The Sleepwalkers (219 page)

"...
He
is
passionately
involved
in
this
quarrel,
as
if
it
were
his
own
business,
and
he
does
not
see
and
sense
what
it
would
comport;
so
that
he
will
be
snared
in
it,
and
will
get
himself
into
danger,
together
with
anyone
who
seconds
him...
For
he
is
vehement
and
is
all
fixed
and
impassioned
in
this
affair,
so
that
it
is
impossible,
if
you
have
him
around,
to
escape
from
his
hands.
And
this
is
a
business
which
is
not
a
joke
but
may
become
of
great
consequence,
and
this
man
is
here
under
our
protection
and
responsibility..."
³⁶

But
Galileo
could
not
be
persuaded
to
desist.
He
had
manoeuvred
himself
into
a
position
from
which
he
could
not
retreat
without
loss
of
face.
He
had
committed
himself
to
an
opinion,
and
he
must
be
proved
right;
the
heliocentric
system
had
become
a
matter
of
his
personal
prestige.

An
aggravating
factor
in
the
drama
was
the
personality
of
Paul
V
Borghese
"who
abhors
the
liberal
arts
and
his
[Galileo's]
kind
of
mind,
and
cannot
stand
these
novelties
and
subtleties",
as
Guicciardini
described
him.
³⁷
"Those
who
understand
something
and
are
of
curious
mind,
if
they
are
wise,
try
to
show
themselves
quite
the
opposite
in
order
not
to
fall
into
suspicion
and
get
into
trouble
themselves."

Even
Bellarmine
had
incurred
Paul's
displeasure.
He
and
the
other
leading
dignitaries
–
Cardinals
Barberini,
Dini
and
del
Monte,
Piccolomini
and
Maraffi
–
knew
how
to
treat
him.
They
were
anxious
to
avoid
committing
the
Church
to
any
official
decision
on
the
Copernican
system,
until
the
astronomers
were
able
to
shed
more
light
on
it,
and
to
preserve
the
status
quo
as
defined
in
Bellarmine's
letter,
ignoring
Galileo's
"incursion
into
the
sacristy".
But
they
knew
that
if
the
Pope
learnt
about
the
scandal,
a
showdown
would
be
inevitable.
That
was
probably
why
Bellarmine
had
advised
against
Galileo's
visit
to
Rome.

We
come
to
the
last
episode
before
the
blow
fell.
Galileo
had
repeatedly
hinted
that
he
had
discovered
a
decisive
physical
proof
of
the
Copernican
theory,
but
had
so
far
refused
to
disclose
it.
When
he
began
to
feel
that
arguing
about
the
miracle
of
Joshua
and
the
ludicrousness
of
Ptolemy
was
no
longer
of
avail,
and
that
his
position
was
becoming
impossible,
he
produced,
as
a
last
card,
his
"conclusive
physical
proof".
It
was
his
theory
of
the
tides.

Seven
years
earlier,
in
the
Astronomia
Nova,
Kepler
had
published
his
correct
explanation
of
the
tides
as
an
effect
of
the
moon's
attraction.
Galileo
dismissed
Keplers
theory
as
an
astrological
superstition,
³⁸
and
declared
that
the
tides
were
a
direct
consequence
of
the
earth's
combined
motions
which
cause
the
sea
to
move
at
a
different
speed
from
the
land.
The
theory
will
be
discussed
in
more
detail
in
the
following
chapter,
pp.
4640-66.
It
contradicted
Galileo's
own
researches
into
motion,
was
a
relapse
into
crude
Aristotelian
physics,
and
postulated
that
there
ought
to
be
only
one
high
tide
a
day
,
precisely
at
noon
–
whereas
everybody
knew
that
there
were
two,
and
that
they
were
shifting
around
the
clock.
^38a
The
whole
idea
was
in
such
glaring
contradiction
to
fact,
and
so
absurd
as
a
mechanical
theory
–
the
field
of
Galileo's
own
immortal
achievements
–
that
its
conception
can
only
be
explained
in
psychological
terms.
It
is
completely
out
of
keeping
with
his
intellectual
stature,
the
method
and
trend
of
his
thought;
it
was
not
a
mistake
but
a
delusion.

Armed
with
his
new
"secret
weapon"
(as
a
modern
scholar
has
called
Galileo's
theory
of
the
tides
³⁹
),
he
now
decided
to
make
a
direct
assault
on
the
Pope.
It
seems
that
all
of
Galileo's
friends
who
had
access
to
the
Pope
–
Cardinals
Dini,
Barberini,
del
Monte,
etc.
–
refused
to
act
as
intermediaries,
for
the
mission
was
finally
entrusted
to
Cardinal
Alessandro
Orsini,
a
youth
of
twenty-two.
Galileo
wrote
down
for
him
his
idea
of
the
tides;
the
sequel
is
described
as
follows
in
Ambassador
Guicciardini's
report
to
Duke
Cosmo
II
of
Tuscany: