Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 66.djvu/261

The heliocentric doctrine has for a century been making its way into the minds of thoughtful men on the general ground of its simplicity and symmetry. Galileo appears to have thought that now, when these original recommendations of the system had been reenforced by his own discoveries and reasonings, it ought to be universally acknowledged as a truth and a reality. And when arguments against the fixity of the sun and the motion of the earth were adduced from scripture, he could not be satisfied without maintaining his favorite opinion to be conformable to scripture as well as to philosophy; and he was very eager in his attempts to obtain from authority a declaration to this effect. The ecclesiastical authorities were naturally averse to express themselves in favor of a novel opinion, startling to the common mind, and contrary to the most obvious meaning of the words of the Bible; and when they were compelled to pronounce, they decided against Galileo and his doctrines. He was accused before the Inquisition in 1615;. . . the result was a declaration of the Inquisition that the doctrine of the earth's motion [was] contrary to the sacred scripture. Galileo was prohibited from defending and teaching this doctrine in any manner, and promised obedience to this injunction [as will be shown later].

But in 1632 he published his Dialogues and in these he defended the heliocentric system by all the strongest arguments which its admirers used. Not only so, but he introduced into this dialogue a character under the name of Simplicius [supposed by contemporaries to have been intended to represent the Pope then reigning, which idea was fully accepted by the Pope himself, especially as the Pope's own words were attributed to Simplicius,] in whose mouth was put the defense of all the ancient dogmas and who was represented as defeated at all points of the discussion; and he prefixed to the dialogue a notice To the Discreet Reader, in which, in a view of transparent irony he assigned his reasons for the publication. . . . The result of this was that Galileo was condemned for his infraction of the injunction laid upon him in 1616; his dialogue was prohibited; he himself was commanded to abjure on his knees the doctrine he had taught; and this abjuration he performed.

. . . The general acceptance of the Copernican system was no longer a matter of doubt. Several persons in the highest positions including the Pope himself [not the Pope] looked upon the doctrine with favorable eyes; and had shown their interest in Galileo and his discoveries. They had tried to prevent his involving himself in trouble by [through] discussing the question on scriptural grounds. It is probable that his knowledge of those favorable dispositions towards himself and his opinions led him to suppose that the slightest color of professed submission to the church in his belief, would enable his arguments in favor of the system to pass unvisited; the notice [To the Discreet Reader] in which the irony is quite transparent and the sarcasm glaringly obvious, was deemed too flimsy a veil for the purpose of decency, and, indeed, must have aggravated the offence.

The foregoing extracts from the writings of authoritative historians of science place the chief events of Galileo's long life in what seems to be the true light. There is little doubt as to the events themselves—except in a single particular, which will be considered in what follows. Much controversy has raged over their interpretation. They must be considered in two regards: First, in respect of Galileo's private and personal experience; second, in respect of the lesson which that experience has taught to the world in general. The remark of Bertrand