\ -TH&CPAfff OF EVOLUTION 



cut short my reasoning with outbreaks of zeal, or else 

 spoke only of the scandal I had caused, and always 

 opposed to me the passage of Scripture on the Miracle 

 of Joshua as the victorious proof against me. This 

 made me think of another place where the language 

 of the Holy Book is evidently conformed to popular 

 ideas, wherein it is said that e the heavens are solid 

 and polished like a brazen mirror/ To me this ex- 

 ample seemed much to the point in proving that the 

 words of Joshua might likewise be so interpreted, 

 and the deduction therefrom would be perfectly just ; 

 but they paid no attention to it, and I had nothing 

 but a shrug of the shoulders for the reply ." On the 

 30th of April he was returned to the Palace of 

 the Ambassador of Tuscany, but forbidden to leave 

 the enclosure thereof. On June 25th he was brought 

 again before the congregation of the Inquisition, 

 where his sentence was read to him. He was made 

 to kneel before his judges, his head bowed down and 

 his hand placed upon the Holy Gospels. The fol- 

 lowing words were dictated to him, which he repeated 

 aloud : 



" I, Galileo Galilei, of Florence, aged seventy 

 years, being placed here personally in judgment and 

 kneeling before you, Most Eminent and Most Rev- 

 erend Cardinals of the universal Christian Republic, 

 inquisitors general against heretical malice, having 



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