39 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



useless rigor followed the first procedure. Provided that the culprit 

 spoke no more about the motion of the earth, the court of Rome 

 would like nothing better than to make the most of a great mind that 

 for a moment had gone astray, but whose genius and whose scientific 

 fame were intact. After the trial, Galileo remained* three months in 

 Rome, and was kindly received by the sovereign pontiff. In fact, 

 the rumor having spread that he had been punished by the Holy 

 Office and obliged to retract and to do penance, he obtained from 

 Cardinal Bellarmin a certificate to the contrary effect. All that was 

 done, said the cardinal, was to forbid him defending or upholding the 

 system of Copernicus. What advantage could it have been to drag 

 Galileo down from the high position he occupied in the world's 

 opinion ? It was enough, for the purposes of his judges, if they could 

 shut his mouth. 



In this they supposed they had succeeded, but here they failed to 

 take account of the overmastering impulse to propagate truth, which 

 is the very essence of scientific genius. Galileo could neither erase 

 from his mind a belief that rested on a demonstration, nor refuse to 

 employ it in advancing to fresh discoveries, nor abstain from speaking 

 of it with those who consulted him with regard to their own astro- 

 nomical labors, or took an interest in his. In his retirement at the 

 Belvedere, where, since his return from Rome, he led a more secluded 

 life than ever, he received, as in former times, numerous visits, nearly 

 all prompted by the love of science. He was still the recognized and 

 admired head of the scientific movement in Italy. Why should he 

 not converse about the cardinal proposition of the earth's motion with 

 the young savants who came to ask his advice and to receive his 

 instruction ? A distinguished Italian narrates how, having spent a 

 few days with him, after the . close of his first trial, he heard from 

 Galileo's mouth the exposition of the Copernican system, was con- 

 verted to his ideas, and himself then converted Campanella to that 

 doctrine. 



Hence the submission of Galileo was only apparent. Later he was 

 justly charged with having broken his promise. Still, he avoided 

 compromising himself publicly, and in his first work, "II Saggiatore," 

 which is a model of keen, clever irony, he hardly ventured to write 

 anything touching on the system of Copernicus. Presently the elec- 

 tion of a new pontiff inspired him with the hope that the court of 

 Rome might relax its rigor. Urban VIII., of the family of Barberrni, 

 was a Florentine, a lover of letters, well disposed toward the Academy 

 of the Lincei, and especially friendly to Galileo, to whom he had 

 addressed, while yet a cardinal, some verses conceived in a vein of 

 eulogy. Galileo went to Rome to see him, had six long audiences 

 with him, was presented by him with a picture, medals, agnus deis, 

 and a pension for his son, and doubtless talked with him about the 

 great subject which filled his mind. We can only guess at what was 



