xiv.] OX DESCARTES' "DISCOURSE." 343 



Jesuit and an Atheist. His books narrowly escaped 

 being burned by the hangman ; the fate of Vanini was 

 dangled before his eyes ; and the misfortunes of Galileo 

 so alarmed him, that he well-nigh renounced the pur- 

 suits by which the world has so greatly benefited, and 

 was driven into subterfuges and evasions which were not 

 worthy of him. 



" Very cowardly," you may s t ay ; and so it was. 

 But you must make allowance for the fact that, in the 

 seventeenth century, not only did heresy mean possible 

 burning, or imprisonment, but the very suspicion of it 

 destroyed a man s peace, and rendered the calm pursuit 

 of truth difficult or impossible. I fancy that Descartes 

 was a man to care more about being worried and dis- 

 turbed, than about being burned outright ; and, like 

 many other men, sacrificed for the sake of peace and 

 quietness, what he would have stubbornly maintained 

 against downright violence. 



However this may be, let those who are sure they would 

 have done better throw stones at him. I have no feelings 

 but those^of gratitude and reverence for the man who did 

 what he did, when he did ; and a sort of shame that any 

 one should repine against taking a fair share of such 

 treatment as the world thought good enough for him. 



Finally, it occurs to me that, such being my feeling 

 about the matter, it may be useful to all of us if I 

 ask you, " What is yours ? Do you think that the 

 Christianity of the seventeenth century looks nobler and 

 more attractive for such treatment of such a man V 1 You 

 will hardly reply that it does. But if it does not, may it 

 not be well if all of you do what lies within your power 

 to prevent the Christianity of the nineteenth century 

 from repeating the scandal % 



There are one or two living men, who, a couple of 

 centuries hence, will be remembered as Descartes is now, 



