rable on Monday last, in the house of Signor Frederico Ghisilieri; and what especially pleased me was, that before replying to the contrary arguments, he amplified and enforced them with new grounds of great plausibility, so as to leave his adversaries in a more ridiculous plight when he afterwards overturned them all." SO Among the malicious stories which were put into circulation, it had been said, that the Grand Duke had withdrawn his favour, which emboldened many, who would not otherwise have ventured on such open opposition, to declare against Galileo. His appearance at Rome, where he was lodged in the palace of Cosmo's ambassador, and whence he kept up a close correspondence with the Grand Duke's family, put an immediate stop to rumours of this kind. In little more than a month he was apparently triumphant, so far as regarded himself; but the question now began to be agitated whether the whole system of Copernicus ought not to be condemned as impious and heretical. Galileo again writes to Picchena, far as concerns the clearing of my own character, I might return home immediately; but although this new question regards me no more than all those who for the last eighty years have supported these opinions both in public and private, yet, as perhaps I may be of some assistance in that part of the discussion which depends on the knowledge of truths ascertained by means of the sciences which I profess, I, as a zealous and Catholic Christian, neither can nor ought to withhold that assistance which my knowledge affords; and this business keeps me sufficiently employed." De Lambre, whose readiness to depreciate Galileo's merit we have already noticed and lamented, sneeringly and ungratefully remarks on this part of his life, that "it was scarcely worth while to compromise his tranquillity and reputation, in order to become the champion of a truth which could not fail every day to acquire new partisans by the natural effect of the progress of enlightened opinions." We need not stop to consider what the natural effects might have been if none had at any time been found who thought their tranquillity worthily offered up in such a cause. It has been hinted by several, and is indeed probable, that Galileo's stay at Rome rather injured the cause (so far as provoking the inquisitorial censures could injure it) which it was his earnest desire to serve, for we cannot often enough repeat the assertion, that it was not the doctrine itself, so much as the free, unyielding manner in which it was supported, which was originally obnoxious. Copernicus had been allowed to dedicate his great work to Pope Paul III., and from the time of its first appearance under that sanction in 1543, to the year 1616, of which we are now writing, this theory was left in the hands of mathematicians and philosophers, who alternately attacked and defended it without receiving either support or molestation from ecclesiastical decrees. But this was henceforward no longer the case, and a higher, degree of importance was given to the controversy from the religious heresies which were asserted to be involved in the new opinions. We have already given specimens of the so called philosophical arguments brought against Copernicus; and the reader may be curious to know the form of the theological ones. Those which we select are taken from a work, which indeed did not come forth till the time of Galileo's third visit to Rome, but it is relative to the matter now before us, as it professed to be, and its author's party affected to consider it, a complete refutation of the letters to Castelli and the Archduchess Christina *. It was the work of a Jesuit, Melchior Inchoffer, and it was greatly extolled by his companions, "as differing so entirely from the pruriency of the Pythagorean writings." He quotes with approbation an author who, first referring to the first verse of Genesis for an argument that the earth was not created till after the heavens, observes that the whole question is thus reduced to the examination of this purely geometrical difficulty-In the formation of a sphere, does the centre or circumference first come into existence? If the latter (which we presume Melchior's friend found good reason for deciding upon), the consequence is inevitable. The earth is in the centre of the universe. It may not be unprofitable to contrast the extracts which we have given from Galileo's letters on the same subject with the following passage, which appears one of the most subtle and argumen tative which is to be found in Melchior's book. He professes to be enumerating and refuting the principal arguments which the Copernicans adduced for the motion of the earth. "Fifth argument. Hell is in the centre of the earth, and in it is a fire tormenting the damned; therefore it is absolutely necessary that the earth is moveable. The antecedent is plain." (Inchoffer then quotes a number of texts of Scripture on which, according to him, the Copernicans relied in proof of this part of the argument.) "The consequent is proved: because fire is the cause of motion, for which reason Pythagoras, who, as Aristotle reports, puts the place of punishment in the centre, perceived that the earth is animate and endowed with action. I answer, even allowing that hell is in the centre of the earth, and a fire in it, I deny the consequence and for proof I say, if the argument is worth any thing, it proves also that lime-kilns, ovens, and fire-grates are animated and spontaneously moveable. I say, even allowing that hell is in the centre of the earth: for Gregory, book 4, dial. chap. 42, says, that he dare not decide rashly on this matter, although he thinks more probable the opinion of those who say that it is under the earth. St. Thomas, in Opusc. 10, art. 31, says: Where hell is, whether in the centre of the earth or at the surface, does not in my opinion, relate to any article of faith; and it is superfluous to be solicitous about such things, either in asserting or denying them. And Opusc. 11, art. 24, he says, that it seems to him that nothing should be rashly asserted on this matter, particularly as Augustin thinks that nobody knows where it is; but I do not, says he, think that it is in the centre of the earth. I should be loth, however, that it should be hence inferred by some people that hell is in the earth, that we are ignorant where hell is, and therefore that the situation of the earth is also unknown, and, in conclusion, that it cannot therefore be the centre of the universe. The argument shall be retorted in another fashion: for if the place of the earth is unknown, it cannot be said to be in a great circle, so as to be moved round the sun. Finally I say that in fact it is known where the earth is." It is not impossible that some persons adopted the Copernican theory, from an affectation of singularity and freethinking, without being able to give very sound reasons for their change of opinion, of whom we have an instance in Origanus, the astrological instructor of Wallenstein's famous attendant Seni, who edited his work. His arguments in favour of the earth's motion are quite on a level with those advanced on the opposite side in favour of its immobility; but we have not found any traces whatever of such absurdities as these having been urged by any of the leaders of that party, and it is far more probable that they are the creatures of Melchior's own imagination. At any rate it is worth remarking how completely he disregards the real physical arguments, which he ought, in justice to his cause, to have attempted to controvert. His book was aimed at Galileo and his adherents, and it is scarcely possible that he could seriously persuade himself that he was stating and overturning arguments similar to those by which Galileo had made so many converts to the opinions of Copernicus. Whatever may be our judgment of his candour, we may at least feel assured that if this had indeed been a fair specimen of Galileo's philosophy, he might to the end of his life have taught that the earth moved round the sun, or if his fancy led him to a different hypothesis, he might like the Abbé Baliani have sent the earth spinning round the stationary moon, and like him have remained unmolested by pontifical censures. It is true that Baliani owned his opinion to be much shaken, on observing it to be opposed to the decree of those in whose hands was placed the power of judging articles of faith. But Galileo's uncompromising spirit of analytical investigation, and the sober but invincible force of reasoning with which he beat down every sophism opposed to him, the instruments with which he worked, were more odious than the work itself, and the condemnation which he had vainly hoped to avert was probably on his very account accelerated. Galileo, according to his own story, had in March 1616 a most gracious audience of the pope, Paul V., which lasted for nearly an hour, at the end of which his holiness assured him, that the Congregation were no longer in a humour to listen lightly to calumnies against him, and that so long as he occupied the papal chair, Galileo might think himself out of all danger. But nevertheless he was not allowed to return home, without receiving formal notice not to teach the opinions of Co E pernicus, that the sun is in the centre of the system, and that the earth moves about it, from that time forward, in any manner. * That these were the literal orders given to Galileo will be presently proved from the recital of them in the famous decree against him, seventeen years later. For the present, his letters which we have mentioned, as well as one of a similar tendency by Foscarini, a Carmelite friar-a commentary on the book of Joshua by a Spaniard named Diego Zuniga-Kepler's Epitome of the Copernican Theory-and Copernicus's own work, were inserted in the list of forbidden books, nor was it till four years afterwards, in 1620, that, on reconsideration, Copernicus was allowed to be read with certain omissions and alterations then decided upon. Galileo quitted Rome scarcely able to conceal his contempt and indignation. Two years afterwards this spirit had but little subsided, for in forwarding to the Archduke Leopold his Theory of the Tides, he accompanied it with the following remarks:- This theory occurred to me when in Rome, whilst the theologians were debating on the prohibition of Copernicus's book, and of the opinion maintained in it of the motion of the earth, which I at that time believed; until it pleased those gentlemen to suspend the book, and declare the opinion false and repugnant to the Holy Scriptures. Now, as I know how well it becomes me to obey and believe the decisions of my superiors, which proceed out of more profound knowledge than the weakness of my intellect can attain to, this theory which I send you, which is founded on the motion of the earth, I now look upon as a fiction and a dream, and beg your highness to receive it as such. But, as poets often learn to prize the creations of their fancy, so, in like manner, do I set some value on this absurdity of mine. It is true that when I sketched this little work, I did hope that Copernicus would not, after 80 years, be convicted of error, and I had intended to develope and amplify it farther, but a voice from heaven suddenly awakened me, and at once annihilated all my confused and entangled fancies." It might have been predicted, from the tone of this letter alone, that it would not be long before Galileo would again bring himself under the censuring notice of the astronomical hierarchy, and indeed he had, so early as 1610, collected some of the materials for the work which caused the final explosion, and on which he now employed himself with as little intermission as the weak state of his health permitted. He had been before this time engaged in a correspondence with the court of Spain, on the method of observing longitudes at sea, for the solution of which important problem Philip III. had offered a considerable reward, an example which has since been followed in our own and other countries. Galileo had no sooner discovered Jupiter's satellites, than he recognized the use which might be made of them for that purpose, and devoted himself with peculiar assiduity to acquiring as perfect a knowledge as possible of their revolutions. The reader will easily understand how they were to be used, if their motion could be so well ascertained as to enable Galileo at Florence to predict the exact times at which any remarkable configurations would occur, as, for instance, the times at which any one of them would be eclipsed by Jupiter. A mariner who in the middle of the Atlantic should observe the same eclipse, and compare the time of night at which he made the observation (which he might know by setting his watch by the sun on the preceding day) with the time mentioned in the predictions, would, from the difference between the two, learn the difference between the hour at Florence and the hour at the place where the ship at that time happened to be. As the earth turns uniformly round through 360° of longitude in 24 hours, that is, through 150 in each hour, the hours, minutes, and seconds of time which express this difference must be multiplied by 15, and the respective products will give the degrees, minutes, and seconds of longitude, by which the ship was then distant from Florence. This statement is merely intended to give those who are unacquainted with astronomy, a general idea of the manner in which it was proposed to use these satellites. Our moon had already been occasionally employed in the same way, but the comparative frequency of the eclipses of Jupiter's moons, and the suddenness with which they disappear, gives a decided advantage to the new method. Both methods were embarrassed by the difficulty of observing the eclipses at sea. In addition to this, it was requisite, in both methods, that the sailors should be provided with accurate means of knowing the hour, wherever they might chance to be, which was far from being the case, for although (in order not to interrupt the explanation) we have above spoken of their watches, yet the watches and clocks of that day were not such as could be relied on sufficiently, during the interval which must necessarily occur between the two observations. This consideration led Galileo to reflect on the use which might be made of his pendulum for this purpose; and, with respect to the other difficulty, he contrived a peculiar kind of telescope, with which he flattered himself, somewhat prematurely, that it would be as easy to observe on ship-board as on shore. During his stay at Rome, in 1615, and the following year, he disclosed some of these ideas to the Conte di Lemos, the viceroy of Naples, who had been president of the council of the Spanish Indies, and was fully aware of the importance of the matter. Galileo was in consequence invited to communicate directly with the Duke of Lerma, the Spanish minister, and instructions were accordingly sent by Cosmo, to the Conte Orso d'Elci, his ambassador at Madrid, to conduct the business there. Galileo entered warmly into the design, of which he had no other means of verifying the practicability; for as he says in one of his letters to Spain-"Your excellency may well believe that if this were an undertaking which I could conclude by myself, I would never have gone about begging favours from others; but in my study there are neither seas, nor Indies, nor islands, nor ports, nor shoals, nor ships, for which reason I am compelled to share the enterprise with great personages, and to fatigue myself to procure the acceptance of that, which ought with eagerness to be asked of me; but I console myself with the reflection that I am not singular in this, but that it commonly happens, with the exception of a little reputation, and that too often obscured and blackened by envy, that the least part of the advantage falls to the share of the inventors of things, which afterwards bring great gain, honours, and riches to others; so that I will never cease on my part to do every thing in my power, and I am ready to leave here all my comforts, my country, my friends, and family, and to cross over into Spain, to stay as long as I may be wanted in Seville, or Lisbon, or wherever it may be convenient, to implant the knowledge of this method, provided that due assistance and diligence be not wanting on the part of those who are to receive it, and who should solicit and foster it." But he could not, with all his enthusiasm, rouse the attention of the Spanish court. The negotiation languished, and although occasionally renewed during the next ten or twelve years, was never brought to a satisfactory issue. Some explanation of this otherwise unaccountable apathy of the Spanish court, with regard to the solution of a problem which they had certainly much at heart, is given in Nelli's life of Galileo; where it is asserted, on the authority of the Florentine records, that Cosmo required privately from Spain, (in return for the permission granted for Galileo to leave Florence, in pursuance of this design,) the privilege of sending every year from Leghorn two merchantmen, duty free, to the Spanish Indies. CHAPTER XII. Controversy on Comets-SaggiatoreGalileo's reception by Urban VIII— His family. THE year 1618 was remarkable for the appearance of three comets, on which almost every astronomer in Europe found something to say and write. Galileo published some of his opinions with respect to them, through the medium of Mario Guiducci. This astronomer delivered a lecture before the Florentine academy, the heads of which he was supposed to have received from Galileo, who, during the whole time of the appearance of these comets, was confined to his bed by severe illness. This essay was printed in Florence at the sign of The Medicean Stars.* What principally deserves notice in it, is the opinion of Galileo, that the distance of a comet cannot be safely determined by its parallax, from which we learn that he inclined to believe that comets are nothing but meteors occasionally appearing in the atmosphere, like rainbows, parhelia, and similar phenomena. He points out the difference in this respect between a fixed object, the distance of which may be calculated from the difference of direction in which two observers (at a known distance from each other) are obliged to turn themselves in order to see it, and meteors like the rainbow, which are simultaneously formed in different drops of water for each spectator, so that two In Firenze nella Stamperia di Pietro Cecconcelli alle stelle Medicee, 1619. observers in different places are in fact contemplating different objects. He then warns astronomers not to engage with too much warmth in a discussion on the distance of comets before they assure themselves to which of these two classes of phenomena they are to be referred. The remark is in itself perfectly just, although the opinion which occasioned it is now as certainly known to be erroneous, but it is questionable whether the observations which, up to that time, had been made upon comets, were sufficient, either in number or quality, to justify the censure which has been cast on Galileo for his opinion. The theory, moreover, is merely introduced as an hypothesis in Guiducci's essay. The same opinion was for a short time embraced by Cassini, a celebrated Italian astronomer, invited by Louis XIV. to the Observatory at Paris, when the science was considerably more advanced, and Newton, in his Principia, did not think it unworthy of him to show on what grounds it is untenable. Galileo was become the object of animosity in so many quarters that none of his published opinions, whether correct or incorrect, ever wanted a ready antagonist. The champion on the present occasion was again a Jesuit; his name was Oratio Grassi, who published The Astronomical and Philosophical Balance, under the disguised signature of Lotario Sarsi. Galileo and his friends were anxious that his reply to Grassi should appear as quickly as possible, but his health had become so precarious and his frequent illnesses occasioned so many interruptions, that it was not until the autumn of 1623 that Il Saggiatore (or The Assayer) as he called his answer, was ready for publication. This was printed by the Lyncean Academy, and as Cardinal Maffeo Barberino, who had just been elected Pope, (with the title of Urban VIII.) had been closely connected with that society, and was also a personal friend of Cesi and of Galileo, it was thought a prudent precaution to dedicate the pamphlet to him. This essay enjoys a peculiar reputation among Galileo's works, not only for the matter contained in it, but also for the style in which it is written; insomuch that Andrès, when eulogizing Galileo as one of the earliest who adorned philosophical truths with the graces and ornaments of language, expressly instances the Saggia * Dell' Origine d'ogni Literatura : Parma, 1787. tore, which is also quoted by Frisi and Algarotti, as a perfect model of this sort of composition. In the latter particular, it is unsafe to interfere with the decisions of an Italian critic; but with respect to its substance, this famous composition scarcely appears to deserve its preeminent reputation. It is a prolix and rather tedious examination of Grassi's Essay; nor do the arguments seem so satisfactory, nor the reasonings so compact as is generally the case in Galileo's other writings. It does however, like all his other works, contain many very remarkable passages, and the celebrity of this production requires that we should extract one or two of the most characteristic. The first, though a very short one, will serve to shew the tone which Galileo had taken with respect to the Copernican system since its condemnation at Rome, in 1616. "In conclusion, since the motion attributed to the earth, which I, as a pious and Catholic person, consider most false, and not to exist, accommodates itself so well to explain so many and such different phenomena, I shall not feel sure, unless Sarsi descends to more distinct considerations than those which he has yet produced, that, false as it is, it may not just as deludingly correspond with the phenomena of comets." 66 Sarsi had quoted a story from Suidas in support of his argument that motion always produces heat, how the Babylonians used to cook their eggs by whirling them in a sling; to which Galileo replies: "I cannot refrain from marvelling that Sarsi will persist in proving to me, by authorities, that which at any moment I can bring to the test of experiment. We examine witnesses in things which are doubtful, past, and not permanent, but not in those things which are done in our own presence. If discussing a difficult problem were like carrying a weight, since several horses will carry more sacks of corn than one alone will, I would agree that many reasoners avail more than one; but discoursing is like coursing, and not like carrying, and one barb by himself will run farther than a hundred Friesland horses. When Sarsi brings up such a multitude of authors, it does not seem to me that he in the least degree strengthens his own conclusions, but he ennobles the cause of Signor Mario and myself, by shewing that we reason better than many men of established reputation. If Sarsi insists that I believe, |