did Copernicus enrich the science with any important discoveries. It was not so much his genius or taste to search for new bodies, or new phenomena among the stars, as it was to explain the reasons of the most obvious and well-known appearances and motions of the heavenly bodies. With this view, he gave his mind to long-continued and profound meditation.

Copernicus tells us that he was first led to think that the apparent motions of the heavenly bodies, in their diurnal revolution, were owing to the real motion of the earth in the opposite direction, from observing instances of the same kind among terrestrial objects; as when the shore seems to the mariner to recede, as he rapidly sails from it; and as trees and other objects seem to glide by us, when, on riding swiftly past them, we lose the consciousness of our own motion. He was also smitten with the simplicity prevalent in all the works and operations of Nature, which is more and more conspicuous the more they are understood; and he hence concluded that the planets do not move in the complicated paths which most preceding astronomers assigned to them. I shall explain to you, hereafter, the details of his system. I need only at present remind you that the hypothesis which he espoused and defended, (being substantially the same as that proposed by Pythagoras, five hundred years before the Christian era,) supposes, first, that the apparent movements of the sun by day, and of the moon and stars by night, from east to west, result from the actual revolution of the earth on its own axis from west to east; and, secondly, that the earth and all the planets revolve about the sun in circular orbits. This hypothesis, when he first assumed it, was with him, as it had been with Pythagoras, little more than mere conjecture. The arguments by which its truth was to be finally established were not yet developed, and could not be, without the aid of the telescope, which was not yet invented. Upon this hypothesis, however, he set out to explain all the phenomena of the visible heavens,—as the diurnal revolutions of the sun, moon, and stars, the slow progress of the planets through the signs of the zodiac, and the numerous irregularities to which the planetary motions are subject. These last are apparently so capricious,—being for some time forward, then stationary, then backward, then stationary again, and finally direct, a second time, in the order of the signs, and constantly varying in the velocity of their movements,—that nothing but long-continued and severe meditation could have solved all these appearances, in conformity with the idea that each planet is pursuing its simple way all the while in a circle around the sun. Although, therefore, Pythagoras fathomed the profound doctrine that the sun is the centre around which the earth and all the planets revolve, yet we have no evidence that he ever solved the irregular motions of the planets in conformity with his hypothesis, although the explanation of the diurnal revolution of the heavens, by that hypothesis, involved no difficulty. Ignorant as Copernicus was of the principle of gravitation, and of most of the laws of motion, he could go but little way in following out the consequences of his own hypothesis; and all that can be claimed for him is, that he solved, by means of it, most of the common phenomena of the celestial motions. He indeed got upon the road to truth, and advanced some way in its sure path; but he was able to adduce but few independent proofs, to show that it was the truth. It was only quite at the close of his life that he published his system to the world, and that only at the urgent request of his friends; anticipating, perhaps, the opposition of a bigoted priesthood, whose fury was afterwards poured upon the head of Galileo, for maintaining the same doctrines.

Although, therefore, the system of Copernicus afforded an explanation of the celestial motions, far more simple and rational than the previous systems which made the earth the centre of those motions, yet this fact alone was not sufficient to compel the assent of astronomers; for the greater part, to say the least, of the same phenomena, could be explained on either hypothesis. With the old doctrine astronomers were already familiar, a circumstance which made it seem easier; while the new doctrines would seem more difficult, from their being imperfectly understood. Accordingly, for nearly a century after the publication of the system of Copernicus, he gained few disciples. Tycho Brahe rejected it, and proposed one of his own, of which I shall hereafter give you some account; and it would probably have fallen quite into oblivion, had not the observations of Galileo, with his newly-invented telescope, brought to light innumerable proofs of its truth, far more cogent than any which Copernicus himself had been able to devise.

Galileo no sooner had completed his telescope, and directed it to the heavens, than a world of wonders suddenly burst upon his enraptured sight. Pointing it to the moon, he was presented with a sight of her mottled disk, and of her mountains and valleys. The sun exhibited his spots; Venus, her phases; and Jupiter, his expanded orb, and his retinue of moons. These last he named, in honor of his patron, Cosmo d'Medici, Medicean stars. So great was this honor deemed of associating one's name with the stars, that express application was made to Galileo, by the court of France, to award this distinction to the reigning Monarch, Henry the Fourth, with plain intimations, that by so doing he would render himself and his family rich and powerful for ever.

Galileo published the result of his discoveries in a paper, denominated 'Nuncius Sidereus,' the 'Messenger of the Stars.' In that ignorant and marvellous age, this publication produced a wonderful excitement. "Many doubted, many positively refused to believe, so novel an announcement; all were struck with the greatest astonishment, according to their respective opinions, either at the new view of the universe thus offered to them, or at the high audacity of Galileo, in inventing such fables." Even Kepler, the great German astronomer, of whom I shall tell you more by and by, wrote to Galileo, and desired him to supply him with arguments, by which he might answer the objections to these pretended discoveries with which he was continually assailed. Galileo answered him as follows: "In the first place, I return you my thanks that you first, and almost alone, before the question had been sifted, (such is your candor, and the loftiness of your mind,) put faith in my assertions. You tell me you have some telescopes, but not sufficiently good to magnify distant objects with clearness, and that you anxiously expect a sight of mine, which magnifies images more than a thousand times. It is mine no longer, for the Grand Duke of Tuscany has asked it of me, and intends to lay it up in his museum, among his most rare and precious curiosities, in eternal remembrance of the invention.

"You ask, my dear Kepler, for other testimonies. I produce, for one, the Grand Duke, who, after observing the Medicean planets several times with me at Pisa, during the last months, made me a present, at parting, of more than a thousand florins, and has now invited me to attach myself to him, with the annual salary of one thousand florins, and with the title of 'Philosopher and Principal Mathematician to His Highness;' without the duties of any office to perform, but with the most complete leisure. I produce, for another witness, myself, who, although already endowed in this College with the noble salary of one thousand florins, such as no professor of mathematics ever before received, and which I might securely enjoy during my life, even if these planets should deceive me and should disappear, yet quit this situation, and take me where want and disgrace will be my punishment, should I prove to have been mistaken."

The learned professors in the universities, who, in those days, were unaccustomed to employ their senses in inquiring into the phenomena of Nature, but satisfied themselves with the authority of Aristotle, on all subjects, were among the most incredulous with respect to the discoveries of Galileo. "Oh, my dear Kepler," says Galileo, "how I wish that we could have one hearty laugh together. Here, at Padua, is the principal Professor of Philosophy, whom I have repeatedly and urgently requested to look at the moon and planets through my glass, which he pertinaciously refuses to do. Why are you not here? What shouts of laughter we should have at this glorious folly, and to hear the Professor of Philosophy at Pisa laboring before the Grand Duke, with logical arguments, as if with magical incantations, to charm the new planets out of the sky."

The following argument by Sizzi, a contemporary astronomer of some note, to prove that there can be only seven planets, is a specimen of the logic with which Galileo was assailed. "There are seven windows given to animals in the domicile of the head, through which the air is admitted to the tabernacle of the body, to enlighten, to warm, and to nourish it; which windows are the principal parts of the microcosm, or little world,—two nostrils, two eyes, two ears, and one mouth. So in the heavens, as in a macrocosm, or great world, there are two favorable stars, Jupiter and Venus; two unpropitious, Mars and Saturn; two luminaries, the Sun and Moon; and Mercury alone, undecided and indifferent. From which, and from many other phenomena of Nature, such as the seven metals, &c., which it were tedious to enumerate, we gather that the number of planets is necessarily seven. Moreover, the satellites are invisible to the naked eye, and therefore can exercise no influence over the earth, and therefore would be useless, and therefore do not exist. Besides, as well the Jews and other ancient nations, as modern Europeans, have adopted the division of the week into seven days, and have named them from the seven planets. Now, if we increase the number of planets, this whole system falls to the ground."

When, at length, the astronomers of the schools found it useless to deny the fact that Jupiter is attended by smaller bodies, which revolve around him, they shifted their ground of warfare, and asserted that Galileo had not told the whole truth; that there were not merely four satellites, but a still greater number; one said five; another, nine; and another, twelve; but, in a little time, Jupiter moved forward in his orbit, and left all behind him, save the four Medicean stars.

It had been objected to the Copernican system, that were Venus a body which revolved around the sun in an orbit interior to that of the earth, she would undergo changes similar to those of the moon. As no such changes could be detected by the naked eye, no satisfactory answer could be given to this objection; but the telescope set all right, by showing, in fact, the phases of Venus. The same instrument, disclosed, also, in the system of Jupiter and his moons, a miniature exhibition of the solar system itself. It showed the actual existence of the motion of a number of bodies around one central orb, exactly similar to that which was predicated of the sun and planets. Every one, therefore, of these new and interesting discoveries, helped to confirm the truth of the system of Copernicus.

But a fearful cloud was now rising over Galileo, which spread itself, and grew darker every hour. The Church of Rome had taken alarm at the new doctrines respecting the earth's motion, as contrary to the declarations of the Bible, and a formidable difficulty presented itself, namely, how to publish and defend these doctrines, without invoking the terrible punishments inflicted by the Inquisition on heretics. No work could be printed without license from the court of Rome; and any opinions supposed to be held and much more known to be taught by any one, which, by an ignorant and superstitious priesthood, could be interpreted as contrary to Scripture, would expose the offender to the severest punishments, even to imprisonment, scourging, and death. We, who live in an age so distinguished for freedom of thought and opinion, can form but a very inadequate conception of the bondage in which the minds of men were held by the chains of the Inquisition. It was necessary, therefore, for Galileo to proceed with the greatest caution in promulgating truths which his own discoveries had confirmed. He did not, like the Christian martyrs, proclaim the truth in the face of persecutions and tortures; but while he sought to give currency to the Copernican doctrines, he labored, at the same time, by cunning artifices, to blind the ecclesiastics to his real designs, and thus to escape the effects of their hostility.

Before Galileo published his doctrines in form, he had expressed himself so freely, as to have excited much alarm among the ecclesiastics. One of them preached publicly against him, taking for his text, the passage, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye here gazing up into heaven?" He therefore thought it prudent to resort to Rome, and confront his enemies face to face. A contemporary describes his appearance there in the following terms, in a letter addressed to a Romish Cardinal: "Your Eminence would be delighted with Galileo, if you heard him holding forth, as he often does, in the midst of fifteen or twenty, all violently attacking him, sometimes in one house, sometimes in another. But he is armed after such fashion, that he laughs all of them to scorn; and even if the novelty of his opinions prevents entire persuasion, at least he convicts of emptiness most of the arguments with which his adversaries endeavor to overwhelm him."

In 1616, Galileo, as he himself states, had a most gracious audience of the Pope, Paul the Fifth, which lasted for nearly an hour, at the end of which his Holiness assured him, that the Congregation were no longer in a humor to listen lightly to calumnies against him, and that so long as he occupied the Papal chair, Galileo might think himself out of all danger. Nevertheless, he was not allowed to return home, without receiving formal notice not to teach the opinions of Copernicus, "that the sun is in the centre of the system, and that the earth moves about it," from that time forward, in any manner.

Galileo had a most sarcastic vein, and often rallied his persecutors with the keenest irony. This he exhibited, some time after quitting Rome, in an epistle which he sent to the Arch Duke Leopold, accompanying his 'Theory of the Tides.' "This theory," says he, "occurred to me when in Rome, whilst the theologians were debating on the prohibition of Copernicus's book, and of the opinion maintained in it of the motion of the earth, which I at that time believed; until it pleased those gentlemen to suspend the book, and to declare the opinion false and repugnant to the Holy Scriptures. Now, as I know how well it becomes me to obey and believe the decisions of my superiors, which proceed out of more profound knowledge than the weakness of my intellect can attain to, this theory, which I send you, which is founded on the motion of the earth, I now look upon as a fiction and a dream, and beg your Highness to receive it as such. But, as poets often learn to prize the creations of their fancy, so, in like manner, do I set some value on this absurdity of mine. It is true, that when I sketched this little work, I did hope that Copernicus would not, after eighty years, be convicted of error; and I had intended to develope and amplify it further; but a voice from heaven suddenly awakened me, and at once annihilated all my confused and entangled fancies."

It is difficult, however, sometimes to decide whether the language of Galileo is ironical, or whether he uses it with subtlety, with the hope of evading the anathemas of the Inquisition. Thus he ends one of his writings with the following passage: "In conclusion, since the motion attributed to the earth, which I, as a pious and Catholic person, consider most false, and not to exist, accommodates itself so well to explain so many and such different phenomena, I shall not feel sure that, false as it is, it may not just as deludingly correspond with the phenomena of comets."

In the year 1624, soon after the accession of Urban the Eighth to the Pontifical chair, Galileo went to Rome again, to offer his congratulations to the new Pope, as well as to propitiate his favor. He seems to have been received with unexpected cordiality; and, on his departure, the Pope commended him to the good graces of Ferdinand, Grand Duke of Tuscany, in the following terms: "We find in him not only literary distinction, but also the love of piety, and he is strong in those qualities by which Pontifical good-will is easily obtained. And now, when he has been brought to this city, to congratulate Us on Our elevation, We have lovingly embraced him; nor can We suffer him to return to the country whither your liberality recalls him, without an ample provision of Pontifical love. And that you may know how dear he is to Us, we have willed to give him this honorable testimonial of virtue and piety. And We further signify, that every benefit which you shall confer upon him will conduce to Our gratification."

In the year 1630, Galileo finished a great work, on which he had been long engaged, entitled, 'The Dialogue on the Ptolemaic and Copernican Systems.' From the notion which prevailed, that he still countenanced the Copernican doctrine of the earth's motion, which had been condemned as heretical, it was some time before he could obtain permission from the Inquisitors (whose license was necessary to every book) to publish it. This he was able to do, only by employing again that duplicity or artifice which would throw dust in the eyes of the vain and superstitious priesthood. In 1632, the work appeared under the following title: 'A Dialogue, by Galileo Galilei, Extraordinary Mathematician of the University of Pisa, and Principal Philosopher and Mathematician of the Most Serene Grand Duke of Tuscany; in which, in a Conversation of four days, are discussed the two principal Systems of the World, the Ptolemaic and Copernican, indeterminately proposing the Philosophical Arguments as well on one side as on the other.' The subtle disguise which he wore, may be seen from the following extract from his 'Introduction,' addressed 'To the discreet Reader.'

"Some years ago, a salutary edict was promulgated at Rome, which, in order to obviate the perilous scandals of the present age, enjoined an opportune silence on the Pythagorean opinion of the earth's motion. Some were not wanting, who rashly asserted that this decree originated, not in a judicious examination, but in ill-informed passion; and complaints were heard, that counsellors totally inexperienced in astronomical observations ought not, by hasty prohibitions, to clip the wings of speculative minds. My zeal could not keep silence when I heard these rash lamentations, and I thought it proper, as being fully informed with regard to that most prudent determination, to appear publicly on the theatre of the world, as a witness of the actual truth. I happened at that time to be in Rome: I was admitted to the audiences, and enjoyed the approbation, of the most eminent prelates of that court; nor did the publication of that decree occur without my receiving some prior intimation of it. Wherefore, it is my intention, in this present work, to show to foreign nations, that as much is known of this matter in Italy, and particularly in Rome, as ultramontane diligence can ever have formed any notion of, and collecting together all my own speculations on the Copernican system, to give them to understand that the knowledge of all these preceded the Roman censures; and that from this country proceed not only dogmas for the salvation of the soul, but also ingenious discoveries for the gratification of the understanding. With this object, I have taken up in the 'Dialogue' the Copernican side of the question, treating it as a pure mathematical hypothesis; and endeavoring, in every artificial manner, to represent it as having the advantage, not over the opinion of the stability of the earth absolutely, but according to the manner in which that opinion is defended by some, who indeed profess to be Aristotelians, but retain only the name, and are contented, without improvement, to worship shadows, not philosophizing with their own reason, but only from the recollection of the four principles imperfectly understood."

Although the Pope himself, as well as the Inquisitors, had examined Galileo's manuscript, and, not having the sagacity to detect the real motives of the author, had consented to its publication, yet, when the book was out, the enemies of Galileo found means to alarm the court of Rome, and Galileo was summoned to appear before the Inquisition. The philosopher was then seventy years old, and very infirm, and it was with great difficulty that he performed the journey. His unequalled dignity and celebrity, however, commanded the involuntary respect of the tribunal before which he was summoned, which they manifested by permitting him to reside at the palace of his friend, the Tuscan Ambassador; and when it became necessary, in the course of the inquiry, to examine him in person, although his removal to the Holy Office was then insisted upon, yet he was not, like other heretics, committed to close and solitary confinement. On the contrary, he was lodged in the apartments of the Head of the Inquisition, where he was allowed the attendance of his own servant, who was also permitted to sleep in an adjoining room, and to come and go at pleasure. These were deemed extraordinary indulgences in an age when the punishment of heretics usually began before their trial.

About four months after Galileo's arrival in Rome, he was summoned to the Holy Office. He was detained there during the whole of that day; and on the next day was conducted, in a penitential dress, to the Convent of Minerva, where the Cardinals and Prelates, his judges, were assembled for the purpose of passing judgement upon him, by which this venerable old man was solemnly called upon to renounce and abjure, as impious and heretical, the opinions which his whole existence had been consecrated to form and strengthen. Probably there is not a more curious document in the history of science, than that which contains the sentence of the Inquisition on Galileo, and his consequent abjuration. It teaches us so much, both of the darkness and bigotry of the terrible Inquisition, and of the sufferings encountered by those early martyrs of science, that I will transcribe for your perusal, from the excellent 'Life of Galileo' in the 'Library of Useful Knowledge,' (from which I have borrowed much already,) the entire record of this transaction. The sentence of the Inquisition is as follows:

"We, the undersigned, by the grace of God, Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, Inquisitors General throughout the whole Christian Republic, Special Deputies of the Holy Apostolical Chair against heretical depravity:

"Whereas, you, Galileo, son of the late Vincenzo Galilei of Florence, aged seventy years, were denounced in 1615, to this Holy Office, for holding as true a false doctrine taught by many, namely, that the sun is immovable in the centre of the world, and that the earth moves, and also with a diurnal motion; also, for having pupils which you instructed in the same opinions; also, for maintaining a correspondence on the same with some German mathematicians; also, for publishing certain letters on the solar spots, in which you developed the same doctrine as true; also, for answering the objections which were continually produced from the Holy Scriptures, by glozing the said Scriptures, according to your own meaning; and whereas, thereupon was produced the copy of a writing, in form of a letter, professedly written by you to a person formerly your pupil, in which, following the hypothesis of Copernicus, you include several propositions contrary to the true sense and authority of the Holy Scriptures: therefore, this Holy Tribunal, being desirous of providing against the disorder and mischief which was thence proceeding and increasing, to the detriment of the holy faith, by the desire of His Holiness, and of the Most Eminent Lords Cardinals of this supreme and universal Inquisition, the two propositions of the stability of the sun, and motion of the earth, were qualified by the Theological Qualifiers, as follows:

"1. The proposition that the sun is in the centre of the world, and immovable from its place, is absurd, philosophically false, and formally heretical; because it is expressly contrary to the Holy Scriptures.

"2. The proposition that the earth is not the centre of the world, nor immovable, but that it moves, and also with a diurnal motion, is also absurd, philosophically false, and, theologically considered, equally erroneous in faith.

"But whereas, being pleased at that time to deal mildly with you, it was decreed in the Holy Congregation, held before His Holiness on the twenty-fifth day of February, 1616, that His Eminence the Lord Cardinal Bellarmine should enjoin you to give up altogether the said false doctrine; if you should refuse, that you should be ordered by the Commissary of the Holy Office to relinquish it, not to teach it to others, nor to defend it, and in default of the acquiescence, that you should be imprisoned; and in execution of this decree, on the following day, at the palace, in presence of His Eminence the said Lord Cardinal Bellarmine, after you had been mildly admonished by the said Lord Cardinal, you were commanded by the acting Commissary of the Holy Office, before a notary and witnesses, to relinquish altogether the said false opinion, and in future neither to defend nor teach it in any manner, neither verbally nor in writing, and upon your promising obedience, you were dismissed.

"And, in order that so pernicious a doctrine might be altogether rooted out, nor insinuate itself further to the heavy detriment of the Catholic truth, a decree emanated from the Holy Congregation of the Index, prohibiting the books which treat of this doctrine; and it was declared false, and altogether contrary to the Holy and Divine Scripture.

"And whereas, a book has since appeared, published at Florence last year, the title of which showed that you were the author, which title is, 'The Dialogue of Galileo Galilei, on the two principal Systems of the World, the Ptolemaic and Copernican;' and whereas, the Holy Congregation has heard that, in consequence of printing the said book, the false opinion of the earth's motion and stability of the sun is daily gaining ground; the said book has been taken into careful consideration, and in it has been detected a glaring violation of the said order, which had been intimated to you; inasmuch as in this book you have defended the said opinion, already, and in your presence, condemned; although in the said book you labor, with many circumlocutions, to induce the belief that it is left by you undecided, and in express terms probable; which is equally a very grave error, since an opinion can in no way be probable which has been already declared and finally determined contrary to the Divine Scripture. Therefore, by Our order, you have been cited to this Holy Office, where, on your examination upon oath, you have acknowledged the said book as written and printed by you. You also confessed that you began to write the said book ten or twelve years ago, after the order aforesaid had been given. Also, that you demanded license to publish it, but without signifying to those who granted you this permission, that you had been commanded not to hold, defend, or teach, the said doctrine in any manner. You also confessed, that the style of said book was, in many places, so composed, that the reader might think the arguments adduced on the false side to be so worded, as more effectually to entangle the understanding than to be easily solved, alleging, in excuse, that you have thus run into an error, foreign (as you say) to your intention, from writing in the form of a dialogue, and in consequence of the natural complacency which every one feels with regard to his own subtilties, and in showing himself more skilful than the generality of mankind in contriving, even in favor of false propositions, ingenious and apparently probable arguments.

"And, upon a convenient time being given you for making your defence, you produced a certificate in the handwriting of His Eminence, the Lord Cardinal Bellarmine, procured, as you said, by yourself, that you might defend yourself against the calumnies of your enemies, who reported that you had abjured your opinions, and had been punished by the Holy Office; in which certificate it is declared, that you had not abjured, nor had been punished, but merely that the declaration made by his Holiness, and promulgated by the Holy Congregation of the Index, had been announced to you, which declares that the opinion of the motion of the earth, and stability of the sun, is contrary to the Holy Scriptures, and therefore cannot be held or defended. Wherefore, since no mention is there made of two articles of the order, to wit, the order 'not to teach,' and 'in any manner,' you argued that we ought to believe that, in the lapse of fourteen or sixteen years, they had escaped your memory, and that this was also the reason why you were silent as to the order, when you sought permission to publish your book, and that this is said by you, not to excuse your error, but that it may be attributed to vain-glorious ambition rather than to malice. But this very certificate, produced on your behalf, has greatly aggravated your offence, since it is therein declared, that the said opinion is contrary to the Holy Scriptures, and yet you have dared to treat of it, and to argue that it is probable; nor is there any extenuation in the license artfully and cunningly extorted by you, since you did not intimate the command imposed upon you. But whereas, it appeared to Us that you had not disclosed the whole truth with regard to your intentions, We thought it necessary to proceed to the rigorous examination of you, in which (without any prejudice to what you had confessed, and which is above detailed against you, with regard to your said intention) you answered like a good Catholic.

"Therefore, having seen and maturely considered the merits of your cause, with your said confessions and excuses, and every thing else which ought to be seen and considered, We have come to the underwritten final sentence against you:

"Invoking, therefore, the most holy name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of his Most Glorious Virgin Mother, Mary, by this Our final sentence, which, sitting in council and judgement for the tribunal of the Reverend Masters of Sacred Theology, and Doctors of both Laws, Our Assessors, We put forth in this writing touching the matters and controversies before Us, between the Magnificent Charles Sincerus, Doctor of both Laws, Fiscal Proctor of this Holy Office, of the one part, and you, Galileo Galilei, an examined and confessed criminal from this present writing now in progress, as above, of the other part, We pronounce, judge, and declare, that you, the said Galileo, by reason of these things which have been detailed in the course of this writing, and which, as above, you have confessed, have rendered yourself vehemently suspected, by this Holy Office, of heresy; that is to say, that you believe and hold the false doctrine, and contrary to the Holy and Divine Scriptures, namely, that the sun is the centre of the world, and that it does not move from east to west, and that the earth does move, and is not the centre of the world; also, that an opinion can be held and supported, as probable, after it has been declared and finally decreed contrary to the Holy Scripture, and consequently, that you have incurred all the censures and penalties enjoined and promulgated in the sacred canons, and other general and particular constitutions against delinquents of this description. From which it is Our pleasure that you be absolved, provided that, with a sincere heart and unfeigned faith, in Our presence, you abjure, curse, and detest, the said errors and heresies, and every other error and heresy, contrary to the Catholic and Apostolic Church of Rome, in the form now shown to you.

"But that your grievous and pernicious error and transgression may not go altogether unpunished, and that you may be made more cautious in future, and may be a warning to others to abstain from delinquencies of this sort, We decree, that the book of the Dialogues of Galileo Galilei be prohibited by a public edict, and We condemn you to the formal prison of this Holy Office for a period determinable at Our pleasure; and, by way of salutary penance, We order you, during the next three years, to recite, once a week, the seven penitential psalms, reserving to Ourselves the power of moderating, commuting, or taking off the whole or part of the said punishment, or penance.

"And so We say, pronounce, and by Our sentence declare, decree, and reserve, in this and in every other better form and manner, which lawfully We may and can use. So We, the subscribing Cardinals, pronounce." [Subscribed by seven Cardinals.]

In conformity with the foregoing sentence, Galileo was made to kneel before the Inquisition, and make the following Abjuration:

"I, Galileo Galilei, son of the late Vincenzo Galilei, of Florence, aged seventy years, being brought personally to judgement, and kneeling before you, Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lords Cardinals, General Inquisitors of the Universal Christian Republic against heretical depravity, having before my eyes the Holy Gospels, which I touch with my own hands, swear, that I have always believed, and with the help of God will in future believe, every article which the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Rome holds, teaches, and preaches. But because I had been enjoined, by this Holy Office, altogether to abandon the false opinion which maintains that the sun is the centre and immovable, and forbidden to hold, defend, or teach, the said false doctrine, in any manner: and after it had been signified to me that the said doctrine is repugnant to the Holy Scripture, I have written and printed a book, in which I treat of the same doctrine now condemned, and adduce reasons with great force in support of the same, without giving any solution, and therefore have been judged grievously suspected of heresy; that is to say, that I held and believed that the sun is the centre of the world and immovable, and that the earth is not the centre and movable; willing, therefore, to remove from the minds of Your Eminences, and of every Catholic Christian, this vehement suspicion rightfully entertained towards me, with a sincere heart and unfeigned faith, I abjure, curse, and defeat, the said errors and heresies, and generally every other error and sect contrary to the said Holy Church; and I swear, that I will never more in future say or assert any thing, verbally or in writing, which may give rise to a similar suspicion of me: but if I shall know any heretic, or any one suspected of heresy, that I will denounce him to this Holy Office, or to the Inquisitor and Ordinary of the place in which I may be. I swear, moreover, and promise, that I will fulfil and observe fully, all the penances which have been or shall be laid on me by this Holy Office. But if it shall happen that I violate any of my said promises, oaths, and protestations, (which God avert!) I subject myself to all the pains and punishments which have been decreed and promulgated by the sacred canons, and other general and particular constitutions, against delinquents of this description. So may God help me, and his Holy Gospels, which I touch with my own hands. I, the above-named Galileo Galilei, have abjured, sworn, promised, and bound myself, as above; and in witness thereof, with my own hand have subscribed this present writing of my abjuration, which I have recited, word for word.

"At Rome, in the Convent of Minerva, twenty-second June, 1633, I, Galileo Galilei, have abjured as above, with my own hand."

From the court Galileo was conducted to prison, to be immured for life in one of the dungeons of the Inquisition. His sentence was afterwards mitigated, and he was permitted to return to Florence; but the humiliation to which he had been subjected pressed heavily on his spirits, beset as he was with infirmities, and totally blind, and he never more talked or wrote on the subject of astronomy.

There was enough in the character of Galileo to command a high admiration. There was much, also, in his sufferings in the cause of science, to excite the deepest sympathy, and even compassion. He is moreover universally represented to have been a man of great equanimity, and of a noble and generous disposition. No scientific character of the age, or perhaps of any age, forms a structure of finer proportions, or wears in a higher degree the grace of symmetry. Still, we cannot approve of his employing artifice in the promulgation of truth; and we are compelled to lament that his lofty spirit bowed in the final conflict. How far, therefore, he sinks below the dignity of the Christian martyr! "At the age of seventy," says Dr. Brewster, in his life of Sir Isaac Newton, "on his bended knees, and with his right hand resting on the Holy Evangelists, did this patriarch of science avow his present and past belief in the dogmas of the Romish Church, abandon as false and heretical the doctrine of the earth's motion and of the sun's immobility, and pledge himself to denounce to the Inquisition any other person who was even suspected of heresy. He abjured, cursed, and detested, those eternal and immutable truths which the Almighty had permitted him to be the first to establish. Had Galileo but added the courage of the martyr to the wisdom of the sage; had he carried the glance of his indignant eye round the circle of his judges; had he lifted his hands to heaven, and called the living God to witness the truth and immutability of his opinions; the bigotry of his enemies would have been disarmed, and science would have enjoyed a memorable triumph."

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