Books: History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science

J >> John William Draper >> History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science

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At this time it had become clear from mechanical considerations,
more especially such as had been deduced by Newton, that, since
the earth is a rotating body, her form cannot be that of a
perfect sphere, but must be that of a spheroid, oblate or
flattened at the poles. It would follow, from this, that the
length of a degree must be greater near the poles than at the
equator.

The French Academy resolved to extend Picard's operation, by
prolonging the measures in each direction, and making the result
the basis of a more accurate map of France. Delays, however, took
place, and it was not until 1718 that the measures, from Dunkirk
on the north to the southern extremity of France, were completed.
A discussion arose as to the interpretation of these measures,
some affirming that they indicated a prolate, others an oblate
spheroid; the former figure may be popularly represented by a
lemon, the latter by an orange. To settle this, the French
Government, aided by the Academy, sent out two expeditions to
measure degrees of the meridian--one under the equator, the other
as far north as possible; the former went to Peru, the latter to
Swedish Lapland. Very great difficulties were encountered by both
parties. The Lapland commission, however, completed its
observations long before the Peruvian, which consumed not less
than nine years. The results of the measures thus obtained
confirmed the theoretical expectation of the oblate form. Since
that time many extensive and exact repetitions of the observation
have been made, among which may be mentioned those of the English
in England and in India, and particularly that of the French on
the occasion of the introduction of the metric system of weights
and measures. It was begun by Delambre and Mechain, from Dunkirk
to Barcelona, and thence extended, by Biot and Arago, to the
island of Formentera near Minorea. Its length was nearly twelve
and a half degrees.

Besides this method of direct measurement, the figure of the
earth may be determined from the observed number of oscillations
made by a pendulum of invariable length in different latitudes.
These, though they confirm the foregoing results, give a somewhat
greater ellipticity to the earth than that found by the
measurement of degrees. Pendulums vibrate more slowly the nearer
they are to the equator. It follows, therefore, that they are
there farther from the centre of the earth.

From the most reliable measures that have been made, the
dimensions of the earth may be thus stated:

Greater or equatorial diameter ............. 7,925 miles.
Less or polar diameter ......................7,899 "
Difference or polar compression ............. 26 "

Such was the result of the discussion respecting the figure and
size of the earth. While it was yet undetermined, another
controversy arose, fraught with even more serious consequences.
This was the conflict respecting the earth's position with regard
to the sun and the planetary bodies.

Copernicus, a Prussian, about the year 1507, had completed a book
"On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies." He had journeyed to
Italy in his youth, had devoted his attention to astronomy, and
had taught mathematics at Rome. From a profound study of the
Ptolemaic and Pythagorean systems, he had come to a conclusion in
favor of the latter, the object of his book being to sustain it.
Aware that his doctrines were totally opposed to revealed truth,
and foreseeing that they would bring upon him the punishments of
the Church, be expressed himself in a cautious and apologetic
manner, saying that he had only taken the liberty of trying
whether, on the supposition of the earth's motion, it was
possible to find better explanations than the ancient ones of the
revolutions of the celestial orbs; that in doing this he had only
taken the privilege that had been allowed to others, of feigning
what hypothesis they chose. The preface was addressed to Pope
Paul III.

Full of misgivings as to what might be the result, he refrained
from publishing his book for thirty-six years, thinking that
"perhaps it might be better to follow the examples of the
Pythagoreans and others, who delivered their doctrine only by
tradition and to friends." At the entreaty of Cardinal Schomberg
he at length published it in 1543. A copy of it was brought to
him on his death-bed. Its fate was such as he had anticipated.
The Inquisition condemned it as heretical. In their decree,
prohibiting it, the Congregation of the Index denounced his
system as "that false Pythagorean doctrine utterly contrary to
the Holy Scriptures."

Astronomers justly affirm that the book of Copernicus, "De
Revolutionibus," changed the face of their science. It
incontestably established the heliocentric theory. It showed that
the distance of the fixed stars is infinitely great, and that the
earth is a mere point in the heavens. Anticipating Newton,
Copernicus imputed gravity to the sun, the moon, and heavenly
bodies, but he was led astray by assuming that the celestial
motions must be circular. Observations on the orbit of Mars, and
his different diameters at different times, had led Copernicus to
his theory.

In thus denouncing the Copernican system as being in
contradiction to revelation, the ecclesiastical authorities were
doubtless deeply moved by inferential considerations. To dethrone
the earth from her central dominating position, to give her many
equals and not a few superiors, seemed to diminish her claims
upon the Divine regard. If each of the countless myriads of stars
was a sun, surrounded by revolving globes, peopled with
responsible beings like ourselves, if we had fallen so easily and
had been redeemed at so stupendous a price as the death of the
Son of God, how was it with them? Of them were there none who had
fallen or might fall like us? Where, then, for them could a
Savior be found?

During the year 1608 one Lippershey, a Hollander, discovered
that, by looking through two glass lenses, combined in a certain
manner together, distant objects were magnified and rendered very
plain. He had invented the telescope. In the following year
Galileo, a Florentine, greatly distinguished by his mathematical
and scientific writings, hearing of the circumstance, but without
knowing the particulars of the construction, invented a form of
the instrument for himself. Improving it gradually, he succeeded
in making one that. could magnify thirty times. Examining the
moon, he found that she had valleys like those of the earth, and
mountains casting shadows. It had been said in the old times that
in the Pleiades there were formerly seven stars, but a legend
related that one of them had mysteriously disappeared. On turning
his telescope toward them, Galileo found that he could easily
count not fewer than forty. In whatever direction he looked, be
discovered stars that were totally invisible to the naked eye.

On the night of January 7, 1610, he perceived three small stars
in a straight line, adjacent to the planet Jupiter, and, a few
evenings later, a fourth. He found that these were revolving in
orbits round the body of the planet, and, with transport,
recognized that they presented a miniature representation of the
Copernican system.

The announcement of these wonders at once attracted universal
attention. The spiritual authorities were not slow to detect
their tendency, as endangering the doctrine that the universe was
made for man. In the creation of myriads of stars, hitherto
invisible, there must surely have been some other motive than
that of illuminating the nights for him.

It had been objected to the Copernican theory that, if the
planets Mercury and Venus move round the sun in orbits interior
to that of the earth, they ought to show phases like those of the
moon; and that in the case of Venus, which is so brilliant and
conspicuous, these phases should be very obvious. Copernicus
himself had admitted the force of the objection, and had vainly
tried to find an explanation. Galileo, on turning his telescope
to the planet, discovered that the expected phases actually
exist; now she was a crescent, then half-moon, then gibbous, then
full. Previously to Copernicus, it was supposed that the planets
shine by their own light, but the phases of Venus and Mars proved
that their light is reflected. The Aristotelian notion, that
celestial differ from terrestrial bodies in being incorruptible,
received a rude shock from the discoveries of Galileo, that there
are mountains and valleys in the moon like those of the earth,
that the sun is not perfect, but has spots on his face, and that
he turns on his axis instead of being in a state of majestic
rest. The apparition of new stars had already thrown serious
doubts on this theory of incorruptibility.

These and many other beautiful telescopic discoveries tended to
the establishment of the truth of the Copernican theory and gave
unbounded alarm to the Church. By the low and ignorant
ecclesiastics they were denounced as deceptions or frauds. Some
affirmed that the telescope might be relied on well enough for
terrestrial objects, but with the heavenly bodies it was
altogether a different affair. Others declared that its invention
was a mere application of Aristotle's remark that stars could be
seen in the daytime from the bottom of a deep well. Galileo was
accused of imposture, heresy, blasphemy, atheism. With a view of
defending himself, he addressed a letter to the Abbe Castelli,
suggesting that the Scriptures were never intended to be a
scientific authority, but only a moral guide. This made matters
worse. He was summoned before the Holy Inquisition, under an
accusation of having taught that the earth moves round the sun, a
doctrine "utterly contrary to the Scriptures." He was ordered to
renounce that heresy, on pain of being imprisoned. He was
directed to desist from teaching and advocating the Copernican
theory, and pledge himself that he would neither publish nor
defend it for the future. Knowing well that Truth has no need of
martyrs, be assented to the required recantation, and gave the
promise demanded.

For sixteen years the Church had rest. But in 1632 Galileo
ventured on the publication of his work entitled "The System of
the World," its object being the vindication of the Copernican
doctrine. He was again summoned before the Inquisition at Rome,
accused of having asserted that the earth moves round the sun. He
was declared to have brought upon himself the penalties of
heresy. On his knees, with his hand on the Bible, he was
compelled to abjure and curse the doctrine of the movement of the
earth. What a spectacle! This venerable man, the most illustrious
of his age, forced by the threat of death to deny facts which his
judges as well as himself knew to be true! He was then committed
to prison, treated with remorseless severity during the remaining
ten years of his life, and was denied burial in consecrated
ground. Must not that be false which requires for its support so
much imposture, so much barbarity? The opinions thus defended by
the Inquisition are now objects of derision to the whole
civilized world.

One of the greatest of modern mathematicians, referring to this
subject, says that the point here contested was one which is for
mankind of the highest interest, because of the rank it assigns
to the globe that we inhabit. If the earth be immovable in the
midst of the universe, man has a right to regard himself as the
principal object of the care of Nature. But if the earth be only
one of the planets revolving round the sun, an insignificant body
in the solar system, she will disappear entirely in the immensity
of the heavens, in which this system, vast as it may appear to
us, is nothing but an insensible point.

The triumphant establishment of the Copernican doctrine dates
from the invention of the telescope. Soon there was not to be
found in all Europe an astronomer who had not accepted the
heliocentric theory with its essential postulate, the double
motion of the earth-- movement of rotation on her axis, and a
movement of revolution round the sun. If additional proof of the
latter were needed, it was furnished by Bradley's great discovery
of the aberration of the fixed stars, an aberration depending
partly on the progressive motion of light, and partly on the
revolution of the earth. Bradley's discovery ranked in importance
with that of the precession of the equinoxes. Roemer's discovery
of the progressive motion of light, though denounced by
Fontenelle as a seductive error, and not admitted by Cassini, at
length forced its way to universal acceptance.

Next it was necessary to obtain correct ideas of the dimensions
of the solar system, or, putting the problem under a more limited
form, to determine the distance of the earth from the sun.

In the time of Copernicus it was supposed that the sun's distance
could not exceed five million miles, and indeed there were many
who thought that estimate very extravagant. From a review of the
observations of Tycho Brahe, Kepler, however, concluded that the
error was actually in the opposite direction, and that the
estimate must be raised to at least thirteen million. In 1670
Cassini showed that these numbers were altogether inconsistent
with the facts, and gave as his conclusion eighty-five million.

The transit of Venus over the face of the sun, June 3, 1769, had
been foreseen, and its great value in the solution of this
fundamental problem in astronomy appreciated. With commendable
alacrity various governments contributed their assistance in
making observations, so that in Europe there were fifty stations,
in Asia six, in America seventeen. It was for this purpose that
the English Government dispatched Captain Cook on his celebrated
first voyage. He went to Otaheite. His voyage was crowned with
success. The sun rose without a cloud, and the sky continued
equally clear throughout the day. The transit at Cook's station
lasted from about half-past nine in the morning until about
half-past three in the afternoon, and all the observations were
made in a satisfactory manner.

But, on the discussion of the observations made at the different
stations, it was found that there was not the accordance that
could have been desired--the result varying from eighty-eight to
one hundred and nine million. The celebrated mathematician,
Encke, therefore reviewed them in 1822-'24, and came to the
conclusion that the sun's horizontal parallax, that is, the angle
under which the semi-diameter of the earth is seen from the sun,
is 8 576/1000 seconds; this gave as the distance 95,274,000
miles. Subsequently the observations were reconsidered by Hansen,
who gave as their result 91,659,000 miles. Still later, Leverrier
made it 91,759,000. Airy and Stone, by another method, made it
91,400,000; Stone alone, by a revision of the old observations,
91,730,000; and finally, Foucault and Fizeau, from physical
experiments, determining the velocity of light, and therefore in
their nature altogether differing from transit observations,
91,400,000. Until the results of the transit of next year (1874)
are ascertained, it must therefore be admitted that the distance
of the earth from the sun is somewhat less than ninety-two
million miles.

This distance once determined, the dimensions of the solar system
may be ascertained with ease and precision. It is enough to
mention that the distance of Neptune from the sun, the most
remote of the planets at present known, is about thirty times
that of the earth.

By the aid of these numbers we may begin to gain a just
appreciation of the doctrine of the human destiny of the
universe--the doctrine that all things were made for man. Seen
from the sun, the earth dwindles away to a mere speck, a mere
dust-mote glistening in his beams. If the reader wishes a more
precise valuation, let him hold a page of this book a couple of
feet from his eye; then let him consider one of its dots or full
stops; that dot is several hundred times larger in surface than
is the earth as seen from the sun!

Of what consequence, then, can such an almost imperceptible
particle be? One might think that it could be removed or even
annihilated, and yet never be missed. Of what consequence is one
of those human monads, of whom more than a thousand millions
swarm on the surface of this all but invisible speck, and of a
million of whom scarcely one will leave a trace that he has ever
existed? Of what consequence is man, his pleasures or his pains?

Among the arguments brought forward against the Copernican system
at the time of its promulgation, was one by the great Danish
astronomer, Tycho Brahe, originally urged by Aristarchus against
the Pythagorean system, to the effect that, if, as was alleged,
the earth moves round the sun, there ought to be a change of the
direction in which the fixed stars appear. At one time we are
nearer to a particular region of the heavens by a distance equal
to the whole diameter of the earth's orbit than we were six
months previously, and hence there ought to be a change in the
relative position of the stars; they should seem to separate as
we approach them, and to close together as we recede from them;
or, to use the astronomical expression, these stars should have a
yearly parallax.

The parallax of a star is the angle contained between two lines
drawn from it--one to the sun, the other to the earth.

At that time, the earth's distance from the sun was greatly
under-estimated. Had it been known, as it is now, that that
distance exceeds ninety million miles, or that the diameter of
the orbit is more than one hundred and eighty million, that
argument would doubtless have had very great weight.

In reply to Tycho, it was said that, since the parallax of a
body diminishes as its distance increases, a star may be so far
off that its parallax may be imperceptible. This answer proved to
be correct. The detection of the parallax of the stars depended
on the improvement of instruments for the measurement of angles.

The parallax of alpha Centauri, a fine double star of the
Southern Hemisphere, at present considered to be the nearest of
the fixed stars, was first determined by Henderson and Maclear at
the Cape of Good Hope in 1832-'33. It is about nine-tenths of a
second. Hence this star is almost two hundred and thirty thousand
times as far from us as the sun. Seen from it, if the sun were
even large enough to fill the whole orbit of the earth, or one
hundred and eighty million miles in diameter, he would be a mere
point. With its companion, it revolves round their common centre
of gravity in eighty-one years, and hence it would seem that
their conjoint mass is less than that of the sun.

The star 61 Cygni is of the sixth magnitude. Its parallax was
first found by Bessel in 1838, and is about one-third of a
second. The distance from us is, therefore, much more than five
hundred thousand times that of the sun. With its companion, it
revolves round their common centre of gravity in five hundred and
twenty years. Their conjoint weight is about one-third that of
the sun.

There is reason to believe that the great star Sirius, the
brightest in the heavens, is about six times as far off as alpha
Centauri. His probable diameter is twelve million miles, and the
light he emits two hundred times more brilliant than that of the
sun. Yet, even through the telescope, he has no measurable
diameter; be looks merely like a very bright spark.

The stars, then, differ not merely in visible magnitude, but also
in actual size. As the spectroscope shows, they differ greatly in
chemical and physical constitution. That instrument is also
revealing to us the duration of the life of a star, through
changes in the refrangibility of the emitted light. Though, as we
have seen, the nearest to us is at an enormous and all but
immeasurable distance, this is but the first step--there are
others the rays of which have taken thousands, perhaps millions,
of years to reach us! The limits of our own system are far beyond
the range of our greatest telescopes; what, then, shall we say of
other systems beyond? Worlds are scattered like dust in the
abysses in space.

Have these gigantic bodies--myriads of which are placed at so
vast a distance that our unassisted eyes cannot perceive
them--have these no other purpose than that assigned by
theologians, to give light to us? Does not their enormous size
demonstrate that, as they are centres of force, so they must be
centres of motion-- suns for other systems of worlds?

While yet these facts were very imperfectly known--indeed, were
rather speculations than facts--Giordano Bruno, an Italian, born
seven years after the death of Copernicus, published a work on
the "Infinity of the Universe and of Worlds;" he was also the
author of "Evening Conversations on Ash-Wednesday," an apology
for the Copernican system, and of "The One Sole Cause of Things."
To these may be added an allegory published in 1584, "The
Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast." He had also collected, for
the use of future astronomers, all the observations he could find
respecting the new star that suddenly appeared in Cassiopeia,
A.D. 1572, and increased in brilliancy, until it surpassed all
the other stars. It could be plainly seen in the daytime. On a
sudden, November 11th, it was as bright as Venus at her
brightest. In the following March it was of the first magnitude.
It exhibited various hues of color in a few months, and
disappeared in March, 1574.

The star that suddenly appeared in Serpentarius, in Kepler's time
(1604), was at first brighter than Venus. It lasted more than a
year, and, passing through various tints of purple, yellow, red,
became extinguished.

Originally, Bruno was intended for the Church. He had become a
Dominican, but was led into doubt by his meditations on the
subjects of transubstantiation and the immaculate conception. Not
caring to conceal his opinions, he soon fell under the censure of
the spiritual authorities, and found it necessary to seek refuge
successively in Switzerland, France, England, Germany. The
cold-scented sleuth-hounds of the Inquisition followed his track
remorselessly, and eventually hunted him back to Italy. He was
arrested in Venice, and confined in the Piombi for six years,
without books, or paper, or friends.

In England he had given lectures on the plurality of worlds, and
in that country had written, in Italian, his most important
works. It added not a little to the exasperation against him,
that he was perpetually declaiming against the insincerity; the
impostures, of his persecutors--that wherever he went he found
skepticism varnished over and concealed by hypocrisy; and that it
was not against the belief of men, but against their pretended
belief, that he was fighting; that he was struggling with an
orthodoxy that had neither morality nor faith.

In his "Evening Conversations" he had insisted that the
Scriptures were never intended to teach science, but morals only;
and that they cannot be received as of any authority on
astronomical and physical subjects. Especially must we reject the
view they reveal to us of the constitution of the world, that the
earth is a flat surface, supported on pillars; that the sky is a
firmament--the floor of heaven. On the contrary, we must believe
that the universe is infinite, and that it is filled with
self-luminous and opaque worlds, many of them inhabited; that
there is nothing above and around us but space and stars. His
meditations on these subjects had brought him to the conclusion
that the views of Averroes are not far from the truth--that there
is an Intellect which animates the universe, and of this
Intellect the visible world is only an emanation or
manifestation, originated and sustained by force derived from it,
and, were that force withdrawn, all things would disappear. This
ever-present, all-pervading Intellect is God, who lives in all
things, even such as seem not to live; that every thing is ready
to become organized, to burst into life. God is, therefore, "the
One Sole Cause of Things," "the All in All."

Bruno may hence be considered among philosophical writers as
intermediate between Averroes and Spinoza. The latter held that
God and the Universe are the same, that all events happen by an
immutable law of Nature, by an unconquerable necessity; that God
is the Universe, producing a series of necessary movements or
acts, in consequence of intrinsic, unchangeable, and irresistible
energy.

On the demand of the spiritual authorities, Bruno was removed
from Venice to Rome, and confined in the prison of the
Inquisition, accused not only of being a heretic, but also a
heresiarch, who had written things unseemly concerning religion;
the special charge against him being that he had taught the
plurality of worlds, a doctrine repugnant to the whole tenor of
Scripture and inimical to revealed religion, especially as
regards the plan of salvation. After an imprisonment of two years
he was brought before his judges, declared guilty of the acts
alleged, excommunicated, and, on his nobly refusing to recant,
was delivered over to the secular authorities to be punished "as
mercifully as possible, and without the shedding of his blood,"
the horrible formula for burning a prisoner at the stake. Knowing
well that though his tormentors might destroy his body, his
thoughts would still live among men, he said to his judges,
"Perhaps it is with greater fear that you pass the sentence upon
me than I receive it." The sentence was carried into effect, and
he was burnt at Rome, February 16th, A.D. 1600.

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