SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Will you permit a constant reader of the Spectator to question a piece of reasoning contained in the editorial foot- note to Mr. Sedley Taylor's letter ? " Copernicanism," you say, "was never condemned. Galileo's treatise on the helio- centric system was condemned." Is this anything better than a quibble P For what is Copernicanism but the hypothesis that the earth moves round the sun, and what was it but this very hypothesis that the Congregation of the Inquisition condemned in Galileo's treatise P Copernicus, it is true, dedicated his book to the reigning Pope, Paul III., and received on his death-bed (if he ever did receive it) a complimentary acknowledgment from him ; but it is surely too much to call such an informal act, performed at such a moment, "the sanction of the Pope of his day." The only formal official notice the Papacy has ever taken of the new system is its condemnation in the case of Galileo ; and that condemnation has never been retracted.—I am, Sir, &c., H. R. REICHEL. University College, Bangor, September 9th.
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