Page:An Index of Prohibited Books (1840).djvu/111

 Tuscany on the subject, and the answers of his Paternity to them; suggesting, with respect to the Scriptures, that he might have represented them as not always to be interpreted literally; as, for instance, when human members and human affections are ascribed to the Deity. He adds, that the Bible was intended to instruct mankind in the way of salvation, and not philosophy, otherwise it would have been more copious on that subject. He afterwards adverts to the miracle of Joshua, and contends, that it is as consistent with his hypothesis as the opposite.

Some other topics of defence are added.

The biographer of Galileo (ch. xi. pp. 46, 47) gives an extract from a letter of his to the Grand Duchess, where he recommends his opponents to examine themselves the arguments on the subject of his philosophy, and leave the condemning them as erroneous and heretical to whom it belongs; but he trusts that the caution of the holy fathers, and the absolute wisdom of Him who cannot err, will preserve them from such temerity. In such positions, which are not articles of faith, no man, he says, "doubts but his Holiness hath always an absolute power of admitting or condemning them, but it is not