[116] London, 1809.

[117] In a most able article, by Mr. Drinkwater, on the "Life
of Galileo," published in the "Library of Useful Knowledge," it
is stated that both Galileo's work, and the book of Copernicus,
"Nisi corrigatur" (for, with the omission of certain passages,
it was sanctioned), were still to be seen on the forbidden list
of the Index at Rome, in 1828. I was, however, assured in the
same year, by Professor Scarpellini, at Rome, that Pius VII., a
pontiff distinguished for his love of science, had procured a
repeal of the edicts against Galileo and the Copernican system.
He had assembled the Congregation; and the late Cardinal
Toriozzi, assessor of the Sacred Office, proposed that they
should wipe off this scandal from the church." The repeal was
carried, with the dissentient voice of one Dominican only. Long
before that time the Newtonian theory had been taught in the
Sapienza, and all Catholic universities in Europe (with the
exception, I am told, of Salamanca); but it was always required
of professors, in deference to the decrees of the church, to
use the term _hypothesis_, instead of theory. They now speak of
the Copernican _theory_.

[118] Elementary Treatise on Geology. London, 1809. Translated
by De la Fite.

[119] See Dr. Fitton's Memoir, before cited, p. 57.

[120] Whewell, British Critic, No. xvii. p. 187, 1831.

[121] Discours sur les Ravol. &c.

[122] Niebuhr's Hist. of Rome, vol. i. p. 5. Hare and
Thirlwall's translation.

[123] Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. xxxiii.

[124] Id. Ibid.

[125] In the earlier editions of this work, a fourth book was
added on Geology Proper, or Systematic Geology, containing an
account of the former changes of the animate and inanimate
creation, brought to light by an examination of the crust of
the earth. This I afterwards (in 1838) expanded into a separate
publication called the Elements of Manual Geology, of which a
fourth edition appeared December, 1851.

[126] See two articles by the Rev. Dr. Fleming, in the
Edinburgh New Phil. Journ. No. xii. p. 277, April, 1829; and
No. xv. p. 65, Jan. 1830.

[127] Book iii. chaps. 46, 47, &c.

[128] Macacus pliocenus, Owen, Brit. Foss. Mam. Intr. p. 37,