142 DISSERTATION SECOND. [paiiti. 



or their repose. The church itself was roused to action, 

 by reflecting that it bad staked the infallibility of its judg- 

 ments on the truth of the very opinions which were now in 

 danger of being overthrown. Thus was formed a vast 

 combination of men, not very scrupulous about the means 

 which they used to annoy their adversaries ; the power 

 was entirely in their hands, and there was nothing but 

 truth and reason to be opposed to it. 



The system of Copernicus, however, while it remained 

 obscure, and known only to astronomers, created no alarm 

 in the church. It had even been ushered into the world 

 at the solicitation of a cardinal, and under the patronage of 

 the Pope ; but when it became more popular, when the 

 ability and acuteness of Galileo were enlisted on its side, 

 the consequences became alarming ; and it was determined 

 to silence by force an adversary who could not be put 

 down by argument. His dialogues contained a full exposi- 

 tion of the evidence of the earth's motion, and set forth 

 the errours of the old, as well as the discoveries of the 

 new philosophy, with great force of reasoning, and with the 

 charms of the most lively eloquence. They are written, 

 indeed, with such singular felicity, that one reads them at 

 the present day, when the truths contained in them are 

 known and admitted, with all the delight of novelty, 

 and feels one's self carried back to the period when the 

 telescope was first directed to the heavens, and when the 

 earth's motion, with all its train of consequences, was 

 proved for the first time. The author of such a work 

 could not be forgiven. Galileo, accordingly, was twice 

 brought before the Inquisition. The first time a council 

 of seven cardinals pronounced a sentence which, for the 

 sake of those disposed to believe that power can subdue 

 truth, ought never to be forgotten : " That to maintain the 

 sun to be immovable, and without local motion, in the 



