have forborne to speak of.' 'What is it to me,' he adds, whether heaven, as a sphere, on all sides environs the earth, balanced in the middle of the world, or whether, like a dish, it only covers and overshadows the same?' And he then throws out a salutary caution against appealing to Scripture in such cases, lest, misunderstanding the divine expressions, we should give interpretations; in physical subjects, which may prove to be contrary to fact, and so tempt others to suspect the truth of the sacred writers in more profitable matters.*

* Quæri etiam solet, quæ forma et figura cœli esse credenda sit secundum scripturas nostras. Multi enim multum disputant de iis rebus, quas majore prudentia nostri auctores omiserunt, ad beatam vitam non profuturas discentibus, et occupantes (quod pejus est multum) preciosa et rebus salubribus impendenda temporum spatia. Quid enim ad me pertinet, utrum cœlum sicut sphæra undique concludat terram in media mundi mole libratam, an eam ex una parte desuper velut discus operiat? Sed quia de fide agitur scripturarum, propter illam causam quam non semel commemoravi-ne quisquam eloquia divina non intelligens, cum de his rebus tale aliquid vel invenerit in libris nostris vel ex illis audierit, quod perceptis à se rationibus adversari videatur, nullo modo eis cætera utilia monentibus, vel narrantibus, vel pronunciantibus, credat―breviter dicendum est, de figura cœli hoc scisse auctores nostros quod veritas habet sed Spiritum Dei qui per ipsos loquebatur noluisse ista docere homines nulli saluti profutura.'-Aug. de Genesi ad Lit. lib. II. cap. ix. § 20.

The following remarks of Lactantius, a Christian writer at the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth century (or some writer using his name), against the rotundity of the earth and the existence of antipodes, afford a curious specimen of the arguments which sway the mind when devoid of what Dr. Whewell so aptly designates, in his 'History of the Inductive Sciences,' 'the appropriate idea :'

'Quid illi, qui esse contrarios vestigiis nostris Antipodas putant, num aliquid loquuntur? aut est quisquam tam ineptus qui credat esse homines, quorum vestigia sint superiora quam capita? aut ibi quæ apud nos jacent, inversa pendere? fruges et arbores deorsum

Motion of the

4. The great controversy in which Galileo bore so conspicuous a part, regarding the motion of the earth, furnishes a further and very striking illustration, from the history of the past, of Earth. the mischief of bringing Scripture to bear upon scientific questions. We may be inclined, perhaps, to smile at the doubts and difficulties which beset men in those days on points which appear so simple to us, and which every child knows. But we must remember that they were good and learned men who debated on these matters. In the struggles of that period,

Nam

versus crescere? pluvias et nives, et grandinem sursum versus cadere in terram? Et miratur aliquis hortos pensiles inter septem mira narrari, quum philosophi et agros, et maria, et urbes, et montes pensiles faciant? Hujus quoque erroris aperienda nobis origo est. semper eodem modo falluntur. Quum enim falsum aliquid in principio sumserint, verisimilitudine inducti, necesse est eos in ea, quæ consequuntur, incurrere. Sic incidunt in multa ridicula: quia necesse est falsa esse, quæ rebus falsis congruunt. Quum autem primis habuerint fidem, qualia sunt ea, quæ sequuntur, non circumspiciunt, sed defendunt omni modo; quum debeant prima illa utrumne vera sint an falsa ex consequentibus judicare. Quæ igitur illos ad Antipodas ratio perduxit? Videbant siderum cursus in occasum meantium, solem atque lunam in eandem partem semper occidere, et oriri semper ab eadem. Quum autem non perspicerent, quæ machinatio cursus eorum temperaret, nec quomodo ab occasu ad orientem remearent, cœlum autem ipsum in omnes partes putarent esse devexum, quod sic videri propter immensam latitudinem necesse est; existimaverunt rotundum esse mundum, sicut pilam et ex motu siderum opinati sunt cœlum volvi; sic astra solemque, quum occiderint, volubilitate ipsa mundi ad ortum referri. Itaque et æreos orbes fabricati sunt quasi ad figuram mundi, eosque cælarunt portentosis quibusdam simulacris, quæ astra esse dicerent. Hanc igitur cœli rotunditatem illud sequebatur, ut terra in medio sinu ejus esset inclusa. Quod si ita esset, etiam ipsam terram globo similem ; neque enim fieri posset, ut non esset rotundum quod rotundo conclusum teneretur. Si autem rotunda etiam terra esset, necesse esse, ut in omnes cœli partes eandem faciem gerat, id est, montes erigat, compos tendat, maria consternat.

between reason and observation on the one hand, and Scripture, or rather Scripture falsely interpreted, on the other, and in the old prepossessions which the men of those days had to abandon, we see the very same causes at work, which still, under new circumstances, agitate and confuse religious but uninstructed minds. Nothing could be more clear, they then thought, than the testimony of Scripture- the world also is established, that it CANNOT BE MOVED' (Ps. xciii. 1). Even so late an author as Calvin, the erudite and sagacious commentator, drew from this passage the inference that the earth is motionless.* The old Ptolemaic system, which had so blinded men for ages, chiefly under the authority of Aristotle, was only beginning about that time to meet its death-blow; and the new ideas had not yet reached the study of the learned reformer. Eleven centuries before him, when Pythagorean notions Quod si esset, etiam sequebatur illud extremum, ut nulla sit pars terræ, quæ non ab hominibus ceterisque animalibus incolatur. Sic pendulos istos Antipodas cœli rotunditas adinvenit. Quod si quæras ab iis, qui hæc portenta defendunt, quomodo non cadunt omnia in inferiorem illam cœli partem? respondent hanc rerum esse naturam, ut pondera in medium ferantur, et ad medium connexa sint omnia, sicut radios videmus in rota; quæ autem levia sunt, ut nebula, fumus, ignis, a medio deferantur, ut cœlum petant. Quid dicam de iis nescio, qui, quum semel aberraverint, constanter in stultitia perseverant, et vanis vana defendunt, nisi quod eos interdum puto aut joci causa philosophari, aut prudentes et scios mendacia defendenda suscipere, quasi ut ingenia sua in malis rebus exerceant vel ostentent. At ego multis argumentis probare possem nullo modo fieri posse, ut cœlum terra sit inferius, nisi et liber jam concludendus esset, et adhuc aliqua restarent, quæ magis sunt præsenti operi necessaria: et quoniam singulorum errores percurrere non est unius libri opus, satis sit pauca enumerasse, ex quibus possit, qualia sint cetera, intelligi.'-Lactantii Omnia Opera, Oxon. 1684. Institut. lib. III. cap. xxiv.

* Ps. xciii. 1.—The Psalmist proves that God will not neglect or

had not been so entirely eclipsed, Augustine refers to the controversy thus: Some ask the question, Is the heaven at rest, or does it move? If it moves, they say, how is it a firmament? If it is at rest, how do the

stars, which are supposed to be fixed in it, move from the east to the west ?'* Augustine avoids coming to a decision, on the plea of want of leisure to discuss it, and absence of profit to his hearers. Mixed up, however, as the question is in the above statement of the case with the error regarding the firmament, it is doubtful whether they could have come to a correct result; and we see the mischief which is likely to ensue from our taking our ideas of natural phenomena from Scripture language in the first instance, and shutting our eyes to the just conclusions of reason.

Other Scripture texts were forced into this unholy warfare. 'God. . . who laid the foundations of the

The

abandon the world, from the fact that He created it. A simple survey of the world should of itself suffice to attest a Divine Providence. The heavens revolve daily, and, immense as is their fabric, and inconceivable the rapidity of their revolutions, we experience no concussion—no disturbance in the harmony of their motion. sun, though varying its course every diurnal revolution, returns annually to the same point. The planets, in all their wanderings, maintain their respective positions. How could the earth hang suspended in the air were it not upheld by God's hand? By what means could it maintain itself unmoved, while the heavens above are in constant rapid motion, did not its Divine Maker fix and establish it? Accordingly the particle, denoting emphasis, is introduced-"YEA, he hath established it."— Commentary on the Psalms, Calvin Translation, Society's Edition.

* De motu etiam cœli nonnulli fratres questionem movent, utrum stet an moveatur: quia si movetur, inquiunt, quomodo firmamentum est? Si autem stat, quomodo sidera, quæ in illo fixa creduntur, ab oriente usque ad occidentem circumeunt?'-Aug. de Gen. lib. II. cap. x.

earth, that it should NOT BE REMOVED FOR EVER,' (Ps. civ. 5). 'One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the EARTH ABIDETH FOR EVER,' (Eccles. i. 4). Then the following were adduced to establish the correlative truth, as they supposed, that the sun is not at rest:-'In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom COMING OUT of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong 'His GOING FORTH is from the end

man to RUN a race.

of the heaven, and his CIRCUIT unto the end of it' (Ps. xix. 4-6). 'The sun also ARISETH, and the sun GOETH DOWN, and HASTETH to his place where he AROSE' (Eccles. i. 5). *

The mischief which this appeal to Scripture did is incalculable. It sanctified error. It confirmed the mind in blunders regarding a fact in nature on which some of the ancients had clear and correct conceptions, till chiefly Aristotle and then Ptolemy also, even after a more complete theory had been suggested to him by

*They resorted to such arguments as the following curious piece of reasoning:-Hell, it had long been supposed, was in the centre of the world. Now, if the sun were at rest, with the earth revolving about it, then the centre of the world would be in the sun. So that hell would be in the sun, and therefore, in fact, be up in heaven - which was too absurd, they thought, to be believed. In laughing at such folly, let us beware lest we be guilty of the same in our way, notwithstanding all the light that knowledge gives us, and all the experience that the history of error and of well-intentioned but ill-directed zeal teaches us.

Another argument was, that heaven and earth are repeatedly mentioned in Scripture as correlative, like the centre and circumference of a circle. Thus the heaven and the earth' (Gen. i. 1), and in a multitude of other texts. Now, said they, the heavens, spread out as they are, must be the circumference; hence, the earth must be the centre, and therefore at rest.