Intervention 

 Introspection 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



356 



exertion of divine power for special pur- 

 poses, stands really in very close relation- 

 ship to the converse notion, that where the 

 operation of natural causes can be clearly 

 traced, there the exertion of divine power 

 and will is rendered less certain and less 

 convincing. This is the idea which lies at 

 the root of Gibbon's famous chapters on the 

 spread of Christianity. He labors to prove 

 that it was due to natural causes. In prov- 

 ing this, he evidently thinks he is disposing 

 of the notion that Christianity spread by 

 divine power, whereas he only succeeds in 

 pointing out some of the means which were 

 employed to effect a divine purpose. 

 ARGYLL Reign of Law, ch. 1, p. 12. (Burt.) 



1 74O. INTOLERANCE OF INFIDEL- 

 ITY Voltaire Denied Existence of Fossils 

 Mingled Ignorance and Inconsistency. 

 Voltaire had used the modern discoveries in 

 physics as one of the numerous weapons of 

 attack and ridicule directed by him against 

 the Scriptures. He found that the most 

 popular systems of geology were accommo- 

 dated to the sacred writings, and that much 

 ingenuity had been employed to make every 

 fact coincide exactly with the Mosaic ac- 

 count of the creation and deluge. It was, 

 therefore, with no friendly feelings that he 

 contemplated the cultivators of geology in 

 general, regarding the science as one which 

 had been successfully enlisted by theologians 

 as an ally in their cause. He knew that the 

 majority of those who were aware of the 

 abundance of fossil shells in the interior of 

 continents were still persuaded that they 

 were proofs of the universal deluge; and as 

 the readiest way of shaking this article of 

 faith, he endeavored to inculcate skepticism 

 as to the real nature of such shells, and to 

 recall from contempt the exploded dogma 

 of the sixteenth century, that they were 

 sports of Nature. He also pretended that 

 vegetable impressions were not those of real 

 plants. Yet he was perfectly convinced that 

 the shells had really belonged to living Tes- 

 tacea, as may be seen in his essay " On the 

 Formation of Mountains." He would some- 

 times, in defiance of all consistency, shift 

 his ground when addressing the vulgar, and, 

 admitting the true nature of the shells col- 

 lected in the Alps and other places, pretend 

 that they were Eastern species, which had 

 fallen from the hats of pilgrims coming 

 from Syria. The numerous essays written 

 by him on geological subjects were all calcu- 

 lated to strengthen prejudices, partly be- 

 cause he was ignorant of the real state of 

 the science, and partly from his bad faith. 

 On the other hand, they who knew that his 

 attacks were directed by a desire to invali- 

 date Scripture, and who were unacquainted 

 with the true merits of the question, might 

 well deem the old diluvian hypothesis incon- 

 trovertible, if Voltaire could adduce no bet- 

 ter argument against it than to deny the 

 true nature of organic remains. LYELL 

 Principles of Geology, bk. i, ch. 4, p. 54. 

 (A., 1854.) 



1741. INTOLERANCE OF PAGANISM 



Science under Ban Underestimate De- 

 nounced as Exaggeration Persecution of 

 Anaxagoras. The astronomers of the school 

 of Pythagoras, who thought they gave a 

 grand idea of the day star by estimating its 

 distance at 72,000 kilometers (44,740 

 miles), and its diameter at 618 kilometers 

 (384 miles), were as far from the reality 

 as an ant who believed itself the size of a 

 horse. And yet to estimate the sun as of 

 the size of the Peloponnesus was then such 

 boldness in the eyes of the classical conser- 

 vatives and the teaching doctors that for 

 having asserted this beginning of truth the 

 philosopher Anaxagoras was outrageously 

 persecuted and condemned to death a sen- 

 tence commuted to a decree of exile, on the 

 petition of Pericles! The trial of Galileo 

 was, later on, a repetition of that of Anax- 

 agoras. FLAMMARION Popular Astronomy, 

 bk. iii, ch. 3, p. 244. (A.) 



1742. INTOLERANCE OF THE 



SCHOOLMEN Discoveries in Anatomy and 

 Physiology Met by Persecution. The more 

 rigid the system, the fewer and the more 

 thorough were the methods to which the 

 healing art was restricted. The more the 

 schools were driven into a corner by the in- 

 crease in actual knowledge, the more did 

 they depend upon the ancient authorities, 

 and the more intolerant were they against 

 innovation. The great reformer of anatomy, 

 Vesalius, was cited before the theological 

 faculty of Salamanca; Servetus was burned 

 at Qeneva along with his book, in which he 

 described the circulation of the lungs; and 

 the Paris faculty prohibited the teaching of 

 Harvey's doctrine of the circulation of the 

 blood in its lecture-rooms. HELMHOLTZ 

 Popular Lectures, lect. 5, p. 210. (L. G. & 

 Co., 1898.) 



1743. INTOLERANCE, PARALYZING 

 EFFECT OF Abdication of Galileo Science 

 under Ban of Church. "Having held and 

 believed that the sun is the center of the 

 universe and immovable, and that the earth 

 is not the center of the same and that it 

 does move, ... I abjure with a sin- 

 cere heart and unfeigned faith, I curse and 

 detest the said errors and heresies and gen- 

 erally all and every error and sect contrary 

 to the Holy Catholic Church," wrote Galileo 

 Galilei, in mortal terror of the Inquisition; 

 that was in 1633. Twenty years before, 

 under the protection of the Grand Duke of 

 Tuscany, he had asserted the heliocentric 

 doctrine, with no worse result than a friend- 

 ly admonition from Cardinal Bellarmine, 

 and he had agreed not to promulgate it fur- 

 ther. But, as the world grew wiser, it 

 smiled at the theological claims to infalli- 

 bility in matters of physics, and at last, in 

 1620, the church itself yielded sufficiently 

 to sanction the discussion of the Coperni- 

 can theory as an hypothesis merely. This 

 gave Galileo a safe opportunity, as he be- 

 lieved, once more publicly to reaffirm hia 

 belief therein. He went too far, and tried 



