110 



Our Retrospect. 



should have the logical mind so seldom anywhere found, fitting them to 

 investigate for themselves, to throw aside ridiculous and unsubstantial 

 theories, and consequently to lay out a broad and independent path 

 for new truths. The difficulty surrounding this necessity will be seen 

 when we read in old treatises, mediaeval as well as ancient, the queer 

 remedies given for diseases, surpassing belief, and the quaint supersti- 

 tions about animal charms and transformations, not only credited at the 

 time so implicity as to admit of no questioning, but coming down as 

 a part of the accepted education of the day, until we see that even such 

 men as Bacon were not entirely divested of their influence. And these 

 men should have power to make their investigations freely, and more 

 especially without interruption by the State, which once was accustomed 

 to look upon all knowledge with a jealous eye, as something which was 

 unnecessary for any except a very few, and might easily lead to corrupt- 

 ing license, productive of dangerous theories and thereby antagonistic 

 to the peace of nations, as maintained through an unquestioning ad- 

 hesion to the doctrine of the divine right of kings. And again, even 

 if through some good fortune evil opposition should be restrained, 

 they should have either the sagacity to conciliate or the power to 

 defy the holy offices of the Church, always so alert to detect heresy, 

 constantly so ready to interpret as heresy the faintest whisperings 

 of any new scientific truth, and never in the least scrupulous about 

 crushing the new truth at any extremity of torture to the teacher or 

 of loss to the community. That bar to knowledge and progress was 

 not lightly to be disregarded in the day when Galileo could be sum- 

 moned, with threat of rack and thumbscrew, to recant ; and there 

 must have been found few, if any, who could stand up against such 

 an unpitying power. Galileo probably never uttered his re- attestation 

 of the truth "and yet it moves/' as he went forth from the chamber 

 of the inquisition ; but, if so, it must have been as a whisper into a 

 friendly ear, for we nowhere read that he dared publish his protest in 

 a volume of transactions. And again, even if through some good for- 

 tune these men could surmount all these obstacles, they must learn to 

 live under cruel suspicion and watchful scrutiny, without enjoying the 

 reward of public approbation, their brighest discoveries being mis- 

 interpreted as magic or alchemy,— obliged to remain content, in fact, 

 with laboring simply for their own self-approbation. Even in these 

 days it is difficult successfully to write a treatise, however fully 

 may embody its author's views and speculations and however earnestly 

 it may cry out for production, if when completed it will receive no 

 public approval, and were to be at once destroyed, or if — as would 

 be almost as disastrous — it were destined to be hidden away in some 



