Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1856-10-31


medataliye hour during a years resi-
dence, than to the spot where Calico
Galilei sleeps beneath the marble floor Of
Santa Croce: no building on which l
gazed with greater reverence, than / did
upon the modest mansion of Arcetri, villa
at once and prison, in which that vener-
able sage, by command of the Inquisitioi,
passed the sad closing years of his life;-I
the beloved daughter on whom he had
depended to smooth his passage to the
grave, laid there before him; the eyes
with which he had discovered worlds be-
fore unknown, quenched in blindness.
That was the house, where" says
Milton, (another of those of whom the
world was not worthy Il found and Wis
tied the famous Calico, grown old,-a
| prisoner to the Inquisition, for thinking
on astronomy, otherwise than as the
Dominican and Franciscan licensers
thought" prose works, vol. !, p. 313)
Great heavens what a tribunal, what
culprit, what a crime! Let US thank
God, my friends, that we live in the nine
teenth century. Of all the wonders of
ancient or modern art,-statues and
paintings, and jewels and manuscripts,
the admiration and delight of ages
there was rothing that l beheld with
more affectionate awe, than that poor
rough tube, few feet in length,-the
work of his own hands,-fhat very op-
ticglass, Through which the Tuscan
Artist viewed the moon,
"At evening from the top of Fiesole
I Or in Valdarno to descry new lands,
Rivers or mountains, in her spOtty globe"
that poor little spy-glass (Gor it is scarce
ly more) through which the human eye
first distinctly beheld the surface of the
moon,-frst discovered the phases of
Venus, the satellites of Jupiter, and
the seeming handles of Saturn,-frst
penetrated the dusky depth of the hea-
yens,-frst pierced the clouds of visual
error, which from the creation of the
world involved the system of the Uni
verse.
There are occasions in life in which a
great mind lives years of rapt enjoyment
| in moment. L can fancy the emotions
t Of Calico, when, first raising the newly.
: constructed telescope to the heavens, he
saw fulfilled the grand phophecy of Co.
pernicus, and beheld the planet Venus
crescent ike the moon. Ii was such an
other moment as that when the imm0r.
tai printers Of Mentz and Srasburg, re.
ceived the first copy of the Bible into
their hands, the work Of their divine art
e like that when Columbus, through tlC
! gray dawn Of the 18th of October, 1882
: (Copernicus, at the age of Is, was then !;
student at Cracow,) beheld the shores o
| San Salyador,-like that when the Law
of gravitation first revealed itself to tn,
intellect of Newton that whei
Franklin saw by the stihening libres 0
the hempen cord Of his kite, that he hel,
the lightning in his grasp,-like tha
when Leverrier received back from Ber
f lin the tidings that the predicted plane
was found.
Yes, Noble Calico, thou art right,
q par So muOUe. 1t does move" Bigot
may make thee recant it; but it move
o nevertheless. Yes, the earth moves, an
q the planets moye,-and the mighty water
move and the great sweeping tides c
. air moye,-and the empires Of men move
). and the World of Thought moves, exc
y onward and upward to higher facts an
; bo!der theories. The Inquisition ma
\ seal thy lips, but they can no more sto
h the progress of the great truth propount
o ed by Copernicus and demonstrated b
ic thee, than they can stop the regolyin
! earth.
,f Close now, venerable sage, that sigh
! less, fearful eye; it has seen what ma
= never before saw ;--it has seen enough
: Hang up that poor little spy-glass it h;
"A done its work. Not Herscheu nor Ro.
i. have comparatively done more. Fral
70 ciscans and Dominieans deride thy di
a. coveries now, but the time win con
10 when from two hundred obsergatories
- Europe and America the glorious arti
n, lery of science shall nightly assault Il
in skies, but they shall gain no eonquests
10 those glittering fields before which tliir
40 shall be forgotten. Rest in peace. gre
- Columbus of the Heavens, ike hi
70 scorned, prosecuted, broken-hearted,
"A other ages, in distant hemispheres, VIII
ae the yoiaries Of science, with solemn as
: OF conservation shall dedicate their state
!, edifees to the cause Of knowledge Al
a truth, thy name shall be mentioned wi
honor.