"I have seen more and further
this night than all the sons of Adam."
— Galileo, The Hinge of the World
Galileo Galilei "leans" on The Hinge of the World: His experiment regarding the motion of falling objects, newly demonstrated in his laboratory, have the power to "[wake] the century." It's not only his new theory of physics, though, but also his discovery of Jupiter's four moons, and his heretical proclamation of a heliocentric galaxy. His ideas threaten the Catholic Church's authority; and still deeper, Galileo's way of seeing — his method of arriving at truth — holds the promise to "unravel Creation" and with it, religion's relevance. His old mentor, now Pope Urban VIII, will stop at nothing to kill Galileo's ideas, and freeze the world. [JG]
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
| Richard N. Goodwin (born 1931), served as an advisor and speechwriter for President John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, as well as Senator Robert F. Kennedy. In addition to The Hinge of the World, Goodwin has written several other non-fiction works on American culture and politics. In 1975, he married Doris Kearns Goodwin, whose own titanic work, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln has on my to-read pile for a few months now. Will report back soon. |
FAVORITE QUOTES
5.
Salviatti: But you do teach astronomy?
Galileo: Not astronomy. I am required to teach poetry: a Greek lyric of whirling suns and crystal spheres and rings of celestial purity.
4.
Pope Urban VIII: Only a book! And the hemlock is only a plant. So Socrates was killed by a leaf. Your work is the greatest abomination in the history of christendom!
3.
Pope Urban VIII: You would subdue nature. Our duty is far more difficult: to control man. You would understand nature. I must understand man, a creature of terrifying disproportions, a Divine spirit caged with a ravenous beast. In arrogance, comical. In submission, monstrous. Always at war with himself, and swift to war on other, pitiable and dangerous, hungry for belief, tempted to denial. A fragment of unintelligible tint, struggling to leap from the mosaic which alone defines him. A nature so misshapen is drawn toward salvation through most dread awareness of the hereness of God, shadowing each event and every experience of his mortal stay. Faith is the harness, and mystery the peasant fabric of our faith. You would offer a God of laws, a cause, not a presence, leaving the gift of reason our solitary guide to knowledge of His will. We are thankful for his faculty, but men are moved to worship not gratitude but by necessity. And if reason alone is necessary, they will worship reason.
2.
Magalotti: All praise peace. None put down their swords.
1.
Pope Urban VIII: Did not one bite from one apple corrupt all mankind? His ideas: almost irresistible. They instruct man that he contains, within himself, power over God's creation, power equal almost to the Divine.
Salviatti: But you do teach astronomy?
Galileo: Not astronomy. I am required to teach poetry: a Greek lyric of whirling suns and crystal spheres and rings of celestial purity.
4.
Pope Urban VIII: Only a book! And the hemlock is only a plant. So Socrates was killed by a leaf. Your work is the greatest abomination in the history of christendom!
3.
Pope Urban VIII: You would subdue nature. Our duty is far more difficult: to control man. You would understand nature. I must understand man, a creature of terrifying disproportions, a Divine spirit caged with a ravenous beast. In arrogance, comical. In submission, monstrous. Always at war with himself, and swift to war on other, pitiable and dangerous, hungry for belief, tempted to denial. A fragment of unintelligible tint, struggling to leap from the mosaic which alone defines him. A nature so misshapen is drawn toward salvation through most dread awareness of the hereness of God, shadowing each event and every experience of his mortal stay. Faith is the harness, and mystery the peasant fabric of our faith. You would offer a God of laws, a cause, not a presence, leaving the gift of reason our solitary guide to knowledge of His will. We are thankful for his faculty, but men are moved to worship not gratitude but by necessity. And if reason alone is necessary, they will worship reason.
2.
Magalotti: All praise peace. None put down their swords.
1.
Pope Urban VIII: Did not one bite from one apple corrupt all mankind? His ideas: almost irresistible. They instruct man that he contains, within himself, power over God's creation, power equal almost to the Divine.
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