144 DISSERTATION SECOND. [pakt i. 



lief of (he Copernican system. The sentence, indeed, ap- 

 pears to have pressed very heavily on Galileo's mind, and 

 he never afterwards either talked or wrote on the subject 

 of astronomy. Such was the triumph of his enemies, on 

 whom ample vengeance would have long ago been execut- 

 ed, if the indignation and contempt of posterity could 

 reach the mansions of the dead. 



Conduct like this, in men professing to be the ministers 

 of religion and the guardians of truth, can give rise to none 

 but the most painful reflections. That an aged philoso- 

 pher should be forced, laying his hand on the sacred 

 Scriptures, to disavow opinions which he could not cease 

 to hold without ceasing to think, was as much a profana- 

 tion of religion, as a violation of truth and justice. Was it 

 the act of hypocrites, who considered religion as a state 

 engine, or of bigots, long trained in the art of believing 

 without evidence, or even in opposition to it ? These 

 questions it were unnecessary to resoUe; but one conclu- 

 sion cannot be denied, that the indiscreet defenders of re- 

 ligion have often proved its worst enemies. 



At length, however, by the improvements, the discove- 

 ries, and the reasonings, first of Kepler, and then of Gali- 

 leo, the evidence of the Copernican system was fully 

 developed, and nothing was wanting to its complete es- 

 tablishment, but time sufficient to allow opinion to come 

 gradually round, and to give men an opportunity of study- 

 ing the arguments placed before them. Of the adherents 

 of the old system, many had been too long habituated to it 

 to change their views ; but as they disappeared from the 

 scene, they were replaced by young astronomers, not under 

 the influence of the same prejudices, and eager to follow 

 doctrines which seemed to offer so many new subjects of 

 investigation. In the next generation the systems of Ptole- 

 my and Tycho had no followers. 



