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HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE

received, with the harsh treatment experienced in theother cases, where precisely the same system w T as in-culcated. We shall, however, take occasion to recur tothis subject at a future stage of our history; and willnow return to Galileo. i

The boldness with which his speculations were car-ried on, and the uncompromising freedom with whichhe advocated his views, and attacked those of the Aris-totelians, soon attracted the notice of the Inquisition ;and, in l6l5, he was summoned to appear at Rome tomeet the charges which might be brought against him.Meanwhile his powerful friends, and especially thegrand duke, seem to have exerted their influence in hisfavour as much as they dared ; and succeeded so far asto obtain a mitigation of the severity of the proceedings.The decision of the tribunal was, that cardinal Bellar-mine should, on their behalf, reprimand Galileo, andenjoin him to abandon and cease to teach his false,impious, and heretical opinions. This was accordinglydone, Feb. 26. I6l6, under the threat of imprison-ment and severer measures if he refused. Galileocould, of course, do no otherwise, in common prudence,than submit ; and accordingly, on making this forciblyextorted promise, he was discharged.

Returning to Florence, he continued his researchesand studies with unabated ardour. This, indeed, wasin no way at variance with the wrongfully extorted,agreement into which he had been forced. And heemployed himself in drawing up what was in fact acovert but complete defence of the Copernican system ;though in no degree transgressing even the letter of hispromise; since it was composed under the form of adialogue, in which the case is fairly argued out onboth sides, and the reader forms his own conclusion.In 1630, he had completed this great work, which wasentitled “ Dialogues on the Ptolemaic and CopernicanSystems;” but considerable delay occurred in obtainingthe necessary permission for its publication. It, how-ever, appeared in 1632, with a dedication to the grand