GALILEO. 115 



a dream, for it is founded on the motion of the earth, which I now 

 look upon as such. But as poets often learn to prize the creations of 

 their own fancy, so do I in like manner set some value on this absurdity 

 of mine. It is true that when I sketched this little work, I did hope 

 that Copernicus would not, after eighty years, be convicted of error, 

 and I intended to further develop and amplify it; but a voice from 

 heaven suddenly awakened me, and at once annihilated all my confused 

 and entangled fancies." 



In 1624, for the third time Galileo visited Rome. Pope Paul V. was 

 dead, and Cardinal Barberini had just been elected to the pontifical 

 chair, under the title of Urban VIII. Barberini had been himself 

 connected with the Lyncean Academy, and had been on terms of 

 personal friendship with Galileo. He was one of the few cardinals 

 who had opposed the decree of 1616. Galileo was urged by his 

 scientific friends to visit Rome to pay his respects to the new Pope, it 

 is probable, with the view of receiving from Urban some more liberal 

 recognition of the claims of science. Galileo's age and infirmities re- 

 quired him to perform the journey in a litter, so that it is not likely he 

 would have undertaken this expedition merely to tender ceremonial 

 congratulations to the newly-elected Pontiff. Be that as it may, he 

 was received in the most affable and cordial manner by Urban, with 

 whom he had several protracted interviews. He received many pre- 

 sents from the Pope, who also addressed to Ferdinand, the son and 

 snccessor in the Dukedom of Tuscany of Galileo's former patron, 

 a letter, in which he commended the philosopher to that prince's 

 liberality. 



Perhaps the reception which had been accorded to Galileo made 

 him flatter himself that he would experience no further molestation 

 from the ecclesiastical powers ; perhaps the passionate love of truth 

 and hatred of intellectual oppression, which never ceased to animate 

 his heart, impelled him to brave all risks when in 1632 he published 

 his most famous work, under the title, " A Dialogue, by Galileo Galilei, 

 Mathematician Extraordinary of the University of Pisa, and Principal 

 Philosopher of the Most Serene Grand Duke of Tuscany ; in which, 

 in a conversation of four days, are discussed the two principal Systems 

 of the World, the Ptolemaic and the Copernican, indeterminately pro- 

 posing the philosophical arguments as well on one side as on the other." 

 The work opens with an introduction addressed "To the discreet 

 reader," in which the satire on the ecclesiastical decrees was covered 

 by so flimsy a veil that the author himself would appear devoid of that 

 discretion which he ascribes to his reader. " Some years ago," he says, 

 " a salutary edict was promulgated at Rome, which, in order to obviate 

 the perilous scandals of the present age, enjoined an opportune silence 

 on the Pythagorean opinion of the earth's motion. Some were not 

 wanting who rashly asserted that this decree originated, not in a 

 judicious examination, but in ill-informed passion; and complaints 



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