for want of more precision in defining why theology is entitled to be called a queen. It must either be because all that is taught by other sciences is comprised in and explained by theology, only in a higher sense; or because theology treats of a subject which far surpasses in importance all the subjects of which profane science treats. But even the theologians themselves will hardly maintain that the title belongs to theology in the first sense; for no one can say that geometry, astronomy, music, and medicine, are better treated of in Scripture than in the writings of Archimedes, Ptolemy, Boccius, and Galen. It appears then that the royal prerogative of theology must be derived from some other source. Galileo here remarks:—
"If then theology occupies herself solely with the highest problems, maintains her throne by reason of the supreme authority conferred on her, and does not condescend to the lower sciences as not affecting salvation, the professors of theology should not assume authority on subjects which they have not studied. For this is just as if an absolute ruler should demand, without being a physician or an architect, that people should treat themselves, or erect buildings, according to his directions, to the great peril of poor sick people and obvious ruin of the edifices."
Galileo then demonstrates the vast difference between doctrinal and exact sciences, and says that in the latter opinions cannot be changed to order. Supported by the authority of St. Augustine, he maintains that opinions on natural science which have been proved to coincide with actual facts cannot be set aside by passages of Scripture, but these must be explained so as not to contradict the indisputable results of observation. Those, therefore, who desire to condemn an opinion in physics must first show that it is incorrect. But it must be made the subject of close investigation, and then a different result will often be obtained from the one desired. Many learned men who intended to refute the Copernican theory have been changed, by examination, from opponents to enthusiastic defenders of it. In order to banish it from the world, as many desired, it would
