See Now The Power Of Truth; The

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.

But Of All Other Stupendous Inventions, What Sublimity Of Mind Must Have Been His Who Conceived How To Communicate His Most Secret Thoughts To Any Other Person, Though Very Far Distant Either In Time Or Place? And With No Greater Difficulty Than The Various Arrangement Of Two Dozen Little Signs Upon Paper? Let This Be The Seal Of All The Admirable Inventions Of Man.

Where The Senses Fail Us, Reason Must Step In.

And Believe Me, If I Were Again Beginning My Studies, I Should Follow The Advice Of Plato And Start With The Mathematical Sciences, Which Proceed Very Cautiously And Admit Nothing As Established Until It Has Been Rigorously Demonstrated.

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.