272 0/the delation of Tradition to Falcetiology, 



weak to believe the Copernican system without harm to his 

 piety, him, I say, I advise that, leaving the school of astro- 

 nomy, and condemning, if so he please, any doctrines of the 

 philosophers, he follow his own path, and desist from this 

 wandering through the universe ; and that, lifting up his na- 

 tural eyes with which alone he can see, he pour himself out 

 from his own heart in worship of God the Creator, being cer- 

 tain that he gives no less worship to God than the astronomer, 

 to whom God has given to see more clearly with his inward 

 eyes, and who, from what he has himself discovered, both can 

 and will glorify God." 



13. Case of Galileo. — I may perhaps venture here to make a 

 remark or two upon this subject, with reference to a charge 

 brought against a certain portion of the History of the Indole- 

 tive Sciences. Complaint has been made* that the character 

 of the Roman church, as shewn in its behaviour towards Ga- 

 lileo, is misrepresented in the account given of it in the His- 

 tory of Astronomy. It is asserted that Galileo provoked the 

 condemnation he incurred ; first, by pertinaciously demanding 

 the assent of the ecclesiastical authorities to his opinion of the 

 consistency of the Copernican doctrine with Scripture ; and 

 afterwards by contumaciously, and, as we have seen, contume- 

 liously violating the silence which the Church had enjoyed upon 

 him. It is further declared, that the statement which repre- 

 sents it as the habit of tho Roman church to dogmatize on 

 points of natural science is unfounded ; as well as the opinion 

 that, in consequence of this habit, new scientific truths were 

 promulgated less boldly in Italy than in other countries. I 

 shall reply very briefly on these subjects ; for the decision of 

 them is by no means requisite in order to establish the doc- 

 trines to which I have been led in the present chapter, nor, I 

 hope, to satisfy my reader that my views have been collected 

 from an impartial consideration of scientific history. 



With regard to Galileo, I do not think it can be denied that 

 he obtruded his opinions upon the ecclesiastical authorities in 

 an unnecessary and imprudent manner. He was of an ardent 



* Dublin Review f No, ix., July 1838, p. 72. 



