1 JUNE 1889, Page 25

Galileo and his Judges. By F. R. Wegg-Prosser. (Chapman and

Hall.)—Mr. Wegg-Prosser's thesis may be briefly given in his own words : "The principle on which the Roman Congregations acted in Galileo's case was sound, but the application of it in the particular instance mistaken and injudicious ;" or, to quote him again : "The Catholic Church has a right to lay her restraining hand on the speculations of Natural Science." His book is a calm and temperate argument on behalf of the principle here enunciated, and an examination of the action of the authorities in this par- ticular case. It seems to us a very perilous prerogative to claim, and one that may easily bring theology into a hopeless impasse.