I Would Beg The Wise And Learned

To Command Their Professors Of Astronomy To Refute Their Own Observations Is To Command Them Not To See What They Do See And Not To Understand What They Do Understand.

It Is Necessary For The Bible, In Order To Be Accommodated To The Understanding Of Every Man, To Speak Many Things Which Appear To Differ From The Absolute Truth So Far As The Bare Meaning Of The Words Is Concerned.

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.

I Do Not Know What To Say In A Case So Surprising, So Unlooked For And So Novel.

Take Note, Theologians, That In Your Desire To Make Matters Of Faith Out Of Propositions Relating To The Fixity Of Sun And Earth You Run The Risk Of Eventually Having To Condemn As Heretics Those Who Would Declare The Earth To Stand Still And The Sun To Change Position-eventually, I Say, At Such A Time As It Might Be Physically Or Logically Proved That The Earth Moves And The Sun Stands Still.