CHAPTER VIII.

THE EUROPEAN AGE OF REASON.

REJECTION OF AUTHORITY AND TRADITION, AND ADOPTION OF SCIENTIFIC

TRUTH.--DISCOVERY OF THE TRUE POSITION OF THE EARTH IN THE UNIVERSE.

_Ecclesiastical Attempt to enforce the_ GEOCENTRIC DOCTRINE _that the

Earth is the Centre of the Universe, and the most important Body in it._

_The_ HELIOCENTRIC DOCTRINE _that the Sun is the Centre of the Solar

System, and the Earth a small Planet, comes gradually into Prominence._

_Struggle between the Ecclesiastical and Astronomical Parties.--Activity

of the Inquisition.--Burning of_ BRUNO.--_Imprisonment of_ GALILEO.

INVENTION OF THE TELESCOPE.--_Complete Overthrow of the Ecclesiastical

Idea.--Rise of Physical Astronomy._--NEWTON.--_Rapid and resistless

Development of all Branches of Natural Philosophy._

_Final Establishment of the Doctrine that the Universe is under the

Dominion of mathematical, and, therefore, necessary Laws._

_Progress of Man from the Anthropocentric Ideas to the Discovery of his

true Position and Insignificance in the Universe._

[Sidenote: An astronomical problem.] The Age of Reason in Europe was

ushered in by an astronomical controversy.

Is the earth the greatest and most noble body in the universe, around

which, as an immovable centre, the sun, and the various planets, and

stars revolve, ministering by their light and other qualities to the

wants and pleasures of man, or is it an insignificant orb--a mere

point--submissively revolving, among a crowd of compeers and superiors,

around a central sun? The former of these views was authoritatively

asserted by the Church; the latter, timidly suggested by a few

thoughtful and religious men at first, in the end gathered strength, and

carried the day.

[Sidenote: Its important consequences.] Behind this physical question--a

mere scientific problem--lay something of the utmost importance--the

position of man in the universe. The conflict broke out upon an

ostensible issue, but every one saw what was the real point in the

dispute.

[Sidenote: Treatment of the Age of Reason.] In the history of the Age of

Reason in Europe, which is to fill the remaining pages of this book, I

am constrained to commence with this astronomical controversy, and have

therefore been led by that circumstance to complete the survey of the

entire period from the same, that is, the scientific point of view. Many

different modes of treating it spontaneously present themselves; but so

vast are the subjects to be brought under consideration, so numerous

their connexions, and so limited the space at my disposal, that I must

give the preference to one which, with sufficient copiousness, offers

also precision. Whoever will examine the progress of European

intellectual advancement thus far manifested will find that it has

concerned itself with three great questions: 1. The ascertainment of the

position of the earth in the universe; 2. The history of the earth in

time; 3. The position of man among living beings. Under this last is

ranged all that he has done in scientific discovery, and all those

inventions which are the characteristics of the present industrial age.

What am I? Where am I? we may imagine to have been the first

exclamations of the first man awakening to conscious existence. Here, in

our Age of Reason, we have been dealing with the same thoughts. They are

the same which, as we have seen, occupied Greek intellectual life.

[Sidenote: Roman astronomical ideas.] When Halley's comet appeared in

1456, it was described by those who saw it as an object of "unheard-of

magnitude;" its tail, which shook down "diseases, pestilence, and war"

upon earth, reached over a third part of the heavens. It was considered

as connected with the progress of Mohammed II., who had just then taken

Constantinople. It struck terror into all people. From his seat,

invisible to it, in Italy, the sovereign pontiff, Calixtus III., issued

his ecclesiastical fulminations; but the comet in the heavens, like the

sultan on the earth, pursued its course undeterred. In vain were all the

bells in Europe ordered to be rung to scare it away; in vain was it

anathematized; in vain were prayers put up in all directions to stop it.

True to its time, it punctually returns from the abysses of space,

uninfluenced by anything save agencies of a material kind. A signal

lesson for the meditations of every religious man.

[Sidenote: More correct ideas among some of the clergy.] Among the

clergy there were, however, some who had more correct cosmic ideas than

those of Calixtus. A century before Copernicus, Cardinal de Cusa had

partially adopted the heliocentric theory, as taught in the old times by

Philolaus, Pythagoras, and Archimedes. He ascribed to the earth a

globular form, rotation on its axis, and a movement in space; he

believed that it moves round the sun, and both together round the pole

of the universe.

[Sidenote: The geocentric and heliocentric theories.] By geocentric

theory is meant that doctrine which asserts the earth to be the

immovable centre of the universe; by heliocentric theory that which

demonstrates the sun to be the centre of our planetary system, implying,

as a necessary influence, that the earth is a very small and subordinate

body revolving round the sun.

[Sidenote: The geocentric doctrine adopted by the Church.] I have

already, in sufficient detail, described how the Roman Church had been

constrained by her position to uphold the geocentric doctrine. She had

come to regard it as absolutely essential to her system, the

intellectual basis of which she held would be sapped if this doctrine

should be undermined. Hence it was that such an alarm was shown at the

assertion of the globular form of the earth, and hence the surpassing

importance of the successful voyage of Magellan's ship. That

indisputable demonstration of the globular figure was ever a solid

support to the scientific party in the portentous approaching conflict.

[Sidenote: Preparations for the heliocentric doctrine.] Preparations had

been silently making for a scientific revolution in various directions.

The five memoirs of Cardinal Alliacus "On the Concordance of Astronomy

with Theology," show the turn that thought was taking. His "Imago Mundi"

was published in 1460, and is said to have been a favourite work with

Columbus. In the very Cathedral of Florence, Toscanelli had constructed

his celebrated gnomon, 1468, a sun-ray, auspicious omen! being admitted

through a plate of brass in the lantern of the cupola. John Muller,

better known as Regiomontanus, had published an abridgment of Ptolemy's

"Almagest," 1520. Euclid had been printed with diagrams on copper as

long before as 1482, and again in Venice twenty-three years

subsequently. The Optics of Vitello had been published 1533. Fernel,

physician to Henry II. of France, had even ventured so far, supported by

Magellan's voyage, as to measure, 1527, the size of the earth, his

method being to observe the height of the pole at Paris, then to proceed

northward until its elevation was increased exactly one degree, and to

ascertain the distance between the stations by the number of revolutions

of his carriage wheel. He concluded that it is 24,480 Italian miles

round the globe. The last attempt of the kind had been that of the

Khalif Almaimon seven hundred years previously on the shore of the Red

Sea, and with nearly the same result. The mathematical sciences were

undergoing rapid advancement. Rhaeticus had published his trigonometrical

tables; Cardan, Tartaglia, Scipio Ferreo, and Stefel were greatly

improving algebra.

[Sidenote: Copernicus, the works of.] The first formal assertion of the

heliocentric theory was made in a timid manner, strikingly illustrative

of the expected opposition. It was by Copernicus, a Prussian, speaking

of the revolutions of the heavenly bodies; the year was about 1536. In

his preface, addressed to Pope Paul III., whether written by himself,

or, as some have affirmed, for him by Andreas Osiander, he complains of

the imperfections of the existing system, states that he has sought

among ancient writers for a better way, and so had learned the

heliocentric doctrine. "Then I too began to meditate on the motion of

the earth, and, though it appeared an absurd opinion, yet since I knew

that in previous times others had been allowed the privilege of feigning

what circles they chose in order to explain the phenomena, I conceived

that I might take the liberty of trying whether, on the supposition of

the earth's motion, it was possible to find better explanations than the

ancient ones of the revolutions of the celestial orbs."

"Having, then, assumed the motions of the earth, which are hereafter

explained, by laborious and long observation I at length found that, if

the motions of the other planets be compared with the revolution of the

earth, not only their phenomena follow from the suppositions, but also

that the several orbs and the whole system are so connected in order and

magnitude that no one point can be transposed without disturbing the

rest, and introducing confusion into the whole universe."

[Sidenote: Introduction of his system.] The apologetic air with which he

thus introduces his doctrine is again remarked in his statement that he

had kept his book for thirty-six years, and only now published it at the

entreaty of Cardinal Schomberg. The cardinal had begged of him a

manuscript copy. "Though I know that the thoughts of a philosopher do

not depend on the judgment of the many, his study being to seek out

truth in all things as far as is permitted by God to human reason, yet,

when I considered how absurd my doctrine would appear, I long hesitated

whether I should publish my book, or whether it were not better to

follow the example of the Pythagoreans and others, who delivered their

doctrine only by tradition and to friends." [Sidenote: He fears being

accused of heresy.] He concludes: "If there be vain babblers who,

knowing nothing of mathematics, yet assume the right of judging on

account of some place of Scripture perversely wrested to their purpose,

and who blame and attack my undertaking, I heed them not, and look upon

their judgments as rash and contemptible."

Copernicus clearly recognized not only the relative position of the

earth, but also her relative magnitude. He says the magnitude of the

world is so great that the distance of the earth from the sun has no

apparent magnitude when compared with the sphere of the fixed stars.

[Sidenote: Early correction of the Copernican theory.] To the earth

Copernicus attributed a triple motion--a daily rotation on her axis, an

annual motion round the sun, a motion of declination of the axis. The

latter seemed to be necessary to account for the constant direction of

the pole; but as this was soon found to be a misconception, the theory

was relieved of it. With this correction, the doctrine of Copernicus

presents a clear and great advance, though in the state in which he

offered it he was obliged to retain the mechanism of epicycles and

eccentrics, because he considered the planetary motions to be circular.

It was the notion that, since the circle is the most simple of all

geometrical forms, it must therefore be the most natural, which led to

this imperfection. His work was published in 1543. He died a few days

after he had seen a copy.

Against the opposition it had to encounter, the heliocentric theory made

its way slowly at first. Among those who did adopt it were some whose

connexion served rather to retard its progress, because of the ultraism

of their views, or the doubtfulness of their social position. [Sidenote:

Giordano Bruno of Nola.] Such was Bruno, who contributed largely to its

introduction into England, and who was the author of a work on the

Plurality of Worlds, and of the conception that every star is a sun,

having opaque planets revolving round it--a conception to which the

Copernican system suggestively leads. Bruno was born seven years after

the death of Copernicus. He became a Dominican, but, like so many other

thoughtful men of the times, was led into heresy on the doctrine of

transubstantiation. Not concealing his opinions, he was persecuted,

fled, and led a vagabond life in foreign countries, testifying that

wherever he went he found scepticism under the polish of hypocrisy, and

that he fought not against the belief of men, but against their

pretended belief. [Sidenote: He teaches the heliocentric theory,] For

teaching the rotation of the earth he had to flee to Switzerland, and

thence to England, where, at Oxford, he gave lectures on cosmology.

Driven from England, France, and Germany in succession, he ventured in

his extremity to return to Italy, and was arrested in Venice, where he

was kept in prison in the Piombi for six years without books, or paper,

or friends. Meantime the Inquisition demanded him as having written

heretical works. He was therefore surrendered to Rome, and, after a

farther imprisonment of two years, tried, excommunicated, and delivered

over to the secular authorities, to be punished "as mercifully as

possible, and without the shedding of his blood," the abominable formula

for burning a man alive. He had collected all the observations that had

been made respecting the new star in Cassiopeia, 1572; he had taught

that space is infinite, and that it is filled with self-luminous and

opaque worlds, many of them inhabited--this being his capital offence.

He believed that the world is animated by an intelligent soul, the cause

of forms but not of matter; that it lives in all things, even such as

seem not to live; that every thing is ready to become organized; that

matter is the mother of forms and then their grave; that matter and the

soul of the world together constitute God. His ideas were therefore

pantheistic, "Est Deus in nobis." In his "Cena de le Cenere" he insists

that the Scripture was not intended to teach science, but morals only.

The severity with which he was treated was provoked by his asseverations

that he was struggling with an orthodoxy that had neither morality nor

belief. This was the aim of his work entitled "The triumphant Beast."

[Sidenote: and is burnt alive as a heretic.] He was burnt at Rome,

February 16, 1600. With both a present and prophetic truth, he nobly

responded, when the atrocious sentence was passed upon him, "Perhaps it

is with greater fear that ye pass this sentence upon me than I receive

it." His tormentors jocosely observed, as the flames shut him out

forever from view, that he had gone to the imaginary worlds he had so

wickedly feigned.

This vigorous but spasmodic determination of the Church to defend

herself was not without effect. It enabled her to hold fast the timid,

the time-servers, the superficial. [Sidenote: Lord Bacon. Rejects the

Copernican doctrine.] Among such may be mentioned Lord Bacon, who never

received the Copernican system. With the audacity of ignorance, he

presumed to criticize what he did not understand, and, with a superb

conceit, disparaged the great Copernicus. He says, "In the system of

Copernicus there are many and grave difficulties; for the threefold

motion with which he encumbers the earth is a serious inconvenience, and

the separation of the sun from the planets, with which he has so many

affections in common, is likewise a harsh step; and the introduction of

so many immovable bodies in nature, as when he makes the sun and stars

immovable, the bodies which are peculiarly lucid and radiant, and his

making the moon adhere to the earth in a sort of epicycle, and some

other things which he assumes, are proceedings which mark a man who

thinks nothing of introducing fictions of any kind into nature, provided

his calculations turn out well." The more closely we examine the

writings of Lord Bacon, the more unworthy does he seem to have been of

the great reputation which has been awarded to him. The popular delusion

to which he owes so much originated at a time when the history of

science was unknown. They who first brought him into notice knew nothing

of the old school of Alexandria. This boasted founder of a new

philosophy could not comprehend, and would not accept, the greatest of

all scientific doctrines when it was plainly set before his eyes.

It has been represented that the invention of the true method of

physical science was an amusement of Bacon's hours of relaxation from

the more laborious studies of law and duties of a court. His chief

admirers have been persons of a literary turn, who have an idea that

scientific discoveries are accomplished by a mechanico-mental operation.

[Sidenote: The practical uselessness of his philosophy.] Bacon never

produced any great practical result himself, no great physicist has ever

made any use of his method. He has had the same to do with the

development of modern science that the inventor of the orrery has had to

do with the discovery of the mechanism of the world. Of all the

important physical discoveries, there is not one which shows that its

author made it by the Baconian instrument. Newton never seems to have

been aware that he was under any obligation to Bacon. Archimedes, and

the Alexandrians, and the Arabians, and Leonardo da Vinci did very well

before he was born; the discovery of America by Columbus and the

circumnavigation by Magellan can hardly be attributed to him, yet they

were the consequences of a truly philosophical reasoning. But the

investigation of nature is an affair of genius, not of rules. No man can

invent an organon for writing tragedies and Epic poems. Bacon's system

is, in it own terms, an idol of the theatre. It would scarcely guide a

man to a solution of the riddle of Aelia Laelia Crispis, or to that of the

charade of Sir Hilary.

[Sidenote: His scientific errors.] Few scientific pretenders have made

more mistakes than Lord Bacon. He rejected the Copernican system, and

spoke insolently of its great author; he undertook to criticise

adversely Gilbert's treatise "De Magnete;" he was occupied in the

condemnation of any investigation of final causes, while Harvey was

deducing the circulation of the blood from Aquapendente's discovery of

the valves in the veins; he was doubtful whether instruments were of any

advantage, while Galileo was investigating the heavens with the

telescope. Ignorant himself of every branch of mathematics, he presumed

that they were useless in science, but a few years before Newton

achieved by their aid his immortal discoveries. It is time that the

sacred name of philosophy should be severed from its long connexion with

that of one who was a pretender in science, a time-serving politician,

an insidious lawyer, a corrupt judge, a treacherous friend, a bad man.

[Sidenote: Adoption of the Copernican doctrine.] But others were not so

obtuse as Bacon. Gilbert, one of the best of the early English

experimentalists, an excellent writer on magnetism, adopted the views of

Copernicus. Milton, in "Paradise Lost," set forth in language such as he

only could use the objections to the Ptolemaic, and the probabilities of

the Copernican system. Some of the more liberal ecclesiastics gave their

adhesion. Bishop Wilkins not only presented it in a very popular way,

but also made some sensible suggestions explanatory of the supposed

contradictions of the new theory to the Holy Scriptures. It was,

however, among geometricians, as Napier, Briggs, Horrox, that it met

with its best support. On the continent the doctrine was daily making

converts, and nightly gathering strength from the accordance of the

tables of the motions of the heavenly bodies calculated upon its

principles with actual observation.

[Sidenote: Invention of the telescope.] It is by no means uninteresting

to notice the different classes of men among whom this great theory was

steadily winning its way. Experimental philosophers, Republican poets,

Episcopal clergymen, Scotch lords, West of England schoolmasters,

Italian physicists, Polish pedants, painstaking Germans, each from his

own special point of view, was gradually receiving the light, and

doubtless, from such varied influence, the doctrine would have

vindicated its supremacy at last, though it might have taken a long

time. On a sudden, however, there occurred a fortunate event, which led

forthwith to that result by a new train of evidence, bringing the

matter, under the most brilliant circumstances, clearly to the

apprehension of every one. This great and fortunate event was the

invention of the telescope.

[Sidenote: Galileo constructs one.] It is needless to enter on any

examination of the authorship of this invention. It is enough for our

purpose to know that Lippershey, a Dutchman, had made one toward the

close of 1608, and that Galileo, hearing of the circumstance, but

without knowing the particulars of the construction, in April or May of

the following year invented a form of it for himself. Not content with

admiring how close and large it made terrestrial objects, he employed it

for examining the heavens. [Sidenote: Telescopic astronomical

discoveries.] On turning it to the moon, he found that she has mountains

casting shadows, and valleys like those of the earth. The discovery of

innumerable fixed stars--not fewer than forty were counted by him in the

well-known group of the Pleiades--up to that time unseen by man, was

felt at once to offer an insuperable argument against the opinion that

these bodies were created only to illuminate the night; indeed, it may

be said that this was a death-blow to the time-honoured doctrine of the

human destiny of the universe. Already Galileo began to encounter vulgar

indignation, which accused him loudly of impiety. On January 7th, 1610,

he discovered three of Jupiter's satellites, and a few days later the

fourth. To these he gave the designation of the Medicean stars, and in

his "Sidereal Messenger" published an account of the facts he had thus

far observed. As it was perceived at once that this planet offered a

miniature representation of the ideas of Copernicus respecting the solar

system, this discovery was received by the astronomical party with the

liveliest pleasure, by the ecclesiastical with the most bitter

opposition, some declaring that it was a mere optical deception, some a

purposed fraud, some that it was sheer blasphemy, and some, fairly

carrying out to its consequences the absurd philosophy of the day,

asserted that, since the pretended satellites were invisible to the

naked eye, they must be useless, and, being useless, they could not

exist. Continuing his observations, Galileo found that Saturn differs in

an extraordinary manner from other planets; but the telescope he used

not being sufficient to demonstrate the ring, he fell into the mistake

that the body of the planet is triple. This was soon followed by the

discovery of the phases of Venus, which indisputably established for her

a motion round the sun, and actually converted what had hitherto, on all

hands, been regarded as one of the weightiest objections against the

Copernican theory, into a most solid support. "If the doctrine of

Copernicus be true, the planet Venus ought to show phases like the moon,

which is not the case;" so said the objectors. Copernicus himself saw

the difficulty, and tried to remove it by suggesting that the planet

might be transparent. The telescope of Galileo for ever settled the

question by showing that the expected phases do actually exist.

[Sidenote: Commencing opposition to Galileo.] In the garden of Cardinal

Bandini at Rome, A.D. 1611, Galileo publicly exhibited the spots upon

the sun. He had observed them the preceding year. Goaded on by the

opposition his astronomical discoveries were bringing upon him, he

addressed a letter in 1613 to the Abbe Castelli, for the purpose of

showing that the Scriptures were not intended as a scientific authority.

This was repeating Bruno's offence. Hereupon the Dominicans, taking

alarm, commenced to attack him from their pulpits. It shows how

reluctantly, and with what misgivings the higher ecclesiastics entered

upon the quarrel, that Maraffi, the general of the Dominicans,

apologized to Galileo for what had taken place. The astronomer now

published another letter reiterating his former opinions, asserting that

the Scriptures were only intended for our salvation, and otherwise

defending himself, and recalling the fact that Copernicus had dedicated

his book to Pope Paul III.

[Sidenote: He is summoned to Rome.] Through the suggestion of the

Dominicans, Galileo was now summoned to Rome to account for his conduct

and opinions before the Inquisition. He was accused of having taught

that the earth moves; that the sun is stationary; and of having

attempted to reconcile these doctrines with the Scriptures. The sentence

was that he must renounce these heretical opinions, and pledge himself

that he would neither publish nor defend them for the future. [Sidenote:

Is condemned by the Inquisition,] In the event of his refusal he was to

be imprisoned. With the fate of Bruno in his recollection, he assented

to the required recantation, and gave the promise demanded. The

Inquisition then proceeded to deal with the Copernican system,

condemning it as heretical; the letters of Galileo, which had given rise

to the trouble, were prohibited; also Kepler's epitome of the Copernican

theory, and also the work of Copernicus. [Sidenote: which condemns the

Copernican system.] In their decree prohibiting this work "De

Revolutionibus," the Congregation of the Index, March 5, 1616, denounced

the new system of the universe as "that false Pythagorean doctrine

utterly contrary to the Holy Scriptures."

Again it appears how reluctant the Roman authorities were to interfere,

and how they were impelled rather by the necessity of their position

than by their personal belief in the course they had been obliged to

take. [Sidenote: The personal sentiments of the Popes.] After all that

had passed, the Pope, Paul V., admitted Galileo to an audience, at which

he professed to him personally the kindest sentiments, and assured him

of safety. When Urban VIII. succeeded to the pontifical chair, Galileo

received the distinction of not less than six audiences; the Pope

conferred on him several presents, and added the promise of a pension

for his son. In a letter to the Duke of Florence his Holiness used the

most liberal language, stated how dear to him Galileo was, that he had

very lovingly embraced him, and requested the duke to show him every

favour.

[Sidenote: Galileo publishes "The System of the World".] Whether it was

that, under these auspicious circumstances, Galileo believed he could

with impunity break through the engagement he had made, or whether an

instinctive hatred of that intellectual despotism and hypocrisy which

was weighing upon Europe became irrepressible in his breast, in 1632 he

ventured on the publication of his work, entitled "The System of the

World," its object being to establish the truth of the Copernican

doctrine. It is composed in the dialogue form, three speakers being

introduced, two of them true philosophers, the third an objector.

Whatever may have been the personal opinion of the Pope, there can be no

doubt that his duty rendered it necessary for him to act. Galileo was

therefore again summoned before the Inquisition, the Tuscan ambassador

expostulating against the inhumanity of thus dealing with an old man in

ill health. But no such considerations were listened to, and Galileo was

compelled to appear at Rome, February, 1633, and surrender himself to

the Holy Office. The Pope's nephew did all in his power to meet the

necessity of the Church and yet to spare the dignity of science. He paid

every attention to the personal comfort of the accused. When the time

came for Galileo to be put into solitary confinement, he endeavoured to

render the imprisonment as light as possible; but, finding it to prey

upon the spirits of the aged philosopher, he, on his own responsibility,

liberated him, permitting him to reside in the house of the Tuscan

ambassador. [Sidenote: Is again condemned by the Inquisition.] The trial

being completed, Galileo was directed to appear, on June 22nd, to hear

his sentence. Clothed in the penitential garment, he received judgment.

His heretical offences were specified, the pledges he had violated

recited; he was declared to have brought upon himself strong suspicions

of heresy, and to be liable to the penalties thereof; but from these he

might be absolved if, with a sincere heart, he would abjure and curse

his heresies. However, that his offences might not altogether go

unpunished, and that he might be a warning to others, he was condemned

to imprisonment during the pleasure of the Inquisition, his dialogues

were prohibited by public edict, and for three years he was directed to

recite, once a week, the seven penitential psalms.

[Sidenote: His degradation and punishment.] In his garment of disgrace

the aged philosopher was now made to fall upon his knees before the

assembled cardinals, and, with his hand on the Gospels, to make the

required abjuration of the heliocentric doctrine, and to give the

pledges demanded. He was then committed to the prison of the

Inquisition; the persons who had been concerned in the printing of his

book were punished; and the sentence and abjuration were formally

promulgated, and ordered to be publicly read in the universities. In

Florence, the adherents of Galileo were ordered to attend in the Church

of Santa Croce to witness his disgrace. After a short imprisonment in

the jail of the Inquisition, he was ordered to Arcetri, and confined in

his own house. Here severe misfortunes awaited him; his favourite

daughter died; he fell into a state of melancholy; an application that

he might go to Florence for the sake of medical advice was refused. It

became evident that there was an intention to treat him with inexorable

severity. After five years of confinement, permission was reluctantly

accorded to him to remove to Florence for his health; but still he was

forbidden to leave his house, or receive his friends, or even to attend

mass during Passion Week without a special order. The Grand-duke tried

to abate this excessive severity, directing his ambassador at the court

of Rome to plead the venerable age and ill health of the immortal

convict, and that it was desirable to permit him to communicate certain

scientific discoveries he had made to some other person, such as Father

Castelli. Not even that was accorded unless the interview took place in

the presence of an official of the Inquisition. Soon after Galileo was

remanded to Arcetri. He spent the weary hours in composing his work on

Local Motion, his friends causing it to be surreptitiously published in

Holland. [Sidenote: The calamities of his old age.] His infirmities and

misfortunes now increased. In 1637 he became totally blind. In a letter

he plaintively says, referring to this calamity, "So it pleases God, it

shall therefore please me also." The exquisite refinement of

ecclesiastical vengeance pursued him remorselessly, and now gave him

permission to see his friends when sight was no longer possible. It was

at this period that an illustrious stranger, the author of "Paradise

Lost," visited him. Shortly after he became totally deaf; but to the

last he occupied himself with investigations respecting the force of

percussion. [Sidenote: His death; is refused burial.] He died, January,

1642, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, the prisoner of the

Inquisition. True to its instincts, that infernal institution followed

him beyond the grave, disputing his right to make a will, and denying

him burial in consecrated ground. The pope also prohibited his friends

from raising to him a monument in the church of Santa Croce, in

Florence. It was reserved for the nineteenth century to erect a suitable

memorial in his honour.

[Sidenote: Steady advance of the Copernican system.] The result of the

discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo was thus to bring the earth to her

real position of subordination and to give sublimer views of the

universe. Moestlin expresses correctly the state of the case when he

says, "What is the earth and the ambient air with respect to the

immensity of space? It is a point, a punctule, or something, if there be

any thing, less." It had been brought down to the condition of one of

the members of a family--the solar system. And since it could be no

longer regarded as holding all other bodies in submissive attendance

upon it, dominating over their movements, there was reason to suppose

that it would be found to maintain interconnexions with them in the

attitude of an equal or subordinate; in other words, that general

relations would be discovered expressive of the manner in which all the

planetary members of the solar system sustain their movements round the

sun.

[Sidenote: Kepler, his mode of inquiry.] Among those whose minds were

thoroughly occupied with this idea, Kepler stands pre-eminently

conspicuous. It is not at all surprising, considering the tone of

thought of those times, that he regarded his subject with a certain

mysticism. They who condemn his manner of thus viewing things do not

duly appreciate the mental condition of the generation in which he

lived. Whatever may be said on that point, no one can deny him a

marvellous patience, and almost superhuman painstaking disposition.

Guess after guess, hypothesis after hypothesis, he submitted to

computations of infinite labour, and doubtless he speaks the melancholy

truth when he says, "I considered and reflected till I was almost mad."

Yet, in the midst of repeated disappointment, he held, with a truly

philosophical determination, firmly to the belief that there must be

some physical interconnexion among the parts of the solar system, and

that it would certainly be displayed by the discovery of laws presiding

over the distances, times, and velocities of the planets. In these

speculations he was immersed before the publications of Galileo. In his

"Mysterium Cosmographicum" he says, "In the year 1595 I was brooding

with the whole energy of my mind on the subject of the Copernican

system."

[Sidenote: Discovery of Kepler's laws.] In 1609 he published his work

entitled "On the Motion of Mars." This was the result of an attempt,

upon which he had been engaged since the beginning of the century, to

reconcile the motions of that planet to the hypothesis of eccentrics and

epicycles. It ended in the abandonment of that hypothesis, and in the

discovery of the two great laws now known as the first and second laws

of Kepler. They are respectively that the orbits of the planets are

elliptical, and that the areas described by a line drawn from the planet

to the sun are proportional to the times.

In 1617 he was again rewarded by the discovery which passes under the

designation of Kepler's third law: it expresses the relation of the mean

distances of the planets from the sun with the times of their

revolutions--"the squares of the periodic times are in the same

proportion as the cubes of the distances." In his "Epitome of the

Copernican Astronomy," published 1622, he showed that this law likewise

holds good for the satellites of Jupiter as regards their primary.

[Sidenote: His remonstrance with the Church.] Humboldt, referring to the

movement of Jupiter's satellites, remarks: "It was this which led

Kepler, in his 'Harmonices Mundi,' to state, with the firm confidence

and security of a German spirit of philosophical independence, to those

whose opinions bore sway beyond the Alps, 'Eighty years have elapsed

during which the doctrines of Copernicus regarding the movement of the

earth and the immobility of the sun have been promulgated without

hindrance, because it was deemed allowable to dispute concerning natural

things and to elucidate the works of God, and, now that new testimony is

discovered in proof of the truth of those doctrines--testimony which was

not known to the spiritual judges, ye would prohibit the promulgation of

the true system of the structure of the universe.'"

[Sidenote: Rectification of the Copernican theory.] Thus we see that the

heliocentric theory, as proposed by Copernicus, was undergoing

rectification. The circular movements admitted into it, and which had

burdened it with infinite perplexity, though they had hitherto been

recommended by an illusive simplicity, were demonstrated to be

incorrect. They were replaced by the real ones, the elliptical. Kepler,

as was his custom, ingenuously related his trials and disappointments.

Alluding on one occasion to this, he says: "My first error was that the

path of a planet is a perfect circle--an opinion which was a more

mischievous thief of my time, in proportion as it was supported by the

authority of all philosophers, and apparently agreeable to metaphysics."

[Sidenote: The philosophical import of these laws.] The philosophical

significance of Kepler's discoveries was not recognized by the

ecclesiastical party at first. It is chiefly this, that they constitute

a most important step to the establishment of the doctrine of the

government of the world by law. But it was impossible to receive these

laws without seeking for their cause. The result to which that search

eventually conducted not only explained their origin, but also showed

that, as laws, they must, in the necessity of nature, exist. It may be

truly said that the mathematical exposition of their origin constitutes

the most splendid monument of the intellectual power of man.

[Sidenote: Necessity for mechanical science.] Before the heliocentric

theory could be developed and made to furnish a clear exposition of the

solar system, which is obviously the first step to just views of the

universe, it was necessary that the science of mechanics should be

greatly improved--indeed, it might be said, created; for during those

dreary ages following the establishment of Byzantine power, nothing had

been done toward the acquisition of correct views either in statics or

dynamics. It was impossible that Europe, in her lower states of life,

could produce men capable of commencing where Archimedes had left off.

She had to wait for the approach of her Age of Reason for that.

[Sidenote: Leonardo da Vinci.] The man of capacity at last came.

Leonardo da Vinci was born A.D. 1452. The historian Hallam, enumerating

some of his works, observes, "His knowledge was almost preternatural."

Many of his writings still remain unpublished. Long before Bacon, he

laid down the maxim that experience and observation must be the

foundation of all reasoning in science; that experiment is the only

interpreter of nature, and is essential to the ascertainment of laws.

Unlike Bacon, who was ignorant of mathematics, and even disparaged them,

he points out their supreme advantage. Seven years after the voyage of

Columbus, this great man--great at once as an artist, mathematician, and

engineer--gave a clear exposition of the theory of forces obliquely

applied on a lever; a few years later he was well acquainted with the

earth's annual motion. He knew the laws of friction, subsequently

demonstrated by Amontons, and the principle of virtual velocities; he

described the camera obscura before Baptista Porta, understood aerial

perspective, the nature of coloured shadows, the use of the iris, and

the effects of the duration of visible impressions on the eye. He wrote

well on fortification, anticipated Castelli on hydraulics, occupied

himself with the fall of bodies on the hypothesis of the earth's

rotation, treated of the times of descent along inclined planes and

circular arcs, and of the nature of machines. He considered, with

singular clearness, respiration and combustion, and foreshadowed one of

the great hypotheses of geology, the elevation of continents.

[Sidenote: Stevinus continues the movement in Natural Philosophy.] This

was the commencement of the movement in Natural Philosophy; it was

followed up by the publication of a work on the principles of

equilibrium by Stevinus, 1586. In this the author established the

fundamental property of the inclined plane, and solved, in a general

manner, the cases of forces acting obliquely. Six years later Galileo's

treatise on mechanics appeared, a fitting commencement of that career

which, even had it not been adorned with such brilliant astronomical

discoveries, would alone have conferred the most illustrious distinction

upon him.

[Sidenote: Discovery of the laws of motion.] The dynamical branch of

Mechanics is that which is under most obligation to Galileo. To him is

due the establishment of the three laws of motion. They are to the

following effect, as given by Newton:

(1.) Every body perseveres in its state of rest or of uniform motion in

a right line unless it is compelled to change that state by forces

impressed thereon.

(2.) The alteration of motion is ever proportional to the motive force

impressed, and is made in the direction of the right line in which that

force is impressed.

(3.) To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction, or the

mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and

directed to contrary parts.

Up to this time it was the general idea that motion can only be

maintained by a perpetual application, impression, or expenditure of

force. Galileo himself for many years entertained that error, but in

1638 he plainly states in his "Dialogues on Mechanics" the true law of

the uniformity and perpetuity of motion. Such a view necessarily implies

a correct and clear appreciation of the nature of resistances. No

experimental motion that man can establish is unrestrained. But a

perception of the uniformity and perpetuity of motion lies at the very

basis of physical astronomy. With difficulty the true idea was attained.

The same may be said as respects rectilinear direction, for many

supposed that uniform motion can only take place in a circle.

[Sidenote: Establishment of the first law of motion,] The establishment

of the first law of motion was essential to the discovery of the laws of

falling bodies, in which the descent is made under the influence of a

continually acting force, the velocity increasing in consequence

thereof. Galileo saw clearly that, whether a body is moving slowly or

swiftly, it will be equally affected by gravity. This principle was with

difficulty admitted by some, who were disposed to believe that a swiftly

moving body would not be as much affected by a constant force like

gravity as one the motion of which is slower. With difficulty, also, was

the old Aristotelian error eradicated that a heavy body falls more

swiftly than a light one.

[Sidenote: and of the second,] The second law of motion was also

established and illustrated by Galileo. In his "Dialogues" he shows that

a body projected horizontally must have, from what has been said, a

uniform horizontal motion, but that it will also have compounded

therewith an accelerated motion downward. Here again we perceive it is

necessary to retain a steady conception of this intermingling of forces

without deterioration, and, though it may seem simple enough to us,

there were some eminent men of those times who did not receive it as

true. The special case offered by Galileo is theoretically connected

with the paths of military projectiles, though in practice, since they

move in a resisting medium, the air, their path is essentially different

from the parabola. Curvilinear motions, which necessarily arise from the

constant action of a central force, making a body depart from the

rectilinear path it must otherwise take, are chiefly of interest, as we

shall presently find, in the movements of the celestial bodies.

[Sidenote: and of the third.] A thorough exposition of the third law of

motion was left by Galileo to his successors, who had directed their

attention especially to the determination of the laws of impact. Indeed,

the whole subject was illustrated and the truth of the three laws

verified in many different cases by an examination of the phenomena of

freely falling bodies, pendulums, projectiles, and the like. Among those

who occupied themselves with such labours may be mentioned Torricelli,

Castelli, Viviani, Borelli, Gassendi. Through the investigations of

these, and other Italian, French, and English natural philosophers, the

principles of Mechanics were solidly established, and a necessary

preparation made for their application in astronomy. By this time every

one had become ready to admit that the motion of the planetary bodies

would find an explanation on these principles.

[Sidenote: Application of Mechanics to the celestial motions.] The steps

thus far taken for an explanation of the movements of the planets in

curvilinear paths therefore consisted in the removal of the old

misconception that for a body to continue its motion forward in a

straight line a continued application of force is necessary, the first

law of motion disposing of that error. In the next place, it was

necessary that clear and distinct ideas should be held of the

combination or composition of forces, each continuing to exercise its

influence without deterioration or diminution by the other. The time had

now come for it to be shown that the perpetual movement of the planets

is a consequence of the first law of motion; their elliptic paths, such

as had been determined by Kepler, a consequence of the second. Several

persons almost simultaneously had been brought nearly to this conclusion

without being able to solve the problem completely. Thus Borelli, A.D.

1666, in treating of the motions of Jupiter's satellites, distinctly

shows how a circular motion may arise under the influence of a central

force; he even uses the illustration so frequently introduced of a stone

whirled round in a sling. In the same year a paper was presented to the

Royal Society by Mr. Hooke, "explicating the inflection of a direct

motion into a circular by a supervening attractive principle." Huygens

also, in his "Horologium Oscillatorium," had published some theorems on

circular motions, but no one as yet had been able to show how elliptical

orbits could, upon these principles, be accounted for, though very many

had become satisfied that the solution of this problem would before long

be given.

[Sidenote: Newton; publication of the "Principia."] In April, 1686, the

"Principia" of Newton was presented to the Royal Society. This immortal

work not only laid the foundation of Physical Astronomy, it also carried

the structure thereof very far toward its completion. It unfolded the

mechanical theory of universal gravitation upon the principle that all

bodies tend to approach each other with forces directly as their masses,

and inversely as the squares of their distances.

[Sidenote: Propounds the theory of universal gravitation.] To the force

producing this tendency of bodies to approach each other the designation

of attraction of gravitation, or gravity, is given. All heavy bodies

fall to the earth in such a way that the direction of their movement is

toward its centre. Newton proved that this is the direction in which

they must necessarily move under the influence of an attraction of every

one of the particles of which the earth is composed, the attraction of a

sphere taking effect as if all its particles were concentrated in its

centre.

[Sidenote: Preparation for Newton.] Galileo had already examined the

manner in which gravity acts upon bodies as an accelerating force, and

had determined the connexion between the spaces of descent and the

times. He illustrated such facts experimentally by the use of inclined

planes, by the aid of which the velocity may be conveniently diminished

without otherwise changing the nature of the result. He had also

demonstrated that the earth's attraction acts equally on all bodies.

This he proved by inclosing various substances in hollow spheres, and

showing that, when they were suspended by strings of equal length and

made to vibrate, the time of oscillation was the same for all. On the

invention of the air-pump, a more popular demonstration of the same fact

was given by the experiment proving that a gold coin and a feather fall

equally swiftly in an exhausted receiver. Galileo had also proved, by

experiments on the leaning tower of Pisa, that the velocity of falling

bodies is independent of their weight. It was for these experiments that

he was expelled from that city.

[Sidenote: Extension of attraction or gravity.] Up to the time of Newton

there were only very vague ideas that the earth's attraction extended to

any considerable distance. Newton was led to his discovery by reflecting

that at all altitudes accessible to man, gravity appears to be

undiminished, and that, therefore, it may possibly extend as far as the

moon, and actually be the force which deflects her from a rectilinear

path, and makes her revolve in an orbit round the earth. Admitting the

truth of the law of the inverse squares, it is easy to compute whether

the moon falls from the tangent she would describe if the earth ceased

to act upon her by a quantity proportional to that observed in the case

of bodies falling near the surface. In the first calculations made by

Newton, he found that the moon is deflected from the tangent thirteen

feet every minute; but, if the hypothesis of gravitation were true, her

deflection should be fifteen feet. It is no trifling evidence of the

scrupulous science of this great philosopher that hereupon he put aside

the subject for several years, without, however, abandoning it. At

length, in 1682, learning the result of the measures of a degree which

Picard had executed in France, and which affected the estimate of the

magnitude of the earth he had used, and therefore the distance of the

moon, he repeated the calculations with these improved data. It is

related that "he went home, took out his old papers, and resumed his

calculations. As they drew to a close, he became so much agitated that

he was obliged to desire a friend to finish them." The expected

coincidence was verified. And thus it appeared that the moon is retained

in her orbit and made to revolve round the earth by the force of

terrestrial gravity.

[Sidenote: The cause of Kepler's laws.] These calculations were founded

upon the hypothesis that the moon moves in a circular orbit with a

uniform velocity. But in the "Principia" it was demonstrated that when a

body moves under the influence of an attractive force, varying as the

inverse square of the distances, it must describe a conic section, with

a focus at the centre of force, and under the circumstances designated

by Kepler's laws. Newton, therefore, did far more than furnish the

expected solution of the problem of elliptical motion, and it was now

apparent that the existence of those laws might have been foreseen,

since they arise in the very necessities of the case.

[Sidenote: Resistless spread of the heliocentric theory.] This point

gained, it is obvious that the evidence was becoming unquestionable,

that as the moon is made to revolve round the earth through the

influence of an attractive force exercised by the earth, so likewise

each of the planets is compelled to move in an elliptical orbit round

the sun by his attractive force. The heliocentric theory, at this stage,

was presenting physical evidence of its truth. It was also becoming

plain that the force we call gravitation must be imputed to the sun, and

to all the planetary bodies as well as to the earth. Accordingly, this

was what Newton asserted in respect to all material substance.

[Sidenote: Perturbations accounted for.] But it is a necessary

consequence of this theory that many apparent irregularities and

perturbations of the bodies of the solar system must take place by

reason of the attraction of each upon all the others. If there were but

one planet revolving round the sun, its orbit might be a mathematically

perfect ellipse; but the moment a second is introduced, perturbation

takes place in a variable manner as the bodies change their positions or

distances. An excessive complication must therefore be the consequence

when the number of bodies is great. Indeed, so insurmountable would

these difficulties be, that the mathematical solution of the general

problem of the solar system would be hopeless were it not for the fact

that the planetary bodies are at very great distances from one another,

and their masses, compared with the mass of the sun, very small.

[Sidenote: Results of the theory of gravitation.] Taking the theory of

gravitation in its universal acceptation, Newton, in a manner that looks

as if he were divinely inspired, succeeded in demonstrating the chief

inequalities of the moon and planetary bodies; in determining the figure

of the earth--that it is not a perfect sphere, but an oblate spheroid;

in explaining the precession of the equinoxes and the tides of the

ocean. To such perfection have succeeding mathematicians brought his

theory, that the most complicated movements and irregularities of the

solar system have been satisfactorily accounted for and reduced to

computation. Trusting to these principles, not only has it been found

possible, knowing the mass of a given planet, to determine the

perturbations it may produce in adjacent ones, but even the inverse

problem has been successfully attacked, and from the perturbations the

place and mass of a hitherto unknown planet determined. It was thus

that, from the deviations of Uranus from his theoretical place, the

necessary existence of an exterior disturbing planet was foreseen, and

our times have witnessed the intellectual triumph of mathematicians

directing where the telescope should point in order to find a new

planet. The discovery of Neptune was thus accomplished.

It adds to our admiration of the wonderful intellectual powers of Newton

to know that the mathematical instrument he used was the ancient

geometry. Not until subsequently was the analytical method resorted to

and cultivated. This method possesses the inappreciable advantage of

relieving us from the mental strain which would otherwise oppress us. It

has been truly said that the symbols think for us. [Sidenote: The

"Principia;" its incomparable merit.] Mr. Whewell observes: "No one for

sixty years after the publication of the 'Principia,' and, with Newton's

methods, no one up to the present day, has added any thing of value to

his deductions. We know that he calculated all the principal lunar

inequalities; in many of the cases he has given us his processes, in

others only his results. But who has presented in his beautiful geometry

or deduced from his simple principles any of the inequalities which he

left untouched? The ponderous instrument of synthesis, so effective in

his hands, has never since been grasped by any one who could use it for

such purposes; and we gaze at it with admiring curiosity, as on some

gigantic implement of war which stands idle among the memorials of

ancient days, and makes us wonder what manner of man he was who could

wield as a weapon what we can hardly lift as a burden."

[Sidenote: Philosophical import of Newton's discoveries.] Such was the

physical meaning of Newton's discoveries; their philosophical meaning

was of even greater importance. The paramount truth was resistlessly

coming into prominence--that the government of the solar system is under

necessity, and that it is mathematically impossible for the laws

presiding over it to be other than they are.

Thus it appears that the law of gravitation holds good throughout our

solar system. But the heliocentric theory, in its most general

acceptation, considers every fixed star as being, like the sun, a

planetary centre. [Sidenote: Unity of idea in the construction of the

universe.] Hence, before it can be asserted that the theory of

gravitation is truly universal, it must be shown that it holds good in

the case of all other such systems. The evidence offered in proof of

this is altogether based upon the observations of the two Herschels on

the motions of the double stars. Among the stars there are some in such

close proximity to each other that Sir W. Herschel was led to suppose it

would be possible, from observations upon them, to ascertain the stellar

parallax. While engaged in these inquiries, which occupied him for many

years, he discovered that many of these stars are not merely optically

in proximity, as being accidentally in the same line of view, but are

actually connected physically, revolving round each other in regular

orbits. The motion of these double suns is, however, in many instances

so slow as to require many years for a satisfactory determination.

[Sidenote: Gravitation of double stars.] Sir J. Herschel therefore

continued the observations of his father, and with other mathematicians,

investigated the characteristics of these motions. The first instance in

which the true elliptic elements of the orbit of a binary star were

determined was given by M. Savary in the case of chi Ursae Majoris,

indicating an elliptic orbit of 58-1/4 years. But the period of others,

since determined, is very much longer; thus, in sigma Coronae, it is,

according to Mr. Hind, more than 736 years. From the fact that the

orbits in which these stars move round each other are elliptical, it

necessarily follows that the law of gravitation, according to the

inverse square, holds good in them. Considering the prodigious distances

of these bodies, and the departure, as regards structure of the systems

to which they belong, from the conditions obtaining in our unisolar

system, we may perhaps assert the prevalence of the law of gravitation

throughout the universe.

[Sidenote: Coloured light of double stars.] If, in association with

these double suns--sometimes, indeed, they are triple, and occasionally,

as in the case of epsilon Lyrae, quadruple--there are opaque planetary

globes, such solar systems differ from ours not only in having several

suns instead of a single one, but, since the light emitted is often of

different tints, one star shining with a crimson and another with a blue

light, the colours not always complementary to one another, a wonderful

variety of phenomena must be the result, especially in their organic

creations; for organic forms, both vegetable and animal, primarily

depend on the relations of coloured light. How varied the effects where

there are double, triple, or even quadruple sunrises, and sunsets, and

noons; and the hours marked off by red, or purple, or blue tints.

[Sidenote: Grandeur of Newton's discoveries.] It is impossible to look

back on the history of the theory of gravitation without sentiments of

admiration and, indeed, of pride. How felicitous has been the manner in

which have been explained the inequalities of a satellite like the moon

under the disturbing influence of the sun; the correspondence between

the calculated and observed quantities of these inequalities; the

extension of the doctrine to satellites of other planets, as those of

Jupiter; the determination of the earth's figure; the causes of the

tides; the different force of gravity in different latitudes, and a

multitude of other phenomena. The theory asserted for itself that

authority which belongs to intrinsic truth. It enabled mathematicians to

point out facts not yet observed, and to foretell future events.

And yet how hard it is for truth to force its way when bigotry resists.

In 1771, the University of Salamanca, being urged to teach physical

science, refused, and this was its answer; "Newton teaches nothing that

would make a good logician or metaphysician; and Gassendi and Descartes

do not agree so well with revealed truth as Aristotle does."

[Sidenote: The earth in time.] Among the interesting results of Newton's

theory may be mentioned its application to secular inequalities, such as

the acceleration of the moon's mean motion, that satellite moving

somewhat quicker now than she did ages ago. Laplace detected the cause

of this phenomenon in the influence of the sun upon the moon, combined

with the secular variation of the eccentricity of the earth's orbit.

Moreover, he showed that this secular inequality of the motion of the

moon is periodical, that it requires millions of years to re-establish

itself, and that, after an almost inconceivable time, the acceleration

becomes a retardation. In like manner, the same mathematician explained

the observed acceleration in the mean motion of Jupiter, and retardation

of that of Saturn, as arising from the mutual attraction of the two

planets, and showed that this secular inequality has a period of 929-1/2

years. With such slow movements may be mentioned the diminution of the

obliquity of the ecliptic, which has been proceeding for ages, but which

will reach a limit and then commence to increase. These secular motions

ought not to be without interest to those who suffer themselves to adopt

the patristic chronology of the world, who suppose that the earth is

only six thousand years old, and that it will come to an end in about

one thousand years more. They must accept, along with that preposterous

delusion, its necessary consequences, that the universe has been so

badly constructed, and is such a rickety machine, that it can not hold

together long enough for some of its wheels to begin to revolve.

Astronomy offers us many illustrations of the scale upon which the world

is constructed as to time, as well as that upon which it is constructed

as to space.

[Sidenote: Dominion of law in the universe.] From what has been said,

the conclusion forces itself upon us that the general laws obtaining as

respects the earth, hold good likewise for all other parts of the

universe; a conclusion sustained not only by the mechanism of such

motions as we have been considering, but also by all evidence of a

physical kind accessible to us. The circumstances under which our sun

emits light and heat, and thereby vivifies his attendant planets, are

indisputably the same as those obtaining in the case of every fixed

star, each of which is a self-luminous sun. There is thus an aspect of

homogeneousness in the structure of all systems in the universe, which,

though some have spoken of it as if it were the indication of a

uniformity of plan, and therefore the evidence of a primordial idea, is

rather to be looked upon as the proof of unchangeable and resistless

law.

[Sidenote: Ruin of anthropocentric ideas.] What, therefore, now becomes

of the doctrine authoritatively put forth, and made to hold its sway for

so many centuries, that the earth is not only the central-body of the

universe, but in reality, the most noble body in it; that the sun and

other stars are mere ministers or attendants for human use? In the place

of these utterly erroneous and unworthy views, far different conceptions

must be substituted. Man, when he looks upon the countless multitude of

stars--when he reflects that all he sees is only a little portion of

those which exist, yet that each is a light and life-giving sun to

multitudes of opaque, and therefore, invisible worlds--when he considers

the enormous size of these various bodies and their immeasurable

distance from one another, may form an estimate of the scale on which

the world is constructed, and learn therefrom his own unspeakable

insignificance.

[Sidenote: Aids for measurements in the universe.] In one beat of a

pendulum a ray of light would pass eight times round the circumference

of the earth. Thus we may take the sunbeam as a carpenter does his

measuring-rule; it serves as a gauge in our measurements of the

universe. A sunbeam would require more than three years to reach us from

alpha Centauri; nine and a quarter years from 61 Cygni; from alpha Lyrae

twelve years. These are stars whose parallax has been determined, and

which are therefore nearest to us.

[Sidenote: Clusters of stars.] Of suns visible to the naked eye there

are about 8000, but the telescope can discern in the Milky Way more than

eighteen millions, the number visible increasing as more powerful

instruments are used. Our cluster of stars is a disc divided into two

branches at about one-third of its length. In the midst of innumerable

compeers and superiors, the sun is not far from the place of

bifurcation, and at about the middle of the thickness. Outside the plane

of the Milky Way the appearance would be like a ring, and, still farther

off, a nebulous disc.

[Sidenote: Distribution of matter and force in space.] From the

contemplation of isolated suns and congregated clusters we are led to

the stupendous problem of the distribution of matter and force in space,

and to the interpretation of those apparent phantoms of self-luminous

vapour, circular and elliptic discs, spiral wreaths, rings and fans,

whose edges fade doubtfully away, twins and triplets of phosphorescent

haze connected together by threads of light and grotesque forms of

indescribable complexity. Perhaps in some of these gleaming apparitions

we see the genesis, in some the melting away of universes. There is

nothing motionless in the sky. In every direction vast transformations

are occurring, yet all things proclaim the eternity of matter and the

undiminished perpetuity of force.

[Sidenote: Limit of the theory of gravitation.] The theory of

gravitation, as delivered by Newton, thus leads us to a knowledge of the

mathematical construction of the solar system, and inferentially

likewise to that of other systems; but it leaves without explanation a

large number of singular facts. It explains the existing conditions of

equilibrium of the heavenly bodies, but it tells us nothing of their

genesis; or, at the best, in that particular it falls back on the simple

fiat of God.

[Sidenote: Phenomena of the solar system.] The facts here referred to

conduct us, however, to another and far higher point of view. Some of

them, as enumerated by Laplace, are the following:--1. All the planets

and their satellites move in ellipses of such small eccentricity that

they are nearly circles; 2. The movements of the planets are in the same

direction and nearly in the same plane; 3. The movements of the

satellites are in the same direction as those of the planets; 4. The

movements of rotation of these various bodies and of the sun are in the

same direction as their orbitual motions, and in planes little

different.

[Sidenote: The nebular hypothesis.] The nebular hypothesis requires us

to admit that all the ponderable material now constituting the various

bodies of the solar system once extended in a rarefied or nebulous and

rotating condition, beyond the confines of the most distant planet. That

postulate granted; the structure and present condition of the system may

be mathematically deduced.

For, as the vast rotating spheroid lost its heat by radiation, it

contracted, and its velocity of rotation was necessarily increased; and

thus were left behind from its equatorial zone, by reason of the

centrifugal force, rotating rings, the same result occurring

periodically again and again. These rings must lie all in one plane.

They might break, collapsing into one rotating spheroid, a planet; or

into many, asteroids; or maintain the ring-like form. From the larger of

these secondary rotating spheroids other rings might be thrown off, as

from the parent mass; these, in their turn breaking and becoming

spheroids, constitute satellites, whose movements correspond to those of

their primaries.

We might, indeed, advance a step farther, and show how, by the radiation

of heat from a motionless nebula, a movement of rotation in a

determinate direction could be engendered, and that upon these

principles, the existence of a nebulous matter admitted, and the present

laws and forces of nature regarded as having been unchanged, the manner

of origin of the solar system might be deduced, and all those singular

facts previously alluded to explained; and not only so, but there is

spontaneously suggested the cause of many minor peculiarities not yet

mentioned.

[Sidenote: Facts accounted for by it.] For it follows from the nebular

hypothesis that the large planets should rotate rapidly, and the small

ones more slowly; that the outer planets and satellites should be larger

than the inner ones. Of the satellites of Saturn, the largest is the

outermost; of those of Jupiter, the largest is the outermost save one.

Of the planets themselves, Jupiter is the largest, and outermost save

three. These cannot be coincidences, but must be due to law. The number

of satellites of each planet, with the doubtful exception of Venus,

might be foreseen, the presence of satellites and their number being

determined by the centrifugal force of their primary. The hypothesis

also points out the time of revolution of the planets in their orbits,

and of the satellites in theirs; it furnishes a reason for the genesis

and existence of Saturn's rings, which are indeed its remaining

witnesses--their position and movements answering to its requirements.

It accounts for the physical state of the sun, and also for the physical

state of the earth and moon as indicated by their geology. It is also

not without furnishing reasons for the existence of comets as integrant

members of our system; for their singular physical state; for the

eccentric, almost parabolic orbits of so many of them; for the fact that

there are as many of them with a retrograde as with a direct motion; for

their more frequent occurrence about the axis of the solar system than

in its plane; and for their general antithetical relations to planets.

[Sidenote: Whether nebulae actually exist.] If these and very many other

apparently disconnected facts follow as the mechanical necessities of

the admission of a gravitating nebula--a very simple postulate--it

becomes important to ascertain whether, by actual observation, the

existence of such material forms may be demonstrated in any part of the

universe. It was the actual telescopic observation of such objects that

led Herschel to the nebular hypothesis. He concluded that there are two

distinct kinds of nebulae, one consisting of clusters of stars so remote

that they could not be discerned individually, but that these may be

discerned by sufficient telescopic power; the other being of a hazy

nature, and incapable of resolution. Nebulae do not occur at random in

the heavens: the regions poorest in stars are richest in them; they are

few in the plane of our sidereal system, but numerous about its poles,

in that respect answering to the occurrence of comets in the solar

system. The resolution of many of these hazy patches of light into stars

by no means disproves the truly nebulous condition of many others.

Fortunately, however, other means than telescopic observation for the

settlement of this question are available. In 1846, it was discovered by

the author of this book that the spectrum of an ignited solid is

continuous, that is, has neither dark nor bright fixed lines. Fraunhofer

had previously made known that the spectrum of ignited gases is

discontinuous. Here, then, is the means of determining whether the light

emitted by a given nebula comes from an incandescent gas, or from a

congeries of ignited solids, stars, or suns. If its spectrum be

discontinuous, it is a true nebula or gas; if continuous, a congeries of

stars.

In 1864, Mr. Huggins made this examination in the case of a nebula in

the constellation Draco. It proved to be gaseous.

Subsequent observations have shown that of sixty nebulae examined,

nineteen give discontinuous or gaseous spectra; the remainder continuous

ones.

It may, therefore, be admitted that physical evidence has at length been

obtained, demonstrating the existence of vast masses of matter in a

gaseous condition, and at a temperature of incandescence. The hypothesis

of Laplace has thus a firm basis.

[Sidenote: Opposition to the nebular hypothesis.] Notwithstanding the

great authority of the astronomers who introduced it, the nebular

hypothesis has encountered much adverse criticism; not so much, however,

from its obvious scientific defects, such as its inability to deal with

the cases of Uranus and Neptune, as from moral and extraneous

considerations. There is a line in Aristophanes which points out

precisely the difficulty:

Ho Zeus ouk on, all' ant' autou Dinos nuni basileuon.

A reluctance to acknowledge the presidency of law in the existing

constitution and movements of the solar system has been yielded only to

be succeeded by a reluctance to acknowledge the presidency of law in its

genesis. And yet whoever will reflect on the subject will be drawn to

the conclusion that the principle involved was really settled by Newton

in his "Principia"--that is to say, when it became geometrically certain

that Kepler's laws originate in a mathematical necessity.

As matters now stand, the nebular hypothesis may be regarded as the

first superficial, and therefore imperfect, glimpse of a series of the

grandest problems soon to present themselves for solution--the

mathematical distribution of matter and force in space, and the

variations of that distribution in time.

[Sidenote: The intellectual ruin of ecclesiasticism.] Such is the

history of the dispute respecting the position of the earth in the

universe. Not without reason, therefore, have I assigned the pontificate

of Nicolas V. as the true close of the intellectual dominion of the

Church. From that time the sceptre had passed into another hand. In all

directions Nature was investigated, in all directions new methods of

examination were yielding unexpected and beautiful results. On the ruins

of its ivy-grown cathedrals, Ecclesiasticism, surprised and blinded by

the breaking day, sat solemnly blinking at the light and life about it,

absorbed in the recollection of the night that had passed, dreaming of

new phantoms and delusions in its wished-for return, and vindictively

striking its talons at any derisive assailant who incautiously

approached too near. I have not space to describe the scientific

activity displayed in all directions; to do it justice would demand

volumes. Mathematics, physics, chemistry, anatomy, medicine, and all the

many branches of human knowledge received an impulse. [Sidenote:

Wonderful development of scientific activity.] Simultaneously with the

great events I have been relating, every one of these branches was

advancing. Vieta made the capital improvement of using letters as

general symbols in algebra, and applied that science to geometry. Tycho,

emulating Hipparchus of old, made a new catalogue of the stars; he

determined that comets are beyond the moon, and that they cut the

crystalline firmament of theology in all directions. Gilbert wrote his

admirable book on the magnet; Gesner led the way to zoology, taking it

up at the point to which the Saracens had continued Aristotle, by the

publication of his work on the history of animals; Belon at the same

time, 1540, was occupied with fishes and birds. Fallopius and

Eustachius, Arantius and Varolius, were immortalizing themselves by

their dissections: the former reminding us of the times of Ptolemy

Philadelphus, when he naively confesses "the Duke of Tuscany was

obliging enough to send living criminals to us, whom we killed and then

dissected." Piccolomini laid the foundations of general anatomy by his

description of cellular tissue. Coiter created pathological anatomy,

Prosper Alpinus diagnosis, Plater the classification of disease, and

Ambrose Pare modern surgery. Such were the occupations and prospect of

science at the close of the sixteenth century.

[Sidenote: The movement becomes still more vigorous.] Scarcely had the

seventeenth opened when it became obvious that the movement, far from

slackening, was gathering force. It was the age of Galileo. Descartes

introduced the theory of an ether and vortices; but, hearing of the

troubles that had befallen Galileo, was on the point of burning his

papers. Several years later, he was restrained from publishing his

"Cosmos" "from a pious desire not to treat irreverently the decrees of

the holy chair against the planetary movement of the earth." This was in

1633, when the report of the sentence of the Inquisition was made known.

He also developed Vieta's idea of the application of algebra to

geometry, and brought into prominence the mechanical fact, destined to

an important application in physical astronomy, that every curvilinear

deflection is due to a controlling force. To him, among Europeans, also

is to be attributed the true explanation of the rise of water in an

exhausted space--"the weight of the water counter-balances that of the

air." Napier perfected his great and useful invention of logarithms.

Hydraulics was created by Castelli; hydrostatics by Torricelli, who also

discovered barometric variations: both were pupils of Galileo. Fabricius

ab Aquapendente discovered the valves in the veins; Servetus almost

detected the course of the circulation. Harvey completed what Servetus

had left unfinished, and described the entire course of the blood;

Asellius discovered the lacteals; Van Helmont introduced the theory of

vitality into medicine, and made the practice or art thereof consist in

regulating by diet the Archeus, whose seat he affirmed to be in the

stomach. In strong contrast with this phantasy, Sanctorio laid the

foundation of modern physiology by introducing the balance into its

inquiries. Pascal, by a decisive experiment, established the doctrines

of the weight and pressure of the air, and published some of the most

philosophical treatises of the age: "his Provincial Letters did more

than any thing to ruin the name of the Jesuits." The contagion spread to

the lawyers: in 1672 appeared Puffendorf's work on the "Law of Nature

and Nations." The phlogistic theory, introduced by Beccher and perfected

by Stahl, created chemistry, in contradistinction to the Arabian

alchemy. Otto Guericke invented the air-pump, Boyle improved it. Hooke,

among many other discoveries, determined the essential conditions of

combustion. Far above all contemporaries in mathematical learning and

experimental skill, Newton was already turning his attention to the

"reflexions, refractions, inflexions and colours of light," and

introducing the idea of attractions into physics. Ray led the way to

comparative anatomy in his synopsis of quadrupeds; Swammerdam improved

the art of dissection, applying it to the general history of insects;

Lister published his synopsis of shells; Tournefort and Malpighi devoted

themselves to botany; Grew discovered the sexes of plants; Brown the

quinary arrangement of flowers. Geology began to break loose from the

trammels of theology, and Burnet's Sacred theory of the Earth could not

maintain its ground against more critical investigations. The Arabian

doctrine of the movement of the crust of the earth began to find

supporters. Lister ascertained the continuity of strata over great

distances; Woodward improved mineralogy; the great mathematician,

Leibnitz, the rival of Newton, propounded the doctrine of the gradual

cooling of the globe, the descent of its strata by fracture, the deposit

of sedimentary rocks, and their induration. Among physicians, Willis

devoted himself to the study of the brain, traced the course of the

nerves and classified them, and introduced the doctrine of the

localization of functions in the brain. Malpighi and Lewenhoeck applied

the microscope as an aid to anatomy; the latter discovered spermatozoa.

Graaf studied the function of the generative organs; Borelli attempted

the application of mathematics to muscular movement; Duverney wrote on

the sense of hearing, Mayow on respiration; Ruysch perfected the art of

injection, and improved minute anatomy.

But it is in vain to go on. The remainder of these pages would be

consumed in an attempt to record the names of the cultivators of

science, every year increasing in number, and to do justice to their

works. From the darkness that had for so many ages enveloped it, the

human mind at last emerged into light. The intellectual motes were

dancing in the sunbeam, and making it visible in every direction.

[Sidenote: Institution of scientific societies.] Despairing thus to do

justice to individual philosophers and individual discoveries, there is,

however, one most important event to which I must prominently allude. It

is the foundation of learned societies. Imitating the examples of the

Academia Secretorum Naturae, instituted at Naples, 1560, by Baptista

Porta, and of the Lyncean Academy, founded 1603 by Prince Frederic Cesi

at Rome for the promotion of natural philosophy, the Accademia del

Cimento was established at Florence, 1637; the Royal Society of London,

1645; and the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris, 1666.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: Review of anthropocentric philosophy.] Arrived at the close

of the description of this first great victory of scientific truth over

authority and tradition, it is well for us to pause and look back on the

progress of man from the erroneous inferences of his social infancy to

the true conclusions of his maturity--from anthropocentric ideas, which

in all nations and parts of the world have ever been the same, to the

discovery of his true position and insignificance in the universe.

[Sidenote: The sky, apparent nature of.] We are placed in a world

surrounded with illusions. The daily events of our life and the objects

before us tend equally to deceive us. If we cast our eyes on the earth,

it seems to be made only to minister to our pleasures or our wants. If

we direct our attention to the sky, that blue and crystalline dome, the

edges of which rest on the flat land or the sea--a glacial vault, which

Empedocles thought was frozen air, and the fathers of the Church the

lowest of the seven concentric strata of heavens--we find a thousand

reasons for believing that whatever it covers was intended by some Good

Being for our use. Of the various living things placed with us beneath

it, all are of an inferior grade when compared with ourselves, and all

seem intended for us. The conclusions at which we thus arrive are

strengthened by a principle of vanity implanted in our hearts,

unceasingly suggesting to us that this pleasant abode must have been

prepared for our reception, and furnished and ornamented expressly for

our use.

[Sidenote: Anthropocentric ideas of God.] But reflexion teaches us that

we came not hither of ourselves, and that doubtless the same Good Being

who prepared this delightful abode brought us as tenants into it. From

the fact of our own existence, we are insensibly and inevitably led to

infer the existence of God; from the favourable circumstances in which

our lot is cast, we gather evidences of His goodness; and in the energy

which natural phenomena often display, we see the tokens of His power.

What other explanation can we give of tempests in the sea or lightning

in the heavens? Moreover, it is only during a part of our time--our

waking hours--that we are brought into relation with these material

things; for the rest, when we are asleep, a state in which we spend more

than a third part of our life, we are introduced to other scenery, other

beings, another world. [Sidenote: Of the world and heaven.] From these

we gather that there are agents of an intangible and more ethereal

mould, perhaps of the nature of Him who brought us here, perhaps His

subordinates and messengers. Whence do they issue and whither do they

go? Is there not beyond the sky above us a region to which our imperfect

vision cannot penetrate, but which may be accessible to them from the

peaks of elevated mountains, or to be reached only with wings? And thus

we picture to ourselves a heaven shut off from earth, with all its sins

and cares, by the untroubled and impenetrable sky--a place of light and

repose, its pavement illuminated by the sun and countless other shining

bodies--a place of peace, but also a place of power.

[Sidenote: Of evil beings and hell.] Still more, a thousand facts of our

life teach us that we are exposed to influences of an evil nature as

well as to those that are good. How often, in our dreams, does it happen

that we are terror-stricken by the approach of hideous forms, faces of

fearful appearance, from which we vainly struggle to escape. Is it not

natural for us to attribute the evil we see in the world to these as the

good to those? and, since we can not conceive of the existence of beings

without assigning them a place, where shall we find for these malignant

spirits a habitation? Is it not in the dark region beneath the ground,

far away from the realms of light--a region from which, through the

volcano, smoke and burning sulphur are cast into this upper world--a

place of everlasting fire and darkness, whose portals are in caves and

solitudes of unutterable gloom?

[Sidenote: Of man, the supernatural.] Placed thus on the boundary

between such opposing powers, man is the sport of circumstances,

sustained by beings who seek his happiness, and tempted by those who

desire his destruction. Is it at all surprising that, guided by such

obvious thoughts and simple reasonings, he becomes superstitious? that

he sees in every shadow a spirit, and peoples every solitary place with

invisibles? that he casts a longing look to the good beings who can

protect him, seeking to invoke their aid by entreaties, and to

propitiate their help by free-will sacrifices of things that are

pleasant and valuable? Open to such influences himself, why should he

not believe in the efficacy of prayer? His conscious superiority lends

force to his suspicion that he is a worthy object for the opposing

powers to contend for, a conclusion verified by the inward strifes he

feels, as well as by the trials of life to which he is exposed.

[Sidenote: His immortality and future life.] But dreams at night, and

sometimes visions by day, serve to enforce the conclusion that life is

not limited to our transitory continuance here, but endures hereafter.

How often at night do we see the well-known forms of those who have been

dead a long time appearing before us with surprising vividness, and hear

their almost forgotten voices? These are admonitions full of the most

solemn suggestions, profoundly indicating to us that the dead still

continue to exist, and that what has happened to them must also happen

to us, and we too are destined for immortality. Perhaps involuntarily we

associate these conclusions with others, expecting that in a future life

good men will enjoy the society of good beings like themselves, the evil

being dismissed to the realms of darkness and despair. And, as human

experience teaches us that a final allotment can only be made by some

superior power, we expect that He who was our Creator shall also be our

Judge; that there is an appointed time and a bar at which the final

destination of all who have lived shall be ascertained, and eternal

justice measure out its punishments and rewards.

[Sidenote: Inducements to morality.] From these considerations there

arises an inducement for us to lead a virtuous life, abstaining from

wickedness and wrong; to set apart a body of men who may mediate for us,

and teach us by precept and example the course it is best for us to

pursue; to consecrate places, such as groves or temples, as the more

immediate habitations of the Deity to which we may resort.

Such are the leading doctrines of Natural Theology of primitive man both

in the old and new continent. They arise from the operations of the

human mind considering the fitness of things.

Just as we have in Comparative Anatomy the structure of different

animals examined, and their identities and differences set forth,

thereby establishing their true relations; just as we have in

Comparative Physiology the functions of one organic being compared with

those of another, to the end that we may therefrom deduce their proper

connexions, so, from the mythologies of various races of men, a

Comparative Theology may be constructed. [Sidenote: Course of

Comparative Theology.] Through such a science alone can correct

conclusions be arrived at respecting this, the most important of the

intellectual operations of man--the definite process of his religious

opinions. But it must be borne in mind that Comparative Theology

illustrates the result or effect of the phase of life, and is not its

cause.

[Sidenote: Corrections of anthropocentric ideas.] As man advances in

knowledge he discovers that of his primitive conclusions some are

doubtless erroneous, and many require better evidence to establish their

truth incontestably. A more prolonged and attentive examination gives

him reason, in some of the most important particulars, to change his

mind. He finds that the earth on which he lives is not a floor covered

over with a starry dome, as he once supposed, but a globe self-balanced

in space. The crystalline vault, or sky, is recognized to be an optical

deception. It rests upon the earth nowhere, and is no boundary at all;

there is no kingdom of happiness above it, but a limitless space,

adorned with planets and suns. Instead of a realm of darkness and woe in

the depths on the other side of the earth, men like ourselves are found

there, pursuing, in Australia and New Zealand, the innocent pleasures

and encountering the ordinary labours of life. By the aid of such lights

as knowledge gradually supplies, he comes at last to discover that this,

our terrestrial habitation, instead of being a chosen, a sacred spot, is

only one of similar myriads, more numerous than the sands of the sea,

and prodigally scattered through space.

[Sidenote: Consequence of discovering the form of the earth.] Never,

perhaps, was a more important truth discovered. All the visible evidence

was in direct opposition to it. [Sidenote: Detection of its

insignificance.] The earth, which had hitherto seemed to be the very

emblem of immobility, was demonstrated to be carried with a double

motion, with prodigious velocity, through the heavens; the rising and

setting of the stars were proved to be an illusion; and, as respects the

size of the globe, it was shown to be altogether insignificant when

compared with multitudes of other neighbouring ones--insignificant

doubly by reason of its actual dimensions, and by the countless numbers

of others like it in form, and doubtless, like it, the abodes of many

orders of life.

And so it turns out that our earth is a globe of about twenty-five

thousand miles in circumference. The voyager who circumnavigates it

spends no inconsiderable portion of his life in accomplishing his task.

It moves round the sun in a year, but at so great a distance from that

luminary that, if seen from him, it would look like a little spark

traversing the sky. It is thus recognized as one of the members of the

solar system. [Sidenote: Other solar bodies.] Other similar bodies, some

of which are of larger, some of smaller dimensions, perform similar

revolutions round the sun in appropriate periods of time.

[Sidenote: Magnitude of the universe.] If the magnitude of the earth be

too great for us to attach to it any definite conception, what shall we

say of the compass of the solar system? There is a defect in the human

intellect which incapacitates us for comprehending distances and periods

that are either too colossal or too minute. We gain no clearer insight

into the matter when we are told that a comet which does not pass beyond

the bounds of the system, may perhaps be absent on its journey for more

than a thousand years. Distances and periods such as these are beyond

our grasp. They prove to us how far human reason excels imagination, the

one measuring and comparing things of which the other can form no

conception, but in the attempt is utterly bewildered and lost.

[Sidenote: The infinity of worlds.] But as there are other globes like

our earth, so too there are other worlds like our solar system. There

are self-luminous suns exceeding in number all computation. The

dimensions of this earth pass into nothingness in comparison with the

dimensions of the solar system, and that system, in its turn, is only an

invisible point if placed in relation with the countless hosts of other

systems which form, with it, clusters of stars. Our solar system, far

from being alone in the universe, is only one of an extensive

brotherhood, bound by common laws and subject to like influences. Even

on the very verge of creation, where imagination might lay the beginning

of the realms of chaos, we see unbounded proofs of order, a regularity

in the arrangement of inanimate things, suggesting to us that there are

other intellectual creatures like us, the tenants of those islands in

the abysses of space.

Though it may take a beam of light a million of years to bring to our

view those distant worlds, the end is not yet. Far away in the depths of

space we catch the faint gleams of other groups of stars like our own.

The finger of a man can hide them in their remoteness. Their vast

distances from one another have dwindled into nothing. They and their

movements have lost all individuality; the innumerable suns of which

they are composed blend all their collected light into one pale milky

glow.

[Sidenote: Insignificance of man.] Thus extending our view from the

earth to the solar system, from the solar system to the expanse of the

group of stars to which we belong, we behold a series of gigantic

nebular creations rising up one after another, and forming greater and

greater colonies of worlds. No numbers can express them, for they make

the firmament a haze of stars. Uniformity, even though it be the

uniformity of magnificence, tires at last, and we abandon the survey,

for our eyes can only behold a boundless prospect, and conscience tells

us our own unspeakable insignificance.

[Sidenote: Triumph of scientific truth.] But what has become of the

time-honoured doctrine of the human destiny of the universe? that

doctrine for the sake of which the controversy I have described in this

chapter was raised. It has disappeared. In vain was Bruno burnt and

Galileo imprisoned; the truth forced its way, in spite of all

opposition, at last. The end of the conflict was a total rejection of

authority and tradition, and the adoption of scientific truth.