88 THE NEW METHOD 



If we would but learn the laws of the world's prog- 

 ress in civilization, and qualify ourselves to distin- 

 guish between truth and error, we might save our- 

 selves from that self-defeat which marks, not only 

 the present, but all past ages. Great truths have 

 been smothered for centuries after they were first 

 announced, and their discoverers persecuted instead 

 of cherished for their manly defence of them. Bruno, 

 the Italian astronomer, was chased through France, 

 England, Germany and Switzerland, for teaching 

 that the sun and some of the planets are as large as 

 the earth. At last he was arrested, taken to Rome, 

 and burnt at the stake in the year 1600. Galileo 

 would have met the same fate for teaching that the 

 earth revolves around the sun, had he not, on his 

 knees, retracted all he had taught, and promised to 

 desist from farther teaching. Sixteen years later he 

 published a book on the motions, size and distances 

 of the heavenly bodies, and was again seized and com- 

 pelled to abjure the doctrine it taught as false and 

 pernicious. He was then cast into prison, where he 

 died after ten years of most cruel treatment, and he 

 was denied a decent burial. Thus perished the most 

 illustrious and devoted scholar of the age, because 

 his teaching was not in harmony with existing tradi- 

 tional authority. These illustrations show the atti- 



