32 NINETEENTH KEFOKT. 



friend he unburdened his soul in unbounded admiration for the works of 

 his Creator. He writes : 



The prohibition of science would be contrary to tlie Bible, which in hundreds 

 of places teaches us how the greatness and the glory of God shine forth marvel- 

 ously in ;ill His works, and is to be read above all in the open book of the 

 heavens. And let no one believe that the reading of the most exalted thoughts 

 which are inscribed upon these pages is to be accomplished through merely staring 

 up at the radiance of the stars. There are such profound secrets and such lofty 

 conceptions that the night labors and the researches of hundreds ahd yet hun- 

 dreds of the keenest minds, in investigations extending over thousands of years 

 would not penetrate them, and the delight of the searching and finding endures 

 forever. 



From this revelation of intellectual exaltation in one of the greatest 

 apostles of science of all time, it is necessary to turn to a far different 

 scene staged in one of the dark chambers of the Inquisition, if we would 

 correctly interpret the spirit of his age. Bowed with years and threatened 

 with the cruel torture, Galileo is seen kneeling before the crucifix and 

 repeating in broken sentences the dictation of his persecutors : 



I bow my knee before the Honorable General Inquisitors, and touching the 

 holy gospels I do promise that I believe and in future always will believe what- 

 ever the church holds and teaches for the truth. I was commanded by the Holy 

 Inquisition that I should neither believe nor teach the false doctrine of the 

 motion of the earth and the stationary attitude of the sun, because they are 

 contrary to the Holy Scriptures. In spite of it I have written and caused to be 

 printed a liook in which I teach this cursed doctrine and have brought forth 

 arguments in its favor. I have on this account been declared a heretic and 

 worthy of contempt. 



In order now to redeem myself in the eyes of every true Christian who with 

 justice must hold me in contempt, I forsweaf and curse the errors and heresies 

 referred to, and above all every other error and e\ery opinion which is con- 

 trary to the teaching of the Church. Also I swear in future never either in 

 .spoken word or in writing to express anything on account of which any one could 

 have me in like contempt, but I will, if I anywhere fmd or suspect heresy, reveal 

 it at once to the Holy Tribunal. 



It is not pleasant to dwell on the extreme conditions which determined 

 the making of theories at this period and which continued for fully a 

 hundred j-ears beyond the time of Galileo. For advocating the Copernican 

 doctrine Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake. More prudent, de 

 Maillet left his theories of nature to be published only after liis deatli 

 and then with liis name disguised as Telliamed through printing the 

 letters in reverse order; while Scheuchzer avoided persecution by describ- 

 ing as a liuraan victim of the Noachian deluge a gigantic fossil sala- 

 mander, and thus became the butt of succeeding generations. Steno, 

 "the wise Dane," tlirough enjoying the favor of a powerful Christian 

 prince, was more fortunate than most of his contemporaries, and has 



