No More Learning

THE ASTRONOMER Where's this going to end? I can't understand Clavius . . . Are all the claims made in the last fifty years to be taken at face value? In 1572 a new star appeared in the highest sphere, the eighth, the sphere of the fixed stars. It was rather larger and brighter than its neighbors and a year and a half later it was gone, overtaken by perdition. Is that any reason to question the eternal immutability of the heavens?
THE PHILOSOPHER If we let them, they'd smash up the whole universe.
THE ASTRONOMER Yes, what's the world coming to! Five years later, Tycho Brahe,
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? a Dane, determined the trajectory of a comet. It started above the moon and broke through all the spheres, the material carriers of all movable celestial bodies. It met with no resistance, its light was not deflected. Is that any reason to doubt the existence of the spheres?
THE PHILOSOPHER Out of the question! How can Christopher Clavius, the greatest astronomer of Italy and of the church, lower himself to investigating such stuff!
I THE FAT PRELATE Scandalous! * ,
ASTRONOMER But there he is, investigating. There he sits, gaping through that devil's tube. . Principiis obsta! The whole trouble began years ago when we started using the tables of Copernicus--a heretic--for calculating such things as the length of the solar year, the dates of solar and lunar eclipses, the positions of the celestial bodies.
A MONK I ask you: What is better, to get a lunar eclipse three
days behind schedule or to miss out on eternal salvation altogether? *
A VERY THIN MONK (steps forward with an open Bible, fanatically stabbing his finger at a passage) What does the Book say? "Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon. " How can the sun stand still if it never moves as these heretics claim? Does the Book lie?
ASTRONOMER No, and that's why we're leaving. Yes, there are phenomena that perplex us astronomers, but must man understand everything? (Goes out)
THE VERY THIN MONK They degrade the home of mankind, a planet they call it. They load man, animal, plant and soil on a cart and chase it in circles through the empty sky. Heaven and earth, they claim, have ceased to exist. The earth because it's a star in the sky, and the sky because it consists of many earths. There's no longer any difference between above and below, between eternal and transient. That we are transient, that we know. But now they tell us that heaven itself is transient. There are sun, moon and stars, but we live on this earth, that's what we've learned and what the Book says; but now, according to them, the earth is just another star. One day they'll be saying there's no difference between man and beast, that man himself is an animal and only animals exist.
THE FIRST SCHOLAR (to Galileo) Mr. Galilei, you've dropped something. * GALILEO (who bad taken his pebble out of his pocket during the preceding speech and
dropped it on the floor, as he stoops to pick it up) It didn't drop, monsignor, it rose. THE FAT PRELATE (turns his back on him) The insolence of the man! *
(A very old cardinal comes in, supported by a monk. The others reverentially
make room for him)
THE VERY OLD CARDINAL Are they still in there? Can't they get this foolishness over with? Surely Clavius knows his astronomy. I hear this Mr, Galilei has moved man from the center of the universe to somewhere on the edge. Obviously he's an enemy of mankind. And ought to be treated as such. Man is the crown of creation, every child knows that, he's God's
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? highest and most beloved creature. Would God have put his most marvelous work, his supreme effort on a little far-away star that's constantly on the move? Would he have sent His Son to such a place? How can there be men so perverse as to believe these slaves of their mathematical tables? How can one of God's creatures put up with such a thing?
THE FAT PRELATE (in an undertone) The gentleman is present. *
THE VERY OLD CARDINAL (to Galileo) Oh, you're the man? You know, I don't see too well any more, but I can see that you look remarkably like the man -- what was his name again? -- whom we burned a few years ago.
You want to degrade our earth, though you live on it and receive everything from it. You're fouling your own nest! But I for one will not stand for it.
I'm not some nondescript being on some little star that briefly circles around somewhere. I walk with assurance on a firm earth, it stands still, it is the center of the universe, I am in the center, and the Creator's eye rests on me, on me alone. Around me, fixed to eight crystal spheres, revolve the fixed stars and the mighty sun, which was created to illumine my surroundings. And myself as well, in order that God may see me. Hence obviously and irrefutably, everything depends on me, man, the supreme work of God, the creature in the center, the image of God, imperishable and . . . (He collapses)
(At this moment the door in the rear is opened and the great Clavius comes in at the head of his astronomers. Quickly, without a word or a glance aside, he traverses the hall and, near the exit, says to a monk)
CLAVIUS He's right.
(He goes out, followed by the astronomers. The door in the rear remains open. Deadly
silence. The very old cardinal revives)
THE VERY OLD CARDINAL What happened? Has there been a decision? (No one dares to
tell him)
(The old man is helped out. All leave the hall, perturbed. A little monk, a member of Clavius' investigating commission, stops at Galileo side)
THE LITTLE MONK (furtively) Mr. Galilei, before he left Father Clavius said: Now the theologians can see about setting the heavenly spheres right again. You have prevailed.
GALILEO (trying to hold him back) It has prevailed. Not I, reason has prevailed! (In the doorway he meets a tall cleric, the cardinal inquisitor, accompanied by an astronomer. Galileo bows. Before going out, he whispers a question to Little Monk)
? LITTLE MONK (whispering back) His Eminence the cardinal inquisitor. (The astronomer leads the cardinal inquisitor to the telescope)
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? 7
But the Inquisition places the Copernican doctrine on the Index (March 5, 1616).
When Galileo was in Rome
A cardinal asked him to his home. He wined and dined him as his guest And only made one small request.
The house of Cardinal Bellarmine in Rome. A ball is in progress. In the vestibule, where two ecclesiastical secretaries are playing chess and exchanging observations about the guests, Galileo is received by an applauding group of masked ladies and gentlemen. He is accompanied by his daughter Virginia and her fiance" Ludovico Mar-sill
? VIRGINIA I won't dance with anyone else, Ludovico. LUDOVICO Your shoulder clasp is loose.
GALILEO
"Your tucker, Thai's, is askew. Don't
Set it straight, for preciously it shows me And others too some deeper disorder.
In the candlelight of the swirling ballroom It makes them dream of
Darker coigns in the expectant park. "
VIRGINIA Feel my heart.
GALILEO (places his hand on her heart) It's beating.
VIRGINIA I want to look beautiful, GALILEO You'd better, or else they'll start
doubting again that the earth revolves.
LUDOVICO It doesn't revolve at all. (Galileo laughs) All Rome is talking of nothing
but you, sir. After tonight Rome will be talking about your daughter. GALILEO Everybody agrees that it's easy to look beautiful in the Roman spring. I
myself probably look like a paunchy Adonis,
(To the secretary) I'm to wait here for the cardinal. (To the couple) Run along and enjoy yourselves!
(Before they reach the ballroom in the rear Virginia skips back once more)
? VIRGINIA Father, the hairdresser on Via del Trionfo took me first and made four ladies wait. He knew your name right away. (Out)
GALILEO (to the secretaries playing chess) How can you go on playing chess the old way? Too confined. As it's played now, the larger pieces can range over many fields. The rook goes like this (He demonstrates it) and the bishop like this, and the queen like this and this. That gives you plenty of room and you can plan ahead.
THE SECRETARY It doesn't fit in with our small salaries. We can only afford to move like this. (He makes a short move)
GALILEO It's the other way round, my friend. If you live grandly, you can get away with anything. You must go with the times, gentlemen. You mustn't
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? keep hugging the shore, one fine day you must venture out on the high seas. (The very old cardinal of the previous scene crosses the stage, steered by his monk. He notices Galileo, passes him by, then turns uncertainly and greets him. Galileo sits down. The beginning of Lorenzo de'1 Medicos famous poem about the transience of the world is heard from the, ballroom, sung by boys)
"I who have seen the summer's roses die And all their petals pale and shriveled lie Upon the chilly ground, I know the truth: How evanescent is the flower of youth. "
GALILEO Rome. --Big party?
SECRETARY The first carnival after the years of plague. All the great families of
Italy are represented here tonight. The Orsinis, the Villanis, the Nuccolis, the Soldanieris, the Canes, the Lecchis, the Estensis, the Colombinis . . . Their Eminences, Cardinals Bellarmine and Barberini. (Enter Cardinal Bellarmine and Cardinal Barberini. They hold. respectively, a lamb's and a dove's mask mounted on sticks before their faces)
BARBERINI (pointing his index finger at Galileo) "The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. " So says Solomon, and what does Galileo say? GALILEO When I was this big (He shows with his hand), Your Eminence, I was on a ship, and I cried out: The shore's moving away. --Today I know that the shore stood still and the ship was moving.
BARBERINI Clever, clever. What we see, Bellarmine, to wit, that the stars in heaven are turning, need not be so, witness ship and shore. And what is true, to wit, that the earth turns, cannot be observed! Very clever. On the other hand, his satellites of Jupiter are hard nuts for our astronomers. Unfortunately, I too once read a little astronomy, Bellarmine, It clings to you like the itch.
BELLARMINE We must go with the times, Barberini. If star charts based on a new hypothesis make navigation easier for our seamen, let's use them. We disapprove only of doctrines that put scripture in the wrong. (He waves a greeting to the ballroom)
GALILEO Scripture. --"He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him. " Proverbs of Solomon.
BARBERINI "A prudent man concealeth knowledge. " Proverbs of Solomon. GALILEO "Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the
strength of the ox. "
BARBERINI "He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city. " GALILEO "But a broken spirit drieth the bones. " (Pause) "Doth not wisdom cry? " BARBERINI "Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? "--Welcome
to Rome, my dear Galileo. You remember the founding of Rome? Two little boys, the story goes, received milk and shelter from a she-wolf. Ever since then all the she-wolfs children have had to pay for their rnilk. In return, the she-wolf provides all manner of pleasures, spiritual and worldly, from conversations with my learned friend Bellarmine to three or four ladies of international repute, would you like to see them? (He leads Galileo toward the rear to show him the ballroom. Galileo follows reluctantly] No? He prefers a serious discussion. Very well. Are you sure, friend Galilei, that you astronomers aren't just trying to make astronomy a little easier for yourselves? (He leads him back to the front) You like to think in
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? circles or ellipses and in uniform velocities, in simple motions commensurate with your minds. But what if God had been pleased to make His stars move like this? (He moves his finger through the air in a very complicated course with varying velocity in the air) What would become of your calculations?
GALILEO Your Eminence, if God had created the world like this (He retraces Barberini^s course) He would have constructed our minds like this too (He repeats the same course) to enable them to recognize these courses as the simplest. I believe in reason. BARBERINI I consider reason inadequate. No answer. He's too polite to say he considers mine inadequate. (Laughs and returns to the balustrade)
BELLARMINE Reason, my friend, doesn't go very far. All around us we see nothing but falsehood, crime and weakness. Where is the truth?
GALILEO (angrily) I believe in reason. BARBERINI (to the secretaries) Don't take anything down. This is a scientific discussion among friends.
BELLARMINE Consider for a moment the intellectual effort it cost the church fathers and many after them to make some sense out of this world (abominable, isn't it? ). Consider the cruelty of those who have their peasants whipped half-naked around their estates in the Campagna and the stupidity of the wretches who kiss their feet in return. GALILEO Shameful! On my way here I saw . . . BELLARMINE We've transferred the responsibility for such conditions (the very stuff of life) which we cannot understand to a higher being, we say that certain purposes are served thereby, that a master plan is being followed.
Not that our minds are set entirely at ease. But now you come along and accuse this supreme being of not knowing how the planets move, when it's perfectly clear to you. Is that wise?
GALILEO (launching into an explanation) I'm a faithful son of the church . . . BARBERINI He's really dreadful. In all innocence he accuses God of the juiciest
boners in astronomy! I suppose God didn't work hard enough at His
astronomy before He wrote Holy Scripture? My dear friend! BELLARMINE Don't you think it likely that the Creator knows more about His
creation than any of His creatures?
GALILEO But, gentlemen, after all we can misinterpret not only the movements of
the heavenly bodies, but the Bible as well.
BELLARMINE But wouldn't you say that after all the interpretation of the Bible is
the business of the Holy Church? (Galileo is silent)
BELLARMINE You see, you don't answer. (He makes a sign to the secretaries) Mr.
Galilei, the Holy Office has decided tonight that the doctrine of Copernicus, according to which the sun is the center of the cosmos and motionless, whereas the earth moves and is not the center of the cosmos, is inane, absurd, and heretical. I have been charged to admonish you to relinquish this opinion. (To the first secretary) Please repeat. WSST
SECRETARY His Eminence, Cardinal Bellarmine, to the aforementioned Galileo Galilei: The Holy Office has decided that the doctrine of Copernicus, according to which the sun is the center of the cosmos and motionless, whereas the earth moves and is not the center of the cosmos, is inane, absurd and heretical. I have been charged to admonish you to relinquish this opinion.
GALILEO What does this mean?
(From the ballroom another verse of the poem is heard, sung by boys)
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? "I said, the seasons do not stay Pluck the roses while it's May. "
(Barberini motions Galileo to keep quiet while the singing continues. They all
listen)
GALILEO What about the facts? I understand that the astronomers of the Collegium Romanum have confirmed my observations.
BELLARMINE And expressed their profound satisfaction, in a manner most complimentary to you.
GALILEO But the satellites of Jupiter, the phases of Venus . . .
BELLARMINE The Holy Congregation has arrived at its decision without taking these
particulars into account.
GALILEO In other words, all further scientific research . . .
BELLARMINE Is guaranteed, Mr. Galilei. In keeping with the church tenet that we
cannot know but may investigate. (Again he salutes a guest in the ballroom) You are at liberty to deal with this doctrine as a mathematical hypothesis. Science is the legitimate and most beloved daughter of the church, Mr. Galilei. None of us seriously believes that you wish to undermine man's trust in the church.
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,
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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.