But, Because My Private Lectures And Domestic

Knowing Thyself, That Is The Greatest Wisdom.

If Experiments Are Performed Thousands Of Times At All Seasons And In Every Place Without Once Producing The Effects Mentioned By Your Philosophers, Poets, And Historians, This Will Mean Nothing And We Must Believe Their Words Rather Than Our Own Eyes?

Nonetheless, It Moves.

It Seems To Me That It Was Well Said By Madama Serenissima, And Insisted On By Your Reverence, That The Holy Scripture Cannot Err, And That The Decrees Therein Contained Are Absolutely True And Inviolable. But I Should Have In Your Place Added That, Though Scripture Cannot Err, Its Expounders And Interpreters Are Liable To Err In Many Ways; And One Error In Particular Would Be Most Grave And Most Frequent, If We Always Stopped Short At The Literal Signification Of The Words.

And Who Can Doubt That It Will Lead To The Worst Disorders When Minds Created Free By God Are Compelled To Submit Slavishly To An Outside Will? When We Are Told To Deny Our Senses And Subject Them To The Whim Of Others? When People Devoid Of Whatsoever Competence Are Made Judges Over Experts And Are Granted Authority To Treat Them As They Please? These Are The Novelties Which Are Apt To Bring About The Ruin Of Commonwealths And The Subversion Of The State.