GALILEO AND THE OPTIC TUBE 205 



ill. The forces of obscurantism were too strong. Kepler had 

 written an admirable exposition of the Coppernican idea, backed 

 up with all the new knowledge and the new proof. To Galileo's 

 dismay, this and the work of Coppernicus himself are now put 

 upon the baleful Index of the Forbidden and their circulation 

 interdicted to Catholic lands. Galileo himself returns home 

 under formal orders never again to teach or believe in the 

 motion of the earth. He could plead never so eloquently the 

 new cause. Kepler might write from beyond the Alps : 



" Eighty years have elapsed during which the doctrines of 

 Coppernicus regarding the movement of the earth and the im- 

 mobility of the sun have been promulgated without hindrance, 

 because it is deemed allowable to dispute concerning natural 

 things, and to elucidate the works of God ; and now that new 

 testimony is discovered in proof of the truth of these doctrines 

 testimony which was not known to the spiritual judges ye 

 would prohibit the promulgation of the true system of the 

 structure of the universe ! " 



It was of no avail. The might of the Church bent to crush 

 this formidable new heresy. 



This was in 1616, the year that Shakespeare ceased upon 

 the Avon. A time goes by. There is a new Pope ; he is 

 Galileo's friend. Things will go better now. Galileo goes again 

 to Rome, and has many talks with his friend. The Pope writes 

 back to the grand-duke in warm terms of approbation. Galileo 

 returns, and sets to work upon his most noteworthy literary 

 achievement, Dialogues on the Ptolemaic and Coppernican 

 Systems. By 1632 it is done, through the press, and being 

 read with an avidity which never greeted scientific work before. 

 It is a wonderful piece of literary skill, not in Latin, but in 

 rich and nervous Tuscan, full of keen-edged irony and flash- 

 ing like a sword. It is one of the treasures of Italian prose. 

 It brings a storm. 



There is no need to tell again the oft-told shame. Galileo 

 is again summoned. Honours and age he is now nearing 

 seventy will not save him ; he had disobeyed. Apologists 

 of the Church have attempted to mitigate the infamy that 

 followed by refutation of the belief that he was ever put upon 

 the rack. It is possible he never was. How far his courage 

 held, we do not know. He may have been taken to the torture 

 chamber ; the threat may have been enough. When Bruno 



