1 6 The Destiny of Man. 



that the Church should persecute such 

 men as Galileo and Bruno. At the same 

 time it is instructive to observe that, while 

 the Copernican astronomy has become 

 firmly established in spite of priestly op- 

 position, the foundations of Christian the- 

 ology have not been shaken thereby. It 

 is not that the question which once so 

 sorely puzzled men has ever been settled, 

 but that it has been outgrown. The spec- 

 ulative necessity for man's occupying the 

 largest and most central spot in the uni- 

 verse is no longer felt. It is recognized as 

 a primitive and childish notion. With our 

 larger knowledge we see that these vast 

 and fiery suns are after all but the Titan- 

 like servants of the little planets which 

 they bear with them in their flight through 

 the abysses of space. Out from the awful 

 gaseous turmoil of the central mass dart 

 those ceaseless waves of gentle radiance 

 that, when caught upon the surface of 

 whirling worlds like ours, bring forth the 

 endlessly varied forms and the endlessly 



