New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-08-13

GALILEo'S FALL.-Thc close of the six.
teeth century and the triumphs of the .Jcsuits
gave the final blow to the visor of the Italian
mind. From that inauspcious moment.
save one. no powerful and independent
thinker, no Milton, Bacon, Newton, IIamp.
den, tlourlshcd on the sterile scene of pricstly
tyranny. For two centuries the voice of free
discussion was stilled, the wants and aspir.,-
tons of the people found no utterancc nor
defender, or If one vcnturcd to sigh for new
Italy he was shut up in the cells of the
Roman Inqusition or banishcd to the chill
regions of the North. The dclivcrancc of
Italy from its mental bondage and its spirit
ual foes has come at last from foreign hands
and hostile arms, and the pcrpctuation of
its novel freedom must rest in no slight de-
gree upon the protection of German lord,
Yet it was to Italy that Europe once looked
for its own deliverance from feudal tyranny
and mental decay. Its prosperous republics,
the centres of industry, taught to Germany
and England the chief elements of cviliza-
ton; the poets OF Tuscany awakened the
European intellect. But for Dante and
Petrarch there could have been no Shak-
spearc nor Srenser; and when in its last
decline, in the close of the sixteenth century,
The poison OF plcstly tyranny had dissolved
all its members, when there was no room for
letters and no hope of mental advance, the
genius OF Italy had already clothed tselfin
the gusc OF painters and sculptors, and COW
cred with a cloud of artistic glory a land that
was swiftly perishing in the deadly embrace
ofpOpes and kings.
The trial and Imprisonment of Calico
form the final scene in the death of the Ital-
ian intellect. The most eminent genius OF
his country, ii not of his age, almost the
founder OF modern science, the peer and
contemporary of Shakespeare, Bacon, Milton,
the successor of Michael Angelo, had Cali
leo obtained an utterancc in Italy for scien-
tiiic truth. the spell that rested upon her
might have been broken. There might
nave doomed once more Il literature tou, he'd
by the free spirit of Dante, political pro-
9ress that would have reelected the Iuritanic
revolutions of the North. But with Calico
lell the independence of Italian thought
His abjuration is the saddcst picture in
modern intellectual history. Conscious Of
the truth, he was condemned to renounce il
and repeat a talschood. The Newton, the
llerschcl Of his age, he was forced to ALLURE
the faVortc studies of his life, and pause
forever in that path of scientific discovery
which had already made Italy famous All
the world witnessed his fall, AMI he whose
eye had first pierced the mysterious vault
above, who of all his race had first brought
back tidings OF new suns and planets in its
sublime abyss, yielded to the terrors OF tor
ture, the fear OF death, and sacrificed the
integrity ofhis soul to the menaccs of church.
With malignant joy the Jesuits saw the last
great Italian perish with their tolls, and
were perhaps satisfied with the humiliation
of Calico.
When, at the close of his splendid career.
covered with renown, yet shut up i'm his villa
at Arcelri, the prisoner of the Inluistion,
watched by cnvious eyes, threatened, should
he nurmur or rebel, with the most dreadful
punlshments of the church, Calico, sick and
worn with age and sorrow, lamented in let
tiers to his friends that he had ever yentured
upon those fatal studies which had served
only to bring upon him persecution and
shame, a far-haired, blue-eyed poet from
the clouded North, who was Just entering
with an equal ardor upon the search for
truth, visited the bright skies of Florence
saw with aslonishment the Imprisonment OF
Its greatest genius, and heard, perhaps,
from his own lips the unmcrred sorrows that
had fallen upon his later years. 1t was
Milton lamenting for Calico. In the cult
waited society OF Florence the young Englisl,
scholar must often have remembered the
lonely prisoner who, shut out from all the
Pleasures of intellectual intercourse, was
confined in the distant villa. Milton at
Florence wrote verses, was complimented in
graceful stanzas, and was not slow to return
the elegant adulatiOn. Yet with all the
more intelligent Florcntines he saw typilied
in the fate OF Galilee the quick extinction OF
Italian letters. In his defense of the freedom
of the press, he relates to the English public
how 4 severe lnquisiton had checked at
Florence all mental progress, how the &C.
complished Florentines lamcnted that they
had not been born in land like England
where learning was free, how nothing was
now written in Italy but 'ilattery and
fustian," There he adds, sit was that !
found aud visited the famous Calico
grown old, a prisoner to the InquisitiOn. u
The spectacle of the great philosopher, 81.
lence, terrified, cOntemneP never passed
from his mind. In his youth he had lamcn.
cd over him tenderly. In manhood, when
mental tyranny like that which hung O, Ct
Italy seemed about to envelop all Englar d
and Il prosecuting church and despcti(
king had nearly subdued its virtue, Milton
instructed by the fate of Italian thought, led
on the defenders of freedom. And when, in
his old age, blind and forsakcn like Calico
he poured forth in sonOrous strains the
treasures of life Ofstudy, one of his most
splendid SMILES, one of his most touching
illusions, Is when he paints the Tuscan
artist on the height of Ficsole, and makes
the chief glory of science lend aid to the inn
mortal grandeur of his sOng.-EuGENE LAW.
RENEE, i'll Ha,per's Magoane for Anyust.