464 NOTES TO BOOK V. 



historians admire as subtle irony, while others blame it 

 as insincerity. But I do not see with what propriety 

 Galileo can be looked upon as a "martyr of science." 

 Undoubtedly he was very desirous of promoting what he 

 conceived to be the cause of philosophical truth ; but it 

 would seem that, while he was restless and eager in urging 

 his opinions, he was always ready to make such submis- 

 sions as the spiritual tribunals required. He would really 

 have acted as a martyr, if he had uttered his " e pur si 

 muove," in the place of his abjuration, not after it. But 

 in this case he would have been a martyr to a cause of 

 which the merit was of a mingled character ; for his own 

 special and favourite share in the reasonings by which the 

 Copernican system was supported, was the argument drawn 

 from the flux and reflux of the sea, which argument is 

 altogether false. He considered this as supplying a me- 

 chanical ground of belief, without which the mere astrono- 

 mical reasons were quite insufficient ; but in this case he 

 was deserted by the mechanical sagacity which appeared 

 in his other speculations. 



(R.) p. 400. Throughout the course of the proceed- 

 ings against him, Galileo was treated with great courtesy 

 and indulgence. He was condemned to a nominal impri- 

 sonment. " Te damnamus ad formalem carcerem hujus 

 S. officii ad tempus arbitrio nostro limitandum ; et titulo^ 

 poanitentia salutaris prsecipimus ut tribus annis futuris 

 recites semel in hebdomada septem psalmos penitentiales." 

 But this confinement was reduced to his being placed 

 under some slight restrictions, first at the house of Nico- 

 lini, the ambassador of his own sovereign, and afterwards 

 at the country seat of Archbishop Piccolomini, one of his 

 own warmest friends. 



