Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Feeemasons' Quarterly Magazine And Review.
him , by threats of torture and torture itself , the abjuration ofthe truth , —which he yet Avould not mentally gainsay , as he testified , when , stamping his foot upon the earth , he muttered , " yet it moves . " But the Church of Rome had decided that the earth stands still , and therefore nothing
must oppose her edict . Two centuries have rolled away since this decision ; succeeding discoveries have placed Galileo in that niche of immortality , from which no effort of vindictive hatred can ever remove him . The testimony of two centuries ,
—centuries in which the progress of knowledge has made greater advances than during the whole period , from the first hour , when the G . A . O . T . U . commanded Light to spring forth and illumine a new-created world , to the £ era , when men could no longer endure the mental and bodily tyranny , with which
dwarfed intellects and degraded humanity controlled them;—the testimony of tAvo centuries , Ave say , has stereotyped the fact that Galileo ivas right , and Rome was wrong . Hundreds of members of that communion have learned
that the decision of their Church ivas , in this case , as in many others , but " The baseless fabric of a vision , " and yet they dare not proclaim the falsehood to the world , because the decree that made the mighty astronomer lie
against his OAvn soul , has not to t ? iis hour been repealed . But Avhy dwell we on this damning proof of degrading bigotry ? This might pass ; the world might be alloAved to suppose that circumstances had prevented a repeal of a decree so monstrous as that ivhich still asserts that the earth
is a fixture in the midst of space , and that the difficulty of abrogating a determination so preposterous , is found in the maintenance ofthe claim to Infallibility—the basis of Rome's presumed pretensions . Liberality of thought and sentiment would lain hope—even against hope—that the mistake had
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Feeemasons' Quarterly Magazine And Review.
him , by threats of torture and torture itself , the abjuration ofthe truth , —which he yet Avould not mentally gainsay , as he testified , when , stamping his foot upon the earth , he muttered , " yet it moves . " But the Church of Rome had decided that the earth stands still , and therefore nothing
must oppose her edict . Two centuries have rolled away since this decision ; succeeding discoveries have placed Galileo in that niche of immortality , from which no effort of vindictive hatred can ever remove him . The testimony of two centuries ,
—centuries in which the progress of knowledge has made greater advances than during the whole period , from the first hour , when the G . A . O . T . U . commanded Light to spring forth and illumine a new-created world , to the £ era , when men could no longer endure the mental and bodily tyranny , with which
dwarfed intellects and degraded humanity controlled them;—the testimony of tAvo centuries , Ave say , has stereotyped the fact that Galileo ivas right , and Rome was wrong . Hundreds of members of that communion have learned
that the decision of their Church ivas , in this case , as in many others , but " The baseless fabric of a vision , " and yet they dare not proclaim the falsehood to the world , because the decree that made the mighty astronomer lie
against his OAvn soul , has not to t ? iis hour been repealed . But Avhy dwell we on this damning proof of degrading bigotry ? This might pass ; the world might be alloAved to suppose that circumstances had prevented a repeal of a decree so monstrous as that ivhich still asserts that the earth
is a fixture in the midst of space , and that the difficulty of abrogating a determination so preposterous , is found in the maintenance ofthe claim to Infallibility—the basis of Rome's presumed pretensions . Liberality of thought and sentiment would lain hope—even against hope—that the mistake had