The Sleepwalkers (238 page)

This
is
what
it
occurs
to
me
to
say
with
reference
to
this
particular
and
which
suggested
itself
to
me
during
the
reperusal
of
my
book."
³⁴

When
he
had
finished
this
statement,
the
hearing
was
closed;
but
Galileo,
after
being
dismissed,
returned
and
volunteered
the
following
supplementary
statement:

"And
in
confirmation
of
my
assertion
that
I
have
not
held
and
do
not
hold
as
true
the
opinion
which
has
been
condemned,
of
the
motion
of
the
Earth
and
stability
of
the
Sun
–
if
there
shall
be
granted
to
me,
as
I
desire,
means
and
time
to
make
a
clearer
demonstration
thereof,
I
am
ready
to
do
so;
and
there
is
a
most
favourable
opportunity
for
this,
seeing
that
in
the
work
already
published
the
interlocutors
agree
to
meet
again
after
a
certain
time
to
discuss
several
distinct
problems
of
Nature
not
connected
with
the
matter
discoursed
of
at
their
meetings.
As
this
affords
me
an
opportunity
of
adding
one
or
two
other
'days',
I
promise
to
resume
the
arguments
already
brought
in
favour
of
the
said
opinion,
which
is
false
and
has
been
condemned,
and
to
confute
them
in
such
most
effectual
manner
as
by
the
blessing
of
God
may
be
supplied
to
me.
I
pray,
therefore,
this
holy
Tribunal
to
aid
me
in
this
good
resolution
and
to
enable
me
to
put
it
in
effect."
³⁵

I
have
criticized
Galileo
freely,
but
I
do
not
feel
at
liberty
to
criticize
the
change
in
his
behaviour
before
the
Inquisition.
He
was
seventy,
and
he
was
afraid.
That
his
fears
were
exaggerated,
and
that
his
self-immolatory
offer
(which
the
Inquisitors
discreetly
allowed
to
drop
as
if
it
had
never
been
made)
was
quite
unnecessary,
is
beside
the
point.
His
panic
was
due
to
psychological
causes:
it
was
the
unavoidable
reaction
of
one
who
thought
himself
capable
of
outwitting
all
and
making
a
fool
of
the
Pope
himself,
on
suddenly
discovering
that
he
has
been
"found
out".
His
belief
in
himself
as
a
superman
was
shattered,
his
selfesteem
punctured
and
deflated.
He
returned
to
the
Tuscan
Embassy,
in
Niccolini's
words
"more
dead
than
alive".
From
then
on
he
was
a
broken
man.

He
was
called
again
ten
days
later,
on
10
May,
to
a
purely
formal
hearing,
at
which
he
handed
in
his
written
defence.
³⁶
In
the
first
part
he
argued
–
"in
order
to
demonstrate
the
purity
of
my
intention,
ever
foreign
to
the
practice
of
dissimulation
or
deceit
in
any
operation
I
engage
in"
–
that
he
was
unaware
of
a
specific
and
absolute
injunction
in
1616,
and
made
out
a
convincing
case
for
this.
The
main
point
of
his
defence
was
that
"those
faults
which
are
seen
scattered
throughout
my
book,
have
not
been
artfully
introduced
with
any
concealed
or
other
than
sincere
intention,
but
have
only
inadvertently
fallen
from
my
pen,
owing
to
a
vainglorious
ambition
and
complacency
in
desiring
to
appear
more
subtle
than
the
generality
of
popular
writers,
as
indeed
in
another
deposition
I
have
confessed;
which
fault
I
shall
be
ready
to
correct
with
all
possible
industry
whenever
I
may
be
commanded
or
permitted
by
Their
Most
Eminent
Lordships."

He
concludes on a tone of a humble personal appeal:

"Lastly,
it
remains
for
me
to
beg
you
to
take
into
consideration
my
pitiable
state
of
bodily
indisposition,
to
which,
at
the
age
of
seventy
years,
I
have
been
reduced
by
ten
months
of
constant
mental
anxiety
and
the
fatigue
of
a
long
and
toilsome
journey
at
the
most
inclement
season
–
together
with
the
loss
of
the
greater
part
of
the
years
to
which,
from
my
previous
condition
of
health,
I
had
the
prospect.
I
am
persuaded
and
encouraged
to
do
so
by
the
faith
I
have
in
the
clemency
and
goodness
of
the
most
Eminent
Lords,
my
judges;
with
the
hope
that
they
may
be
pleased,
in
answer
to
my
prayer,
to
remit
what
may
appear
to
their
entire
justice
the
rightful
addition
that
is
still
lacking
to
such
sufferings
to
make
up
an
adequate
punishment
for
my
crimes,
out
of
consideration
for
my
declining
age,
which,
too,
humbly
commends
itself
to
them.
And
I
would
equally
commend
to
their
consideration
my
honour
and
reputation,
against
the
calumnies
of
ill-wishers,
whose
persistence
in
detracting
from
my
good
name
may
be
inferred
from
the
necessity
which
constrained
me
to
procure
from
the
Lord
Cardinal
Bellarmine
the
attestation
which
accompanies
this."