108 Letter from Galilei en tt passage [Sept. I, 



ihe commonalty, wise expositors shouM go. nine senses of <he sacred passage*, 



produce the true senses, and siiouid add accordar.t with tiiat natural conclusion, 



the particular reasons why they are the manifest sense or the necessary .'e- 



offered in similar terms. It following, monstrations of which, they have first 



tiierefore, that, in many passages, t!ie rendered certain and secure. There- 



Sciiptures have not only a certain lati- fore, as I have said, the Scriptures ha- 



tiidc, but have also need of a new ex- ving, although dictated by the Holy 



position, it appears to me that in mathe- 

 matical disputes they should be reserved 

 Until the last; seeing that the sacred 

 writings, and nature, proceeding alike 



Spirit, for the reasons above cited, intro- 

 duced in many passages expositiong 

 wide from the literal sense; and as we 

 cannot besides with certainty assert 



from tiie divine word, the former as the that all the interpreters speak under the 



dictation of the Holy Spirit, the latter as influence of the divine inspiration, I 



the executrix of the orders of God; and think it would be prudently done not to 



it being, beside, agreed on in the Scrip- allow any one to enip'oy the passages of 



tares, to accommodate tliem to the ge- the Scriptures, and in a nsanner to bind 



Jierality, that they should, in many things, them, to sustain as truths any natural 



L'e difterent in their aspect from their 

 tfue sense; but, on the contrary. Nature 

 l)eing inexorable and immutable, and 

 little heeding whether her recondite rea- 

 sons and modes of operating should, or 



conclusions, the sense and the demon- 

 stiative and necessary reasons of which 

 may peradventiirc manifest the contrary. 

 Who will undertake to assign bounds to 

 the ingenuity of man? Who will assert 



should not, be open to the capacity of that all is already known which can be 

 nicn, inasmuch as sh.e never transgresses known in this world ? AnA for this rea- 

 the bounds of the laws imposed on her; son, besides the articles concerning sal- 

 it appears that, with respect to natural vation, and the stability of the faith, 

 effects, which either the experience of against the solidity of which there is not 

 the senses places before the eyes, or any danger of a cbaiige being wrought in 



\*hich are inferred from the necessary 

 demonstrations, those passages of the sa- 

 cred writings which might Ije disputed 

 in many different ways, ought not to be 

 brought into doubt, seeing that rot every 



their valid and efficacious doctrine, it 

 would perhaps be wise and expedient 

 not to add any others unnecessarily. 

 This being granted, how much more ir- 

 regular would it be to add them at the 



dictate of the Scriptures is bound by request of persons whom, independently 



such strong ties as every effect of na- of their being most subtily couched un- 



tiire. Thus, if, on this sole account of der the divine inspiration, we clearly 



accommodating themselves to the ca- perceive to bo devoid of the intelligence 



pacity of rude and unenlightened men, which would be necessary, I do not say 



tlie Scriptures have rot abstained from to combat them, but to comprehend the 



obscnJng their principal dogmas, as- 

 cribir.j^ to God himself', conditions very 

 far froDi, and contrary to, his essence, 

 vho will pertinaciously maintain, with 

 this consideration in view, that they, the 



demonstrations with which the abstract 

 sciences proceed iu confirming any of 

 their conclusions. 



I should think that the authoritj' of the 

 sacred writings ought to have the gift of 



Scriptures, in speaking incidentally of persuading men of the truth of those ar- 



the eartii, or of the sun, or of any other tides and propositions which are neccs- 



c-reattire, rhould have chosen to confine sary to their salvation ; and that, surpas- 



thems'-lves rigorously to the strict sig- sing all human discourse, they cannot, 



jiification of the words, and more espe- by any other science, or by other means, 



cially in pronouncing, with reference to be made credible, unless bj the mouth of 



the creatures in question, things not only the Holy Spirit itself: but th.at tlie suma 



very distant from the priu.ary institution God who has endowed us with senses, 



cf these sacred writings, but such as, speech, and intellect, postponing the 



being said or manifested agreeably to 

 the naked and open truth, vt'ould rather 

 have been detiimental to liic original in- 

 tention, n:!idf ring the vulgar more per- 

 yiersc to t'.e persuasions of the articles 



use of these, has been desirous, by other 

 means, to*give us the notices which, 

 through them, we may follow, I do not, 

 therefore, think that our faith should be 

 made to repose on those sciences, a small 



concerni)a their SHlvation? This being particle of which may have a different 

 gjanted. and it being besides manifest conclusion from what we read in Scrip- 

 that two, truths can never contradict ture; and this expressly apjilies to as- 

 each other, it is the duty of wise exposi- tronomy, of wliich so inconsiderable a 

 tors sedulously to endeavour to find tlie portion is introduced, tliat tlie plancta 



