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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



for unostentatious Christian charity. With his religious belief no 

 fault had ever been found. He was a canon of the church of Frauen- 

 berg, and over his grave had been written the most touching of Chris- 

 tian epitaphs. 



Naturally, then, the people expected a religious service. All was 

 understood to be arranged for it. The procession marched, to the 

 church and waited. The hour passed, no priest appeared ; none could 

 be induced to appear. Kopernik, simple, charitable, pious, one of the 

 noblest gifts of God to the service of religion as well as science, was 

 still held to be a reprobate. Seven years after that, his book was still 

 standing on the " Index of Books prohibited to Christians." * 



Nor has this warfare against dead cljampions of science been car- 

 ried on only by the older Church. 



On the 10th of May, 1859, was buried Alexander von Humboldt. 

 His labors were among the greatest glories of the century, and his 

 funeral one of the most imposing that Berlin had ever seen : among 

 those who honored themselves by their presence was the prince re- 

 gent the present emperor. But of the clergy it was observed that 

 none were present save the officiating clergyman and a few regarded 

 as unorthodox.'' 



Nor have attempts to renew the battle been wanting in these lat- 

 ter days. The attempt in the Church of England, in 1864, to fetter 

 Science which was brought to ridicule by Herschel, Bowring, and 

 De Morgan; the Lutheran assemblage at Berlin, in 1868, to protest 

 against " science falsely so called," in the midst of which stood Pas- 

 tor Knak denouncing the Copernican theory ; the " Syllabus," the 

 greatest mistake of the Roman Church, are all examples of this.' 



And now, what has been won by either party in this long and ter- 

 rible war? The party which would subordinate the methods and aims 

 of science to those of theology, though in general obedient to deep 

 convictions, had given to Christianity a series of the worst blows it 

 had ever received. They had made large numbers of the best men in 

 Europe hate it. Why did Ricetto and Bruno and Vanini, when the 

 crucifix was presented to them in their hours of martyrdom, turn from 

 that blessed image with loathing? * Simply because Christianity had 

 been made to them identical with the most horrible oppression of the 

 mind. 



Worse than that, the well-meaning defenders of the faith had 



' Bertrand, " Fondateurs de I'AstroD. Mod.," p. 61. FlammarioD, "Vie de Coper- 

 nic," chap. ix. 



^ Brahns and Lassell, " Life of Humboldt," London, 1873, voL ii., p. 411, 



^ For the very amusing details of the English attempt, and of the way in which it was 

 met, see De Morgan, " Paradoxes," p. 42. For Pastor Knak and his associates, see Re- 

 viie dcs Deux Mondes, 1868. 



* For a striking account, gathered from eye-witnesses, of this frightful scene at the 

 execution of Bruno, see letter of Scioppius in appendix to vol. iv. of Libri, " Hist, des 

 Matheraatiques." 



