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shame the sophistication which has been practised upon it.
The defence set up for the Roman Church in her treatment of Galileo, is, that it was inflicted, not for his adopted system of Copernicus, but for his insisting that the system was reconcilable with Scripture. It was to be expected — no other expectation is admissible — that he would frame his defence so as most directly to meet the charge brought against him, which was, that his hypothesis was repugnant to Scripture. If able, he certainly would feel inclined to justify himself, by at least attempting to prove that this was not the fact. And it was natural, though of no importance as to the substantial charge, that he should repel the imputation with some warmth, particularly if he were a man of sanguine temperature, which appears to have been the case. The mode just mentioned of defending the apostolic character and proceeding in the present instance has been made popular of late by Bergier, in his Encyclopédie Méthodique, article, Sciences Humaines.
To understand its value it is necessary to examine the life of Galileo, in the portion concerned, with some minuteness. Perhaps, the
