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GALILEO ANO THE INQUISITION.
EFFECTS
MISSIONARY
LABOURS.
W
'
BY ROBERT DALE OWEN.
LONDON:
Austin & Co., 17, Johnson’s Court, Ft,eft Street,
e.c.
PRICE TWOPENCE.
��GALILEO AND THE INQUISITION.
I am not at all surprised that the Florentine inquisitors im
prisoned Galileo, and forced him to recant and disavow’his astro
nomical heresies. I rather wonder how any one who reverences
the Bible, be he Jew or Christian, can tolerate modern astro
nomy.
So long as the earth was a stationary plain, and the firmament
a transparent reservoir, whose crystal gates could be opened to
drown the human race; while our world was the universe, and
the planets and stars only sparkling, accessory ornaments, hung
in the blue vault to please the children of Adam; so long was
there a locality for heaven above, and for hell beneath. Above
the firmament and the starry host was infinite, empty space.
There stood God’s throne, and thence proceeded God’s thunders.
Moses and his contemporaries had no idea of globes rolling
through space; so that in fixing the throne of the Deity above tho
stars, they never imagined that it might stand in the way of some
planet in its annual revolution, or of some comet in its eccentric
orbit.
In like manner,, below this earthly plain, through which of
course the sun’s rays could not penetrate, there was easily to be
conceived a region of darkness and misery, the entrance by some
bottomless pit, into which lost souls were thrown.
But what said the Italian astronomer ? The earth is not flat,
but round. The stars are suns and worlds. Our world is but a
speck in the universe. The sun does not revolve round our
earth; but our earth revolves round the sun. If we point up
wards to heaven at one moment, and again point upwards a
few hours afterwards, we are pointing in two opposite directions.
It might have been difficult for the inquisitors to prove the false
hood of all this, but there was no difficulty at all in proving its
heterodoxy; that is to say, its inconsistency with the Scriptures.
We are very apt, now-a-days, to slur over our astronomical
difficulties; and since the facts are proved, to hold that they are
not heterodox. The priests of the seventeenth century were
more consistent. They told Galileo that his theory was heretical
and unscriptura.1; and so it was; and so, but for our prejudices,
should we all see it to be.
Let us imagine Galileo before the Holy Tribunal of Florence,
seeing confinement or death before him, and interrogated by
the inquisitors.
Inquisitor. Ail Florence rings with your heresies, Signor
Galileo.
Galileo. I am no heretic, so piease your holy reverences, but
an humble disciple of science.
�4
GALILEO AND THE INQUISITION.
Inquisitor. ’Tis not the first time that science has played the
heretic ; nor, if we tolerate impiety like yours, will it be the last.
Galileo. I crave your patience, reverend fathers. God is my
witness that I have never strayed beyond the boundaries of my
own favourite studies, nor ever meddled with oqr religion and
her holy mysteries.
Inquisitor. The open enemy were less dangerous than the
secret foe.
Galileo. I pray your reverence to explain.
Inquisitor. Needs it explanation? Needs it to repeat all the
blasphemies you have uttered regarding this world which the
Son of God came down to save, and the sun and the stars which
God set in the firmament ?
Galileo. Blasphemies!
Inquisitor. Ay, blasphemies—and uttered publicly and shame
lessly too. But, Santa Maria 1 it shall be suffered no longer.
Galileo. I know not of what blasphemies you speak, holy
father.
Inquisitor. You know not? Have you not taught that the
earth is a globe, and revolves on its axis, and around the sun ?
■ Galileo. I have.
Inquisitor. And yet you ask what blasphemy I spoke of?
Does the word of the Most High tell us aught of this ?
Galileo. But it denies it not.
Inquisitor. Did Moses, the sacred historian, believe it ?
Galileo. I know not. I would not judge holy questions.
Inquisitor. Your modesty is assumed too late, / ignor Galileo.
It shall avail you nothing. Does not Moses tell us, that God in
the beginning created the earth ?
Galileo. He does.
Inquisitor. That the creation of the earth and its trees and its
plants and its living creatures, employed the Deity five days ? and
that in one day he made the sun and the moon and all the stars,
and set them in the firmament above the earth ?
Galileo. He does.
Inquisitor. That the sun and moon and all the stars were set
there expressly to light the earth ?
Galileo. Does he say so ?
Inquisitor. And you deny it.
Galileo. Nay, holy father, I have never said ’twas not so.
Inquisitor. Ay ’. but your system says it. Men are fools, ’tis
true; yet are there reasoning knaves among them. They cannot
believe both Moses and Galileo.
Galileo. I perceive not the discrepancy.
Inquisitor. You are wondrous short-sighted, Signor Astro
nomer. Must I repeat the heresy ? and oppose the inspired of
God to the professor of Pisa ? Thus, then, Moses speaks of the
world as of the especial object of God’s care, the especial work
of his hand; that to which all else in the universe was trioutary; that for which God made the s,un that it might light it by
�GALILEO AND THE INQUISITION.
5
day, and the moon and stars that they might shine on it by night:
Moses says this world was created by God in five days, and the
rest of the universe in one day, thus making the earth the first
and great object in creation, and all else but accessory and un
important. What says Galileo ? He tells us that this world is
but a speck, a grain of sand in God’s universe, one planet of one
System, while millions of similar systems exist around us, each
planet in the least of which claimed the divine care, in creation
and preservation, equally with ours. Shall we be told that God
gave one day only to the creation of the unconceivable mass,
and five to the creation of the grain of sand ? that the
millions of worlds were given solely to spangle and ornament the
nights of one little planet among those millions ? Yet Moses
says so. And Moses speaks truth. Galileo, therefore, is a liar
and a heretic. This world is the centre of the universe. All
other heavenly bodies revolve around it, at God’s command, to,
light and to heat and to adorn it. For our earth they were made,
on the fourth day of creation; and for us they perform their daily
journeys. Thus said Moses, thus says our holy church, and thus
say all true believers.
Galileo. Yet Moses says not that the earth is stationary, and
that the sun and stars revolve around it.
Inquisitor. This is child’s play, signor; unbecoming your
gravity, and unbecoming mine. If Moses says it not in these
very terms, is it not implied ?—expressly implied, in the whole
history of creation, almost in every page of the sacred volume ?
Is not the firmament placed above the earth, and are not all the
stars set in the firmament ? Is not the firmament called heaven ?
and have not holy men in all ages looked up when they would
look to God ? Is not the heaven God’.s throne, and the earth his
footstool? How then shall the earth be a globe always in
motion ? Does our world carry heaven along with her, at the
rate of one thousand miles a minute? Or if not, how shall
heaven remain above us ? And if not above us, why does Moses
say, “ God came down from heaven to see the tower which the
children of men builded ?” and why was Elijah carried upwards
in a whirlwind? and why did Jesus Christ ascend, when he
would go to his Father? You would pervert our whole faith,
signor. You would annihilate heaven and hell; for where is
there room for either in that space which is filled by millions on
millions of systems ? You would deny to the Almighty his
residence, whence he looks down on the inhabitants of this pros
trate world; for how shall any being look on the whole surface
of a globe at once ? Or how shall we imagine the Deity follow
ing the earth in her orbit, to see whether faith or wickedness pre
vail around her ? this is but atheism.
Galileo. Jesu defend me from the imputation!
Inquisitor. Abjure your system, then. When God tells us that
the sun stood still upon Gibeon. at the command of his servant
Joshua, let not Galileo tell us, that the sun does not move, and
�6
GALILEO AND THE INQUISITION.
therefore could not obey Joshua’s command. This is but a fight*
ing against God; a mockery of his word. It is to tell us that
the inspired penmen were deceived or deceivers. It is blas
phemy, clothed in the robes of science. Abjure ! abjure !
Galileo. I pray you, holy signors, to examine the proofs of what
I have taught.
Inquisitor. Proofs! proofs against God! proofs to show that
Galileo is wiser than his Maker 1 that a mortal can disclose to us
secrets which the great Architect himself could not reveal! Aw'ay
with him, guards, to his dungeon ! (Galileo is led off.)
Second Inquisitor. ’Tis a daring heretic.
First Inquisitor. Ay 1 and a dangerous.
Second Inquisitor. Marked you the suppressed curl of his lip as
you spoke of Moses and his astronomy ?
First Inquisitor. Do you ask ? I were unworthy else to fill
this chair. I can read hearts in faces; and that’s a stubborn
one.
Second Inquisitor. But we can break or bend it, an ’twere a
heart of steel.
First Inquisitor. See to it, brother—Yet stay! he is a favourite
with the Elorentines.
Second Inquisitor. I marvel not. He has that about him which
will command attention and win respect. And his theory is se
ducing.
First Inquisitor. It must not spread. It strikes at the very
root of the church’s faith. The Copernican system and the
Bible cannot stand together. The discrepancy is too gross.
Men, fools as they are, cannot help but see it.
Second Inquisitor. Yet are they wondrous blind.
I irst Inquisitor. But we must not tempt them too far. If they
begin to question and to doubt—
Second Inquisitor. I know not. I am the last to recommend
toleration to so heretical a theory as this of Galileo. Yet, if it
must be so—if we must yield to the presumptuous spirit of the
times thus far—
First Inquisitor. But the risk, brother—the risk. We can put
him down; we can destroy him and his theory; why then leave
the hydra, merely because we think ourselves an overmatch for
him ? If there were no alternative, then were I the last to de
spair of the result.. If we could no longer deny the truth of this
upstart system, we would boldly deny its heresy. We would
call it—ay, and men should believe it—only a confirmation of all
that Moses has written and the church has taught, Where we
cannot break, we must bend; where we cannot deny, we must
explain away; where we cannot destroy, we must win over.
But let us break and deny and destroy while we can. The other
is but a ventured game, and a hazardous. To the work, then.
Let us annihilate the enemy while we may. If we fail, let us
adopt him, and teach him to fight the church’s battles.
�I N
LAWRENCE AND GALILEO.
[The following article was published in the (London) Monthly
Magazine, about the time when William Lawrence, the
bold and fearless materialist, and one of the most eminent sur
geons and physiologists of Great Britain, being suspended, for the
heresy of his opinions, from the office by which he obtained his
living, was induced, like the persecuted Galileo, to sign a recan
tation of the truths he had once so ably propounded.]
From the Monthly Magazine.
“ When in our last we signalized the success of Mr. Lawrence,*
we had no suspicion that this worthy gentleman had been
seduced to publish the following extraordinary paper, a few days
before the election. In now giving it place as a document
worthy of being preserved, and which, in after ages, will mark
the year 1822, and characterize the age of George the Fourth, we
have judged it proper to annex, in parallel columns, the never-tobe-forgotten abjuration of Galileo. Every reader of the two
papers will, by his own comments, relieve us from the responsi
bility of making such as the circumstances deserve:
Mb. Lawrence’s Retracta
tion.
College of Physicians,
April 16, 1822.
Dear Sir—The renewed pub
lication by others, over whom
I have no control, of the work
which I suppressed three years
ago, induces me to offer a few
observations on the subject, and
to present them, through you,
to the governors of Bridewell
and Bethlem. The motives
and circumstances of the sup
pression in question, are de
tailed in a letter to Mr. Harri
son, through whose medium it
was communicated to the gover-
The Abjuration of Galileo.
I, Galileo Galilei, son of the
late Vincent Galileo, a Floren
tine, at the age of seventy, ap
pearing personally in judg
ment, and being on my knees
in the presence of you, most
eminent and most reverend
lords cardinal of the universal
Christian commonwealth, in
quisitors general against hereti
cal depravity, having before
my eyes the holy gospels, on
which I now lay my hands,
swear that I have always be
lieved, and now believe, and
God helping, that I shall for
the future always believe what-
Tn his election an surgeon of the Royal College,of Physicians.
�8
LAWRENCE AND GALILEO.
nors of the two hospitals; and
this letter, I conclude, is en
tered on the minutes of their
proceedings.
Further experience and re
flection have only tended to
convince me more strongly
that the publication of certain
passages in these writings was
highly improper; to increase
my regret at having sent them
forth to the world; to make me
satisfied with the measure of
withdrawing them from public
circulation • and consequently
firmly resolved, not only never
to reprint them, but also never
to publish any thing more on
similar subjects.
Fully impressed with these
sentiments, I hoped and con
cluded that my lectures would
in future be regarded only as
professional writings, and be
referred to merely by medical
readers. The copies which
have gone out of my posses
sion, from the time when the
sale was discontinued to the
late decision of the lord chan
cellor, which has enabled all
who may choose to print and
publish my lectures, have
therefore been granted only as
matter of favour in individual
instances to professional men,
particularly foreigners, or to
scientific and literary charac
ters. My expectations have
been disappointed by the pira
tical act of a bookseller in the
Strand, named Smith. When
his reprint of my lectures was
announced, I adopted the only
measure which could enable
me to continue the suppression
of the worx, namely, an appli
cation to the court of chancery
for an injunction against this
person, being encouraged by
ever the holy catholic and
apostolic Roman church holds,
preaches, and teaches. But be
cause this holy office had en
joined me by precept, entirely
to relinquish the false dogma
which maintains that the sun is
the centre of the world, and
immoveable, and that the earth
is not the centre, and moves;
not to hold, defend, or teach
by any means, or by writing,
the aforesaid false doctrine;
and after it had been notified
to me, that the aforesaid doc
trine is repugnant to the Holy
Scripture, I have written and
printed a book, in which I
treat of the same doctrine al
ready condemned, and adduce
reasons with great efficacy, in
favour of it, not offering any
solution of them; therefore I
have been adjudged and vehe
mently suspected of heresy;
namely, that I maintained and
believed that the sun is the
centre of the world, and im
moveable, and that the earth is
not the centre, and moves.
Therefore, being willing to
take out of the minds of your
eminencies, and of every catho
lic Christian, this vehement
suspicion of right conceived
against me, I, with sincere
heart, and faith unfeigned, ab
jure, execrate, and detest, the
above said errors and heresies,
and generally every other er
ror and sect contrary to the
above said holy church; and I
swear that I will never any
more hereafter say or assert,
by speech or writing, any
thing through which the like
suspicion may be had of me;
but, if I shall know any one
heretical, or suspected of here
sy, I will denounce him to this
�LAWRENCE AND GALILEO.
the decided favourable opinions
of the two eminent counsel
before whom the case was laid.
The course of argument adopt
ed by these gentlemen, in the
proceedings which ensued, was
that which they deemed best
calculated to attain my object
—the permanent suppression
of the book. It is not to be
regarded as a renewed state
ment, or defence, on my part,
of opinions which I had al
ready withdrawn from the
public, and the continued sup
pression of which, in confor
mity to my previous arrange
ment, was my only motive for
incurring the trouble and ex
pense of a chancery suit.
As to the charge of irreligion, again hinted at in the
court of chancery, I beg to
repeat what I have already ex
pressed in my letter before al
luded to—that I am fully im
pressed with the importance
of religion and morality to the
welfare of mankind—that I
am most sensible of the dis
tinguishing excellences of that
pure religion which is unfolded
in the New Testament; and
most earnestly desirous to see
its pure spirit universally dif
fused and acted on.
W. LAWRENCE.
R. C. Glynn, Bt., President
of Bridewell and Bethlem, &c>
9
holy office, or to the inquisitor
and ordinary of the place in
which I shall be. I moreover
swear and promise that I will
fulfil and observe entirely
all the penitences which have
been imposed upon me, or
which shall be imposed by this
holy office. But if it shall
happen that I shall go contrary
(which God avert,) to any of
my words, promises, protesta
tions, and oaths, I subject my
self to all the penalties and
punishments which, by the
holy canons, and other consti
tutions, general and particular,
have been enacted and pro
mulgated against such delin
quents. So help me God, and
his holy gospels, on which I
now lay my hands.
I, the aforesaid Galileo Ga- ■
lilei, have abjured, sworn, pro
mised, and have bound myself
as above, and in the fidelity of
those with my own hands, and
have subscribed to this present
writing of my abjuration,
which I have recited word by
word. At Rome, in the con
vent of Minerva, this 22nd of
June, of the year 1633.
I, Galileo Galilei, have ab
jured as above, with my own
hand.
�EFFECTS OF MISSIONARY LABOURS.
[ *** In this credulous age, whose very benevolence is whimsical
—when men subscribe thousands of pounds to send theological
students to Central Africa and farthest India, and think they
are thus doing their fellow-men a kindness, and their God a
service; it is worthy of earnest and serious inquiry, whether
money and exertions which are so much wanted to correct
the crying vices and relieve the hopeless misery that sur
round us at home, are not worse than lost abroad.
If the following article serve to awaken in the minds of those
who have conscientiously supported what they thought to be
the cause of Deity, a desire to examine farther into the
actual effects which missions too often produce, the object
for which it has been issued will be obtained.
R. D. 0.]
When infidels, as they are called, relate to us the adventures of
religious missionaries, and speak of the effects produced by mis
sionary exertions, we may, without imputing any dishonest mo
tive, suppose exaggeration or inaccuracy : upon the same princi
ple that even a sincere and conscientious believer seldom speaks
of a sceptic without misrepresenting his motive, and misjudging
his conduct. Now, though it be true, that the very principles of
a reasoning and consistent infidel teach him practical justice, and
tolerance and impartiality, yet do the effects of false principles
and prejudiced habits often remain, after the principles them
selves are disowned as baseless, and the habits condemned as
vicious. A man may thus lose his religion without losing many
a habit and propensity which thence derived its origin. Besides
all this, we must recollect, that man, as he is now trained, is a
being of prepossessions and of extremes. He frequently mistakes
the reverse of wrong for right; he often views the actions of those
whose opinions differ from his, through a partial medium; and,
thus viewing them, his sincerest impressions are, at times, preju
diced and false.
Thus, it is not to the narrations of the missionary’s opponents
�EFFECTS or IIISSICNAHY LABOURS.
11
Unit we may trust implicitly for an impartial view of his labours,
and their effects. But surely the missionary’s own word may be
taken against himself. Out of his own mouth he may be con
demned, without fear of false testimony. Let M. Dobrizhoffer,
then, tell us the particulars and the result of a missionary excur
sion which he made into the Guarany country, and let us observe
his reflections, and make our own. The narrative is from the
“ History of the Abipones,” an aboriginal nation of South
America.
“ I shall here record another excursion to the savages, which,
though completed in less time than the former, was productive of
more advantage. A company of Spaniards were employed in pre
paring the herb of Paraguay, on the southern banks of the river
Empalado. The trees from which these Laves were plucked
failing, they commissioned three men to seek for the tree in re
quest beyond the river. By accident they lit upon a hovel and a
field of maize, from which they falsely conjectured that the wood
was full of savage hordes. This occurrence affected them all
with such fear, that, suspending the business upon which they
were engaged, they kept within their huts, like snails in their
shells, and spent day and night in dread of hostile aggression. To
deliver them from this state of fear, a messenger was sent to St.
Joachim, requiring us to search for the savages abiding there,
and to remove them, when found, to our colony. I applied my
self to the task without shrinking, and, on the day of St. John the
Evangelist, commenced my travels, accompanied by forty Indians.
Having taken a guide from the Spanish hut, and crossed the river
Empalado, we carefully explored ail the woods and the banks oi
the river Mondaymiri, and discovering at length, on the third day,
a human footstep, we traced it to a little dwelling, where an old
woman with her son and daughter, a youth and maiden of twenty
and fifteen years of age, had lived many years. Being asked
where the other Indians were to be found, the mother replied,
that no mortal besides herself and her two children survived in
these woods; that all the rest who had occupied this neighbour
hood had died long ago of the small-pox. Perceiving me doubt
ful as to the correctness of her statement, the son observed, ‘You
may credit my mother in her assertion, without scruple; for 1
myself have traversed these woods far and near in search of a
wife, but could never meet with a single human being.’ Nature
had taught the young savage that it was not lawful to marry his
sister. I exhorted the old mother to migrate as fast as possible
to my town, promising that both she and her children should be
more comfortably situated. She declared herself willing to accept
my invitation, to which there was only one objection. ‘ I have,’
says she, ‘ three boars, which have been tamed from their earliest
age. They follow us wherever we go, and I am afraid, if they are
exposed to the sun in a dry plain, unshaded by trees, they will
immediately perish.’ ‘ Pray be no longer anxious on this ac
count,’ replied I; ‘ depend upon it, I shall treat these dear little
�12
EFFECTS OF MISSIONARY LABOURS.
animals with due kindness. When the sun is hot, we will find
shade wherever we are. Lakes, rivers, or marshes, will be always
at hand to cool your favourites.” Induced by these promises, she
agreed to go with us. And setting out the next day, we reached
the town in safety on the first of January. And now it will be
proper to give a cursory account of the mother and her offspring.
Their hut consisted of the branches of the palm-tree, their drink
of muddy water. Fruits, antas, fawns, rabbits, and various birds,
maize, and the roots of the mandio tree, afforded them food; a
cloth woven of the leaves of the caraquata, their bed and clothing.
They delighted in honey, which abounds in the hollow trees of
the forest. The smoke of tobacco the old woman inhaled, night
and day, through the reed, to which was affixed a little wooden
vessel, like a pan. The son constantly chewed tobacco leaves
reduced to powder. Shells sharpened at a stone, or split reeds,
served them for knives. The youth, who catered for his mother
and sister, carried in his belt two pieces of iron, the fragment of
some old broken knife, about as broad and long as a man’s
thumb, inserted in a wooden handle, and bound round with wax
and thread. With this instrument he used to fashion arrows with
great elegance, make wooden gins to take antas, perforate trees
which seemed likely to contain honey, and perform other things
of this kind. There being no clay to make pots of, they had fed,
all their lives, on roasted meat instead of boiled. The leaves of
the herb of Paraguay they only steeped in cold water, having no
vessel to boil it in. To show how scanty their household furni
ture was, mention must be made of their clothes. The youth
wore a cloak of the thread of the caraquata, reaching from his
shoulders to his knees, his middle being girded with little cords,
from which hung a gourd full of the tobacco dust which he
chewed. A net of a coarser thread was the mother’s bed by
night and her only garment by day. The girl, in like manner,
wore a short net by day, in which she slept at night. This appear
ing to me too transparent, I gave her a cotton towel to cover her
effectually. The girl, folding up the linen cloth into many folds,
placed it on her head to defend her from the heat of the sun, but
at the desire of the Indians wrapped it round her. I made the
youth, too, wear some linen wrappers, which in my journey I had
worn round my head as a defence against the gnats. Before this,
he had climbed the highest trees like a monkey, to pluck from
thence food for his pigs; but his bandages impeded him like
fetters, so that he could scarcely move a step. In such extreme
need, in such penury, I found them, experiencing the rigours of
ancient anchorites, without discontent, vexation, or disease.
“ My three wood Indians wore their hair dishevelled, cropped,
and without a bandage. The youth neither had his lip perforated,
nor his head crowned with parrot feathers. The mother and
daughter had no ear-rings, though the former wore round her
neck a cord, from which depended a small, heavy piece of wood,
of a pyramidal shape, so that by their mutual collision they made
�EFFECTS OF MISSIONARY LABOURS.
13
a noise at every step. At first sight I asked the old woman whe
ther she used this jingling necklace to frighten away the gnats;
and I afterwards substituted a string of beautifully coloured glass
beads, in place of these wooden weights. The mother and son
were tall and well-looking, but the daughter had so fair and
elegant a countenance, that a poet would have taken her for one
of the nymphs or dryads, and any European might safely call her
beautiful. She united a becoming cheerfulness with great cour
tesy, and did not seem at all alarmed at our arrival, but the
rather enlivened. She laughed heartily at our Guarany, and we,
on the other hand, at her's. For as this insulated family had no
intercourse with any but themselves, their language was most
ridiculously corrupted. The youth had never seen a female
except his mother and sister, nor any male but his father. The
girl had seen no woman but her mother, nor any man but her
brother; her father having been torn to pieces by a tiger before
she was born. To gather the fruits that grew on the ground or
on the trees, and wood for fuel, the dexterous girl ran over the
forest, tangled as it was with underwood, reeds, and brambles, by
which she had her feet wretchedly scratched. Not to go unat
tended, she commonly had a little parrot on her shoulder, and a
small monkey on her arm, unterrified by the tigers that haunt
that neighbourhood. The new nroselytes were quickly clothed in
the town, and served with the daily allowance of food before the
rest. I also took care they should take frequent excursions to
the neighbouring woods, to enjoy the shade and pleasant freshness
of the trees, to which they had been accustomed. For we found
by experience, that savages removed to towns often waste away
from the change of food and air, and from the heat of the
sun, which powerfully affects their frames, accustomed as they
have been from infancy, to moist, cool, shady groves. The same
was the fate of the mother, son, and daughter, in our town. A
few weeks after their arrival they were afflicted with a universal
heaviness and rheum, to which succeeded a pain in the eyes and
ears, and, not long after, deafness. Lowness of spirits, and dis
gust to food, at length wasted their strength to such a degree that
an incurable consumption followed. After languishing some
months, the old mother, who had been properly instructed in the
Christian religion and baptized, delivered up her spirit, with a
mind so calm, so acquiescent with the divine will, that I cannot
■doubt nut that she entered into a blessed immortality. The girl,
who had entered the town full of health and beauty, soon lost all
resemblance to herself. Enfeebled, withering by degrees like a
flower, her bones hardly holding together, she at length followed
her mother to the grave, and, if I be not much deceived, to hea
ven. Her brother, still surviving, was attacked by the same
malady that proved fatal to his mother and sister; but being of a
stronger constitution, overcame it. The measles, which made
great havoc in the town, left him so confirmed in health, that
there seemed nothing to be feared in regard to him. He was of
�14
EFFECTS OF MISSIONARY LABOURS.
a cheerful disposition, went to church regularly, learnt the doc
trines of Christianity with diligence, was gentle and compliant to
all, and in every thing discovered marks of future excellence.
Nevertheless, to put his perseverance to the proof, I thought it
best to delay his baptism a little. At this time an Indian Chris
tian, a good man, and rich in land, who, at my orders, had
received this catechumen into his house, came to me and said,
' My father, our wood Indian is in perfect health of body, but
seems to have gone a little astray in mind : he makes no com
plaints, but says that sleep has deserted him, his mother and sis
ter appearing to him every night in a vision, saying, in a friendly
tone, “ Suffer thyself, I pray thee, to be baptized; we shall return
to take thee away, when thou dost not expect it.” This vision,
he says, takes away his sleep.’ ‘ Tell him,’ answered I, ‘ to be
of good heart, for that the melancholy remembrance of his mother
and sister, with whom he has lived all his life, is the probable
cause of these dreams; and that they, as I think, are gone to
heaven, and have nothing more to do with this world.’ A few
davs after, the same Indian returns, giving the same account as
before, and with confirmed suspicions respecting the fearful deli
rium of our new Christian. Suspecting there was something in
it, I immediately hastened to his house, and found him sitting.
On my inquiring how he felt himself, ‘ Well,’ he replied, smiling,
* and entirely free from pain but added, that he got no sleep at
night, owing to the appearance of his mother and sister, admonish
ing him to hasten his baptism, and threatening to take him away
unexpectedly. He told me over and over again, with his usual
unreservedness, that this prevented him from getting any rest. I
thought it probable that this was a mere dream, and worthy, on
that account, of neglect. Mindful, however, that dreams have
often been divine admonitions and the oracles of God, as appears
from Holy Writ, it seemed advisable, in a matter of such moment,
to consult both the security and tranquillity of the catechumen.
Being assured of his constancy, and of his acquaintance with the
chief heads of religion by previous interrogatories, I soon after
baptized him with the name of Lewis. This I did on the 23rd of
June, the eve of St. John, about the hour of ten in the morning.
On the evening of the same day, without a symptom of disease or
apoplexy, he quietly expired.
“ This event, a fact well known to the whole town, and which
1 am ready to attest on oath, astonished every one. I leave my
reader to form his own opinion ; but in my mind I could never
deem the circumstance merely accidental. To the exceeding
compassion of the Almighty I attribute it, that these three Indians
were discovered by me in the unknown recesses of the woods ;
that they so promptly complied with my exhortations to enter my
town, and embrace Christianity; and that they closed their lives
after having received baptism. The rememo rance of my expedi
tion to the river Empalado, though attended with so many hard
ships and dangers, is sell must giau.i'ul to my heart; inasmuch us
�EFFECTS OF MISSIONARY LABOURS.
15
it proved highly fortunate to the three wood Indians, and advan
tageous to the Spaniards.”
What a lesson have we here! and how strangely perverted by
him who gives it! Is it not matter of marvel, that a man can
paint such a scene of misery and death in which he was the chief
actor, and then congratulate himself that he was so!
He found these Indians, he tells us, innocent and happy,
“ without discontent, vexation, or disease;” exposed, indeed, to
hardships, but accustomed to these, and enduring them with
cheerfulness. He removed them to his town ; he clothed them
decently, as he calls it; “ but the bandages impeded them like
fetters, so that they could scarcely move a step.” He fed them
daily: but they pined for their cool, shady forest. The old
mother languished some months in an incurable consumption,
and then expired. The poor girl, “who had entered the town full
of health and beauty, soon lost all resemblance to herself; till
withering by degrees like a flower,” she too fell a victim to the
spirit of proselytism. Her brother did not long survive the loss
of those who had so long been all the world to him. The forms
of his mother and sister haunted his slumbers, and called him
from a life that suited not the child of nature. He became deli
rious, was baptized, and died the same evening.
“The remembrance,” adds the missionary, “ of my expedition
to the river Empalado, though attended with so many hardships
and dangers, is still most grateful to my heart; inasmuch as it
proved highly fortunate to the three wood Indians, and advanta
geous to the Spaniards.”
Fortunate! Spirit of Mercy! Fortunate ! to be seduced from
their free, green woods, to droop and die in a missionary village!
Fortunate! to lose peace, health, contentment, and life, and to
gain Christian baptism ! It had been fortunate for them if the
tiger that tore the father to pieces, had spared neither mother nor
children; for then they would have perished at once, and escaped
the lingering miseries that awaited them.
I shall be told that I think and speak as one of the worldlyminded. I do so. I have no reference to heaven. When a man
loses his happiness here, in this worid, I consider that a positive,
lamentable loss. I do not stop to calculate what are the possible
chances of remuneration in another state of being; and 1 think
we should have a wiser and a better world of it. if others would
do the same. If, whenever we have clearly proved that any
action results in misery here, and is therefore wrong, we are to be
told, that all this misery will be made up to us in Paradise, and is
not, therefore, in itself, an evil—then we may as well give up all
idea of ever distinguishing good from ill, or right from wrong
What avails it, that we make the most just and accurate estimates
of earthly consequences, if these are all to be falsified in heaven ?
If to every calculation on this side the grave, there be an afterTeckoning, how can a single account be closed, or a single infer
ence drawn ? We might, in that case, as well be foolish as wise,
�to
EFFECTS OF MISSIONARY LABOURS.
be blind as clear-sighted. In short, earth were not worth study
ing, nor her thousand phenomena worth a moment’s examina
tion ; there were nothing to be termed right, for we cannot see
the end; nor any thing to be pronounced wrong, because what is
pain in time may bring bliss in eternity.
If this be so, it is indeed true that the wise and prudent have no
advantage over their neighbours. We must, in very earnest,
walk by faith and not by sight; and a dark, stumbling time we
shall have of it. As for our dictionaries and vocabularies, we
may as well make a great bonfire of them; for they will be of no
farther use. And we may add to the pile every other book but
the Bible and biblical commentaries. All other books speak of
this earth; make worldly calculations; draw worldly inferences ;
speak of actions as, from their consequences, good or bad ; make
comparisons between the earthly lives of men : and all these cal
culations and inferences and consequences and comparisons are
good for nothing; nay, worse, they mislead and deceive us.
As I said, I close the account in those regions where I can see
and estimate those consequences only which I can perceive and
judge; and therefore I am free to declare, that I think Dobrizhoffer, and his thousand(missionary brethren, who smite on earth
to save in heaven, are blind leaders of the blind, who destroy the
rude virtues and simple enjoyments of the savage, without sub
stituting in their place either true wisdom or enlightened happi
ness.
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Galileo and the Inquisition: effects of missionary labours
Creator
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Owen, Robert Dale
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 16 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Date of publication from KVK. Three items: Galileo and the Inquisition; Lawrence and Galileo [pages [7]-9]; Effects of Missionary Labour. 'Lawrence and Galileo' was first published in Monthly Magazine (London).
Publisher
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Austin & Co.
Date
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[186-]
Identifier
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G5324
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Galileo and the Inquisition: effects of missionary labours), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
Language
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English
Contributor
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Lawrence, William [Sir]
Subject
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Science
Religion
Astronomy
Conway Tracts
Galileo
Missionaries
Religion and science