stability of the Sun---
Galileo visits Rome--Is summoned before the Inquisition, and
renounces his opinions as heretical--The Inquisition denounces the
Copernican System--Galileo has an audience of the Pope, but still
maintains his opinions in private society--Proposes to find out the
Longitude at Sea by means of Jupiter's Satellites--His negociation
on this subject with the Court of Spain--Its failure--He is unable
to observe the three Comets of 1618, but is involved in the
controversy to which they gave rise._

The current of Galileo's life had hitherto flowed in a smooth and
unobstructed channel. He had now attained the highest objects of earthly
ambition. His discoveries had placed him at the head of the great men of
the age; he possessed a professional income far beyond his wants, and
even beyond his anticipations; and, what is still dearer to a
philosopher, he enjoyed the most perfect leisure for carrying on and
completing his discoveries. The opposition which these discoveries
encountered, was to him more a subject for triumph than for sorrow.
Prejudice and ignorance were his only enemies; and if they succeeded for
a while in harassing his march, it was only to lay a foundation for
fresh achievements. He who contends for truths which he has himself been
permitted to discover, may well sustain the conflict in which
presumption and error are destined to fall. The public tribunal may
neither be sufficiently pure nor enlightened to decide upon the issue;
but he can appeal to posterity, and reckon with confidence on "its sure
decree."

The ardour of Galileo's mind, the keenness of his temper, his clear
perception of truth, and his inextinguishable love of it, combined to
exasperate and prolong the hostility of his enemies. When argument
failed to enlighten their judgment, and reason to dispel their
prejudices, he wielded against them his powerful weapons of ridicule
and sarcasm; and in this unrelenting warfare, he seems to have forgotten
that Providence had withheld from his enemies those very gifts which he
had so liberally received. He who is allowed to take the start of his
species, and to penetrate the veil which conceals from common minds the
mysteries of nature, must not expect that the world will be patiently
dragged at the chariot wheels of his philosophy. Mind has its inertia as
well as matter; and its progress to truth can only be insured by the
gradual and patien