wrong. They deprive it of its only palliation, mistaken conscientiousness.[1]
Nor was this the worst loss to the earth.
There was then in Europe one of the greatest thinkers ever given to mankind. Mistaken though many of his theories were, they were fruitful in truths. The man was René Descartes. The scientific warriors had stirred new life in him, and he was working over and summing up in his mighty mind all the researches of his time. The result must make an epoch in the history of man. His aim was to combine all knowledge and thought into a "Treatise on the World." His earnestness he proved by the eleven years which he gave to the study of anatomy alone. Petty persecution he had met often, but the fate of Galileo robbed him of all hope, of all energy. The battle seemed lost. He gave up his great plan forever.[2]
But champions pressed on. Campanella, full of vagaries as he was, wrote his "Apologia pro Galileo," though for that and other heresies, religious and political, he seven times underwent torture.[3]
And Kepler comes. He leads science on to greater victories. He throws out the minor errors of Kopernik. He thinks and speaks as
- ↑ See Dublin Review, as above. Whewell, vol. i., 393. Citation from Marini: "Galileo was punished for trifling with the authorities to which he refused to submit, and was punished for obstinate contumacy, not heresy." The sufficient answer to all this is that the words of the inflexible sentence designating the condemned books are: "Libri omnes qui affirmant telluris motum." See Bertrand, p. 59. It has also been urged that "Galileo was punished not for his opinion, but for basing it on Scripture." The answer to this may be found in the Roman Index of 1704, in which are noted for condemnation "Libri omnes docenies mobilitatem terræ et inmobilitatem solis." For the way in which, when it was found convenient in argument, Church apologists insisted that it was "the Supreme Chief of the Church, by a pontifical decree, and not certain cardinals," who condemned Galileo and his doctrine, see Father Gazrée's letter to Gassendi in Flammarion, "Pluralité des Mondes," p. 427. For the way in which, when necessary. Church apologists asserted the very contrary of this, declaring that "it was issued in a doctrinal decree of the Congregation of the Index, and not as the Holy Father's teaching," see Dublin Review, September, 1865. And for the most astounding attempt of all, to take the blame off the shoulders of both pope and cardinals, and place it upon the Almighty, see the following words of the article above cited: "But it may well be doubted whether the Church did retard the progress of scientific truth. What retarded it was the circumstance that God has thought fit to express many texts of Scripture in words which have every appearance of denying the earth's motion. But it is God who did this, not the Church; and, moreover, since he thought fit so to act as to retard the progress of scientific truth, it would be little to her discredit even if it were true that she had followed his example."—Dublin Review, September, 1865, p. 419. For the best summary of the various attempts, and for replies to them in a spirit of judicial fairness, see Th. Martin, "Vie de Galilée." This is probably the best book ever written on the Galileo question. The bibliography at the close is very valuable.
- ↑ Humboldt, "Cosmos," London, 1851, vol. iii., p. 21. Also Lange, "Geschichte des Materialismus," vol. i., p. 222, where the letters of Descartes are given, showing his despair, and the giving up of his best thoughts and works to preserve peace with the Church. Also Jolly, "Hist, du Mouvement Intellectuel au XVIe Siècle," vol. i., p. 390.
- ↑ Libri, pp. 149, et seq.
