warnings he was summoned to Rome and brought 

 before the Inquisition, accused of having taught that the 

 earth moves round the sun. The poor old man was 

 compelled to kneel on the floor of the court, place his 

 hand on the Bible, and recant, after which he was incar- 

 cerated in the prison of the Inquisition, where, ten years 

 afterwards, he died. Still science progressed, and was 

 considerably aided by the rapid increase in the number 

 of newspapers throughout Europe. In 1631 the French 

 Gazette was established, and, soon after, newspapers 

 appeared in all important cities, much to the discomfi- 

 ture of the Church, whose power was now more seriously 

 imperilled than ever. Confidence was gradually becom- 

 ing established, and Descartes dared, in 1680, to make 

 an attempt to analyse the mind, declaring that the neces- 

 sity of universal doubt was the only starting-point of all 

 true philosophy. He was followed, six years later, by 

 Newton, who published his " Principia," in which he 

 demonstrated the grand truth which has immortalised 

 his name viz., that all bodies attract each other with 

 forces jointly proportionate to their masses, varying 

 universally as the squares of their distances. Thus was 

 established the great law of universal gravitation, which 

 marks an epoch in the intellectual development of man. 

 Owing to the constantly-recurring feuds between the 

 Lutherans, Calvinists, and Catholics, this great discovery 

 passed for a while almost unnoticed ; but it soon became 

 apparent that the final blow had been given to the old 

 theory of divine intervention in the movements of the 

 universe, and that learned men of all countries were 

 rapidly embracing the Newtonian theory of irreversible 

 laws. 



It was, however, now too late for the Church to inter- 

 fere, for all classes were quickly becoming impressed 

 with the grand theory of gravitation, which was destined 

 for ever to remain the most wonderful discovery of man ; 

 and, although the clergy still continued to anathematise 

 all scholars and scientists, the study of nature was 

 pursued with rapidly-increasing enthusiasm, as though 

 to make up for lost time. In 1690 Locke, the physi- 

 cian and philosopher, published his "Essay on the 

 Human Understanding," in which he declared all human 



