No More Learning

GALILEO (angrily) To invoke trust is to exhaust it.
BARBERINI Really? (Laughing heartily, he slaps his shoulder. Then with a sharp look he
says, not unkindly) Don't throw the baby out with the bath water, my friend. Nor
shall we. We need you more than you need us.
BELLARMINE I can't wait to introduce Italy's greatest mathematician to the
commissioner of the Holy Office who has the highest regard for you. BARBERINI (taking Galileo's other arm) Whereupon he changes back into a lamb. You too, my friend, should have come here in disguise--as a respectable doctor of
scholastic philosophy. It's my mask that allows me a little freedom tonight. When I wear it, you may even hear me murmuring: If God did not exist, we should have to invent Him. Well, let's put our masks on again. Poor Galilei hasn't got one. (They take Galileo between them and lead him into the ballroom) (Secretary writes eagerly) What was that about his believing in reason? (Enter the cardinal inquisitor)
THE INQUISITOR Has the interview taken place?
SECRETARY (mechanically) First Mr. Galilei arrived with his daughter. She was
betrothed today to Mr. . . . (The inquisitor motions him to skip it) Mr. Galilei went on to tell us about the new method of playing chess in which, contrary to the rules, the pieces are moved over many squares.
THE INQUISITOR (again beckons "no") The minutes.
(A secretary hands him the minutes and the cardinal sits down to skimthrough them. Two young ladies in masks cross the stage and curtsy to the cardinal)
LUDOVICIO Who's that?
VIRGINIA The cardinal inquisitor.
THE INQUISITOR (from his corner) Well, my daughter?
VIRGINIA (with a little start as she has not seen him) Oh, Your Eminence!
(The inquisitor, without looking up, tenders his right hand. She approaches, kneels
down, and kisses bis ring)
THE INQUISITOR Glorious night! Allow me to congratulate you on your engagement. Your fiance comes of a distinguished family. Will you stay in Rome?
VIRGINIA Not for the present, Your Eminence. There's so much to be done for a wedding.
THE INQUISITOR Then you'll go back to Florence with your father. I'm glad to hear
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? it. I imagine your father needs you. Mathematics is a cold housewife, I should say. A woman of flesh and blood in such surroundings makes all the difference. It's so easy to lose oneself in the universe which is so very immense if one happens to be a great man.
VIRGINIA (breathless) You're very kind, Your Eminence. I really know practically nothing about these things.
THE INQUISITOR Indeed? (He laughs) Well, I suppose they don't eat fish in the fisherman's house. It will amuse your father to hear that, come right down to it, you learned what you know about the heavenly bodies from me. (Leafing through the minutes) I read here that our innovators, whose acknowledged leader is your father--a great man, one of the greatest--regard our present ideas about the importance of our good earth as somewhat exaggerated. Well then, from the age of Ptolemy, a sage of antiquity, to the present day, the whole of creation, that is, the entire crystal globe with the earth at its center, has been computed to measure approximately two thousand earth diameters. Quite a lot of space, but not enough, not nearly enough, for the innovators. They maintain, so I hear, that the universe extends further than we can imagine, that the distance between earth and sun--a rather considerable distance, we always thought--is so negligibly small when compared with the distance between our poor earth and the fixed stars on the outermost crystal sphere, that there is no need whatever to consider it in our calculations. Yes, our innovators live on a very grand scale.
(Virginia laughs)
? THE INQUISITOR And indeed, certain gentlemen of the Holy Office, not so long ago, came very close to taking offence at such a picture of the world, compared to which our old picture is a mere miniature that might well be hanging from the charming neck of a certain young lady. The gentlemen of the Holy Office are worried that a prelate or even a cardinal might get lost in such enormous spaces. The Almighty might even lose sight of the pope himself. Yes, it's all very amusing. But even so, my dear child, I'm glad that you'll be staying with your eminent father, whom we all hold in the highest esteem. I wonder if I know your father confessor . . .
VIRGINIA Father Christopher of St. Ursula.
THE INQUISITOR Well then, I'm glad you'll be going with your father. He will need you,
perhaps you can't conceive of such a thing, but the time will come. You're very young and very much alive and greatness is not always an easy thing to bear for those to whom God has given it, no, not always. No mortal is too great to be included in a prayer. But I'm keeping you, dear child, and I'm making your fiance jealous and perhaps your father too by telling you something about the heavenly bodies--which may, to be sure, be quite obsolete. Hurry back to the ball, but don't forget to give Father Christopher my regards.
(Virginia, after a deep curtsy, leaves quickly)
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? 8
A Conversation
In the palace of the Florentine ambassador to Rome, Galileo listens to the little monk, who after the session of the Collegium Romanum repeated Father damns'1 remark to him in a whisper.
GALILEO Speak up, speak up! The cloth you wear entitles you to say what you please. THE LITTLE MONK I've studied mathematics, Mr. Galilei.
GALILEO That might be a good thing if it led you to admit that two times two is
sometimes four.
THE LITTLE MONK For three nights I haven't been able to sleep, Mr. Galilei. I can't figure
out how to reconcile the decree which I've read with the satellites of Jupiter
which I've seen. So I decided to read mass this morning and come and see you. GALILEO To tell me that Jupiter has no satellites?
THE LITTLE MONK No. I recognized the wisdom of the decree. It showed me how
dangerous unrestricted inquiry can be to mankind, and I've decided to give up astronomy. Still, I felt I had to acquaint you with the motives which compel me, even though Pm an astronomer, to desist from pursuing a certain doctrine.
GALILEO I can assure you that such motives are well known to me.
THE LITTLE MONK I understand your bitterness. You're thinking of certain exceptional
means of pressure exerted by the church.
GALILEO Don't beat about the bush: instruments of torture.
THE LITTLE MONK Yes, but I'd like to speak of other motives. Forgive me if I talk
about myself. I grew up in the Campagna. My parents are peasants, simple folk. They know all about olive trees, but very little else. As I observe the phases of Venus, I can see my parents sitting by the stove with my sister, eating lasagna. I see the beams over their heads, blackened by the smoke of centuries, I see distinctly their work-worn old hands and the little spoons they hold in them. They're very poor, but even in their misery there is a certain order. There are cyclic rhythms, scrubbing the floor, tending the olive trees in their seasons, paying taxes. There's a regularity in the calamities that descend on them. My father's back wasn't bowed all at once, no, a little more with every spring in the olive grove, just as the child-bearing that has made my mother more and more sexless occurred at regular intervals. What gives them the strength to sweat their way up stony paths with heavy baskets, to bear children, even to eat, is the feeling of stability and necessity they get from the sight of the soil, of the trees turning green every year, of their little church standing there, and from hearing Bible verses read every Sunday. They have been assured that the eye of God is upon them, searching and almost anxious, that the whole
Galileo, feeling grim
A young monk came to visit him. The monk was born of common folk. It was of science that they spoke.
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? world-wide stage is built around them in order that they, the players, may prove themselves in their great or small roles. What would my people say if I were to tell them they were living on a small chunk of stone that moves around another star, turning incessantly in empty space, one among many and more or less significant? What would be the good or necessity of their patience, of their acquiescence in their misery? What would be the good of the Holy Scripture which explains everything and demonstrates the necessity of all their sweat, patience, hunger and submission, if it turns out to be full of errors? No, I can see their eyes waver, I can see them rest their spoons on the table, I can see how cheated and betrayed they feel. In that case, they will say, no one is watching over us. Must we, untaught, old and exhausted as we are, look out for ourselves? No one has given us a part to play, only this wretched role on a tiny star which is wholly dependent, around which nothing turns? There is no sense in our misery, hunger means no more than going without food, it is no longer a test of strength; effort means no more than bending and carrying, there is no virtue in it. Can you understand now that in the decree of the Holy Congregation I discern a noble motherly compassion, a great goodness of soul?
GALILEO Goodness of soul! Don't you simply mean that there's nothing left, the wine's been drunk, their lips are parched, so let them kiss the cassock. But why is nothing left? Why is there no order in this country but the order in an empty drawer, and no necessity but the necessity of working oneself to death? Amid overflowing vineyards and wheat fields? Your peasants in the Campagna are paying for the wars which the vicar of gentle Jesus is waging Spain and Germany. Why does he put the earth at the center of the universe? Because he wants the See of St. Peter to be in the center of the world! That's the crux of the matter. You're right; the question is not the planets, but the peasants of the Campagna. And don't talk to me about the beauty of phenomena in the golden glow of old age. Do you know how the Margaritifera oyster produces pearls? By contracting a near-fatal disease, by enveloping an unassimilable foreign body, a grain of sand, for instance, in a ball of mucus. It almost dies in the process. To hell with the pearl, give me the healthy oyster. Virtue is not bound up with misery, my friend. If your people were prosperous and happy, they could develop the virtues of prosperity and happiness. But today the virtues of exhausted people derive from exhausted fields, and I reject those virtues. Yes, sir, my new water pumps can work more miracles than your preposterous superhuman toil. --"Be fruitful and multiply," because your fields are barren and you are decimated by wars. You want me to lie to your people?
THE LITTLE MONK (in great agitation) The very highest motives bid us keep silent: the peace of mind of the wretched and lowly!
GALILEO Would you care to see a Cellini clock that Cardinal Bellarmine's coachman left here this morning? You see, my friend, as a reward for my letting your good parents have their peace of mind, the government offers me the wine which they press in the sweat of their countenance, which as you know was fashioned in the image of God. If I agreed to keep silent, my motives would undoubtedly be rather sordid: an easy life, no persecution, and so on.
THE LITTLE MONK Mr. Galilei, I'm a priest.
GALILEO You're also a physicist. And you can see that Venus has phases. Look
out there. (He points out the window] Can you see the little Priapus by the laurel tree at the well? The god of gardens, birds, and thieves, rustic, obscene, two thousand years old. He wasn't so much of a liar. All right,
39
we'll skip that, I too am a son of the church. But do you know the Eighth Satire of Horace? I've been rereading him lately, he gives me a certain balance. (He reaches for a small book) He puts words in the mouth of this same Priapus, a little statue that used to stand in the Esquiline Gardens. Here's how it starts:
"I was a figtree stump, wood of little use When once a carpenter, pondering whether To fashion a Priapus or a footstool Decided on the god . . . "
Do you think Horace would have let anyone forbid him the footstool and put a table in the poem instead? Sir, a cosmology in which Venus has no phases violates my esthetic sense! We can't invent machines for pumping river water if we're forbidden to study the greatest machine before our eyes, the mechanism of the heavenly bodies. The sum total of the angles in a triangle can't be changed to suit the requirements of the curia. Nor can I calculate the courses of flying bodies in such a way as to account for witches riding on broomsticks.
THE LITTLE MONK Don't you think the truth will prevail, even without us, if it is the truth?
GALILEO No, no, no. Truth prevails only when we make it prevail. The triumph of reason can only be the triumph of reasoning men. You describe your peasants in the Campagna as if they were moss on their huts. How can anyone imagine that the sum of the angles of a triangle runs counter to their needs! But if they don't rouse themselves and learn how to think, the best irrigation systems in the world won't do them any good. Damn it, I see the divine patience of your people, but where is their divine wrath?
THE LITTLE MONK They're tired.
GALILEO (throws a bundle of manuscripts in front of him) Are you a physicist, my
son? Here you'll find the reasons for the ocean's tides. But don't read it, do you hear. Ah, reading already? I see you're a physicist. (The little monk has immersed himself in the papers)
GALILEO An apple from the tree of knowledge. He gobbles it up. He'll be damned for all eternity, but he's got to bolt it down, the hapless glutton. Sometimes I think I'd gladly be locked up in a dungeon ten fathoms below ground, if in return I could find out one thing: What is light? And the worst of it is: What I know I must tell others. Like a lover, a drunkard, a traitor. It's a vice, I know, and leads to ruin. But how long can I go on shouting into empty air--that is the question.
THE LITTLE MONK (points at a passage in the papers) I don't understand this sentence.
GALILEO I'll explain it to you, I'll explain it to you.
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? 9
After a silence of eight years Galileo feels encouraged by the enthronement of a new pope, himself a scientist, to resume his research in the forbidden field. The sunspots.
Eight long years with tongue in cheek Of what he knew he did not speak. The temptations grew too great
And Galileo challenged fate.
Galileo's house in Florence. Galileo's pupils, Sagredo, the little monk and Andrea Sarti, now. a. young man, are gathered for an experiment. Galileo, standing, is reading a hook. -- Virginia and Mrs. Sarti are sewing bridal linen.
VIRGINIA Sewing a trousseau is fun.
This is for the long dining table, Ludovico loves to have company. But it has got to be right, his mother notices every stitch. She isn't happy about father's books. . Any more than Father Christopher.
MRS. SARTI He hasn't written a book in years. VIRGINIA I think he saw he was mistaken. In Rome, a very high ecclesiastic told me a lot of things about astronomy. The distances are too great.
ANDREA (writes the program for the day on a blackboard and reads aloud) "Thursday afternoon: Floating bodies. "--That means ice again; bucket of water; scales; iron needle; Aristotle. (He fetches the objects)
(The others are looking up things in books. Enter Filippo Mucius, a scholar in his middle years. He appears to be upset)
MUCIUS Would you tell Mr. Galilei he must see me? He has condemned me without a hearing.
MRS. SARTI I've told you he doesn't wish to see you.
MUCIUS God will reward you if you ask him again. I must speak to him. VIRGINIA (goes to the staircase) Father!
GALILEO What is it?
VIRGINIA Mr. Mucius!
GALILEO (looks up brusquely, goes to the head of the stairs, his pupils trailing behind him)
What do you want?
MUCIUS Mr. Galilei, I request permission to explain the passages in my book
which seem to indicate a condemnation of the Copernican doctrine that
the earth revolves. I've . . .
GALILEO What is there to explain? You are in full agreement with the Holy
Congregation's decree of 1616. You are perfectly within your rights. It's true, you studied mathematics with us, but we have no authority to make you say that two times two is four. You have every right to say that this stone (He takes the pebble from his pocket and throws it down to the ground floor) has just flown up to the ceiling.
MUCIUS Mr. Galilei, I . . .
GALILEO Don't talk about difficulties! The plague didn't prevent me from
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? going on with my observations.
MUCIUS Mr. Galilei, the plague is not the worst.
GALILEO Let me tell you this: Not to know the truth is just; stupid. To know the
truth and call it a lie is criminal! Leave my house at once!
MUCIUS (tonelessly) You are right. (He goes out) (Galileo returns to his study) SAGREDO That's how it is, I'm afraid, He doesn't amount to
much and no one could pay any attention to him if he hadn't been your pupil. But now of course they all say: He's heard everything Galileo had to say and is forced to admit that it's all wrong.
MRS. SARTI I feel sorry for the gentleman.
VIRGINIA Father was very fond of him.
MRS. SARTI I wanted to talk to you about your marriage, Virginia. You're such a
young thing, and you have no mother, and your father just puts little pieces of ice in water. Anyway, I wouldn't ask him questions about your marriage if I were you. He would say the most dreadful things for a week, naturally at meals when the young people are there, because he hasn't half a scudo's worth of shame in him, never did have. That's not what I had in mind, I'm thinking of what the future has in store. Not that I know anything, I'm only an ignorant woman. But this is a very serious thing, you mustn't go into it blindly. I do think you should go to a real astronomer at the university and consult him about your horoscope. Then you'll know what to expect. Why are you laughing?
VIRGINIA Because I've been.
MRS. SARTI (very curious) What did he say?
VIRGINIA For three months I must be careful because the sun will be in Aries, but
then I get a very good ascendant and the clouds will part. As long as I don't lose sight of Jupiter, I can go on any journey I please, because I'm an Aries.
MRS. SARTI
VIRGINIA
VIRGINIA
MUCIUS (comes back) Just thought I'd bring you a book that might be of
And Ludovico?
He's a Leo. (After a little pause) That means sensual, I think. (Pause)
I know that step.
interest to you. I'll just put the book in your little hands, and disappear, on
tiptoe. (He goes out. Virginia hands the book to Sagredo) GALILEO What's it about?
SAGREDO I don't know. (Spelling it out) "De maculis in sole. "
ANDREA On the sunspots. Another one! (Sagredo hands it to him)
ANDREA Listen to this dedication! "To the greatest living authority on physics,
Galileo Galilei. " (Galileo has immersed himself once more in his book) ANDREA I've read the treatise by Fabricius in Holland. He believes the spots are
clusters of stars passing between the earth and the sun.
THE LITTLE MONK Isn't that doubtful, Mr. Galilei? (Galileo does not answer) ANDREA In Paris and Prague they think they're vapors from the sun.
SAGREDO Hm?
? ANDREA Sagredo has his doubts.
SAGREDO Kindly leave me out of it. I said "Hm," that's all.
(He gesticulates with the scales. A pan falls to the floor. Galileo walks over and silently
picks it up)
THE LITTLE MONK It's blissful to doubt; I wonder why.
ANDREA Every sunny day in the last two weeks I've climbed up to the attic, right
under the roof. A thin beam of light comes down through a tiny crack in the
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? tiles. With that beam you can catch the reverse image of the sun on a sheet of paper. I saw a spot as big as a fly and blurred like a small cloud. It moved. Why don't we investigate those spots, Mr. Galilei?
GALILEO Because we're working on floating bodies.
ANDREA Mother has whole baskets full of letters. All Europe wants your opinion.
With the reputation you've built up, you can't be silent.
GALILEO Rome has allowed me to build up a reputation because I've kept silent. SAGREDO But you can't afford to be silent any more.
GALILEO Nor can I afford to be roasted over a wood fire like a ham. ANDREA Do you think the spots come into it?
(Galileo does not answer)
ANDREA GALILEO ANDREA
All right, let's stick to our little pieces of ice. They can't hurt you.
Exactly. --Our proposition, Andrea!
We assume that whether a body floats or not depends essentially not on its
shape, but on whether it is lighter or heavier than water.
GALILEO What does Aristotle say?
THE LITTLE MONK "Discus latus platique . . . "
GALILEO Translate, translate!
THE LITTLE MONK "A broad, flat disk of ice floats in water, whereas an iron
needle sinks. "
GALILEO Why then, according to Aristotle, doesn't ice sink?
THE LITTLE MONK Because, being broad and flat, it cannot divide the water, GALILEO Very well. (A piece of ice is handed to him and he puts it into the bucket) Now I
press the ice firmly down to the bottom of the bucket. I remove the
pressure of my hands. What happens?
THE LITTLE MONK It rises to the surface.
GALILEO Correct. In rising it seems to be able to divide the water. Fulganzio! THE LITTLE MONK But why then does it float at all? Ice is heavier than water, because
it is condensed water.
GALILEO What if it were diluted water?
ANDREA It must be lighter than water, or it wouldn't float.
GALILEO Aha!
ANDREA Just as an iron needle can't float. Everything lighter than water floats,
everything heavier sinks. Which was to be proved.
GALILEO Andrea, you must learn to think carefully. Give me the iron needle. A
sheet of paper. Is iron heavier than water? ANDREA Yes.
(Galileo places the needle on a sheet of paper and floats it in the water. Pause) GALILEO What happens?
SAGREDO The needle floats! Holy Aristotle, they never checked up on him!
(They laugh)
GALILEO One of the main reasons for the poverty of science is that it is supposed to be so rich. The aim of science is not to open the door to everlasting wisdom, but to set a limit to everlasting error. Take that down.
VIRGINIA What's the matter?
MRS. SARTI Every time they laugh, a fright comes over me. I wonder what
they're laughing about.
VIRGINIA Father says theologians have their church bells and physicists have
their laughter.
MRS. SARTI At least I'm glad he doesn't look through his tube so much any
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? more. That was much worse.
VIRGINIA No, he only puts pieces of ice in water. No harm can come of that. MRS. SARTI Who knows?
(Enter Ludovico Marsili in traveling garb, followed by a manservant
with luggage. Virginia runs toward him and embraces him]
VIRGINIA Why didn't you let us know you were coming?
LUDOVICO I was near here inspecting our vineyards, and I just couldn't stay
away.
GALILEO (as though nearsighted) Who's that? VIRGINIA Ludovico.
THE LITTLE MONK Can't you see him?
GALILEO LUDOVICO GALILEO
Oh yes, Ludovico. (Goes toward him) How are the horses? They're fine, sir.
Sarti, let's celebrate. Bring us a jug of that old Sicilian wine!
(Mrs. Sarti goes out with Andrea)
LUDOVICO (to Virginia) You look pale. Country life will do you good. Mother is
expecting you in September.
VIRGINIA Wait, I want to show you my wedding dress. (Runs out)
GALILEO Sit down.
LUDOVICO I hear you have more than a thousand students in your lectures at
the university, sir. What are you working on at the moment?
GALILEO Routine stuff. Did you come through Rome?
LUDOVICO Yes. --Before I forget, mother congratulates you on your admirable tact in connection with all that fuss over the sunspots in Holland.
GALILEO (dryly) That's kind of her.
(Mrs. Sarti and Andrea bring wine and glasses. All gather around the table)
LUDOVICO Rome has found a topic of conversation for February. Christopher Clavius said he was afraid the whole earth-around-the-sun circus would flare up again because of those sunspots.
ANDREA Don't let it worry you.
GALILEO Any other news from the Holy City, apart from hopes for new sins on
my part?
LUDOVICO You heard, of course, that the Holy Father is dying?
THE LITTLE MONK Oh.
? GALILEO Who's mentioned as successor?