I Think That In The

Some, Merely To Contradict What I Had Said, Did Not Scruple To Cast Doubt Upon Things They Had Seen With Their Own Eyes Again And Again.

They Seemed To Forget That The Increase Of Known Truths Stimulates The Investigation, Establishment And Growth Of The Arts; Not Their Dimination Or Destruction.

The Doctrine That The Earth Is Neither The Center Of The Universe Nor Immovable, But Moves Even With A Daily Rotation, Is Absurd, And Both Philosophically And Theologically False, And At The Least An Error Of Faith.

And Who Can Doubt That It Will Lead To The Worst Disorders When Minds Created Free By God Are Compelled To Submit Slavishly To An Outside Will? When We Are Told To Deny Our Senses And Subject Them To The Whim Of Others? When People Devoid Of Whatsoever Competence Are Made Judges Over Experts And Are Granted Authority To Treat Them As They Please? These Are The Novelties Which Are Apt To Bring About The Ruin Of Commonwealths And The Subversion Of The State.

Their Vain Presumption Of Knowing All Can Take Beginning Solely From Their Never Having Known Anything; For If One Has But Once Experienced The Perfect Knowledge Of One Thing, And Truly Tasted What It Is To Know, He Shall Perceive That Of Infinite Other Conclusions He Understands Not So Much As One.