[12] It is not intended here to deny what some writers state—that the friction caused by the Earth’s rotation does in some degree act upon the tidal wave. It is remarkable, so far as can be ascertained from observations taken at some small island at a distance from any continent, that the tidal wave of the Ocean only rises, even at the spring, about five or six feet. The enormous rise of water at some places arises from the tidal wave being driven into estuaries, mouths of rivers, and other narrow channels.
[13] These are the author’s words, spoken by Salviati: “Tra tutti gli nomini grandi, che sopra tal mirabile effetto di natura hanno filosofato, più mi maraviglio del Keplero, che di altri, il quale d’ingegno libero, e acuto, e che aveva in mano i moti attribuiti alla terra, abbia poi dato l’orecchio, e assenso a predominii della Luna sopra l’acqua, e a proprietà occulte, e simili fanciullezze.”
[14] It is not intended to imply that these two Schools of thought stand on anything like the same scientific level.
[15] The spots on the Sun were seen at about the same period of time by Fabricius and by Father Scheiner, a Jesuit, as already mentioned.
[16] I must not be understood as implying that even doctrinal decisions promulgated by the Roman Congregations in their own name are considered by theologians to be infallible; such character belonging only to decisions addressed by the Pope himself to the Church.
[17] A curious instance of popular unacquaintance with astronomy was afforded some months ago, when the planet Venus, which one would think was a well-known object to most people, was mistaken for “the Star of Bethlehem;” and this mistake was by no means confined to the ignorant, but was shared by persons of education.
The planet was at the time a brilliant “morning star;” and the effect on the eye is more striking in these circumstances than when it is seen, as is very commonly the case, in the evening, shortly after sunset. I suppose this would account in some measure for the delusion.
In clearer and finer skies than those of England, Venus is sometimes so brilliant in the early morning as to startle an unaccustomed observer.
[18] Dr. Ward makes a curious mistake in one point; he speaks in one of the articles of The Dublin Review (which he then edited) of Copernicanism as destroying the old ideas as to above and below; that is to say, for instance, your idea of ascending on high towards heaven was thereby nullified, and ascending from the surface of the earth meant going in any direction which the earth’s rotation might place above your head at any particular moment. But Dr. Ward, who was doubtless thinking of the very old and exploded notion that the earth was a flat surface, does not seem to have been aware that this objection applies in principle to the Ptolemaic system also; Ptolemy knew that the earth was spherical in its shape, and consequently that what would be above a person in the eastern parts of India, to take an example, would be widely different from that which would be so at the westernmost point of Africa. It may, however, be admitted that an additional cause for bewilderment was presented by the diurnal rotation of the Earth, since it then appeared that the same point in space above you at noon would be far away below you at midnight.
[19] Quoted from an article in the “Revue des Questions Historiques,” 1867, “Galilée, son Procès, sa Condemnation, d’après des documents inédits,” by M. Henri de l’Épinois.