Mat 11, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



443 



It is the twentieth day of June in the year 1320. 

 The bells of Verona are ringing in the bright Sab- 

 bath morning and the crowd is saluting with re- 

 spect a tall and serious figure — the great Dante — 

 who with slightly bowed head is entering the 

 chapel of Santa Helena. Dante has to-day in- 

 vited the whole educated world of Verona to as- 

 semble in this chapel and listen to his discourse 

 entitled "De acqua et terra." He proposes to 

 discuss the relative position of land and sea, and 

 as he tells us himself, every one came at his bid- 

 ding, "with the exception of a few, who feared 

 by their presence to confirm the exceptional im- 

 portance of others." . . . 



"With a gift for picture-writing never before 

 equaled he has led his astounded contemporaries 

 up to the abode of the saints and down into the 

 depths of the lower world. Now to-day he is re- 

 turning to the starting-point of his most powerful 

 creation, to the critical examination of that which 

 is greater than all the conceptions of poetry — the 

 actual ordering of the tmiverse. 



Dante argued cogently for the spherical 

 form of both the earth and the seas, and in 

 accounting for the elevation of the land 

 areas above the oceans, he even offered an 

 early hint of the law of gravitation. The 

 earth, he argued, can not elevate itself ; nor 

 can the cause be water, fire or air. He 

 therefore siiggested that the fixed stars 

 might exercise this influence "after the 

 manner of magnets." 



The new era which opened with the re- 

 vival of learning after a thousand years of 

 stagnation, was one dominated by new con- 

 siderations within the realm of thought. 

 The keynote of the period was the domi- 

 nating influence of the Christian church, 

 and for centuries all thinkers were required 

 to make their expressions conform to the 

 dogmas of the church of Rome. The eman- 

 cipation supposed to have arrived with 

 the Protestant Reformation was a partial 

 one only, and complete freedom of thought 

 was not seevired until the modern period of 

 science was ushered in in the latter half of 

 the nineteenth century. 



Living as we do when few obstacles are 

 opposed to a full and free expression, it will 



be profitable to review by means of ex- 

 amples the position of science in the six- 

 teenth and seventeenth centuries. In de- 

 claring his belief in the heliocentric theory 

 of the planets which Copernicus had pro- 

 mulgated, Galileo in 1597 wrote cautiously 

 to the Polish astronomer : 



It explains to me the cause of many phenomena 

 which according to the generally accepted view are 

 entirely incomprehensible. I have assembled many 

 arguments for combatting the latter, but I do not 

 dare to bring them into the light of publication. 

 I would certainly risk it if there were more men 

 like you. 



With the telescope which he invented 

 Galileo nightly studied the heavens from 

 his little tower in the outskirts of Florence, 

 and to his friend he unburdened his soul in 

 unbounded admiration for the works of his 

 Creator. He writes : 



The prohibition of science would be contrary to 

 the Bible, which in hundreds of places teaches us 

 how the greatness and the glory of God shine 

 forth marvelously in all His works, and is to be 

 read above all in the open book of the heavens. 

 And let no one believe that the reading of the most 

 exalted thoughts which are inscribed upon these 

 pages is to be accomplished through merely star- 

 ing up at the radiance of the stars. There are 

 such profound secrets and such lofty conceptions 

 that the night labors and the researches of hun- 

 dreds and yet hundreds of the keenest minds, in 

 investigations extending over thousands of years 

 would not penetrate them, and the delight of the 

 searching and finding endures forever. 



From this revelation of intellectual ex- 

 altation in one of the greatest apostles of 

 science of all time, it is necessary to turn 

 to a far different scene staged in one of the 

 dark chambers of the Inquisition, if we 

 would correctly interpret the spirit of his 

 age. Bowed with years and racked by the 

 cruel torture, Galileo is seen kneeling be- 

 fore the crucifix and repeating in broken 

 sentences the dictation of his persecutors: 



I bow my knee before the Honorable General 

 Inquisitors, and touching the holy gospels I do 

 promise that I believe and in future always will be- 

 lieve whatever the church holds and teaches for 



