vocation, who hast never permitted a single passion to spring up in thy soul, but the pure and holy passion for truth; who hast proved thyself a priest more worthy of the Deity by discovering the various wonders of his works from the fabric of an universe, to the structure of a worm; must thou be deprived of the only comfort for which thou hast pined and. languished so long? of that comfort which is not withheld from the beast of the forest, and the fowls of heaven?-of liberty? What righteous and impartial hand deals out the blessings of life! thus to suffer those who are unworthy to plunder their betters, and engross every thing to themselves.

"I continued to complain till I fell asleep; and immediately a venerable old man seemed to approach, my bedside. He stood and beheld me with silent satisfaction, while my eye was fixed in admiration upon his contemplative forehead and his silver locks. 'Galileo,' said he, at last, what you now suffer, you suffer on account of the truths which I taught you; and the same superstition by which you are persecuted would also have persecuted me, had not death procured my eternal freedom.' Thou art Copernicus,' exclaimed I; and before he could answer, caught him in my arms. How sweet, Viviani,

are those bonds of alliance established among us by nature herself! but how much sweeter are the alliances of the soul! How much dearer and nearer to the heart, than even the bonds of brotherly affection, are the eternal ties of truth! With what a charming presentiment of that glorious moment when the sphere of our activity shall be infinitely enlarged, and our faculties exalted and rendered equal to a free participation of all the treasures of knowledge, do we hasten to meet a friend, who is introduced to us by wisdom!

"See,' said the old man, after returning my embrace, I have resumed the garb of flesh which I formerly wore, and will now be to thee, what I shall be hereafter-thy guide. For in that world where the unfettered spirit labours continually with unweared ardour, rest is only a change of employment: our own investigation into the mysteries of the Godhead is interrupted only by that instruction which we give to those newly arrived from the earth; and I am to be the first instructor of thy soul in the exalted knowledge of the eternal power.' He led me by the hand to a descending cloud, and we took our flight into the immeasurable extent of heaven. I saw here the moon, Viviani,

with her mountains and valleys; I saw the stars of the Milky Way, those of the Pleiades, and that of Orion; I saw the spots of the sun, and the moons of Jupiter all that I first saw here below I there saw more clearly with unassisted eyes, and wandered in heaven among my discoveries, full of the sweetest self-congratulation, like some friend of the human race, who wanders upon earth among the fruits of his beneficence. Every hour of my labours here was there fruitful of the highest happiness; of a happiness which never can be felt by him who enters futurity destitute of knowledge. And therefore, Viviani, old and feeble as I am, will I never give over my search after truth; for he who spends his life in the godlike employment will find my joy spring up for him hereafter, from every object on which he turns his eyes,-from every conjecture which he had laboured to confirm,-from every doubt which he had endeavoured to remove,—from every mystery he had attempted to discover,-and from every error he had assisted to dispel. All this I felt in those moments of exultation; but the recollection that I felt it is all that remains; for my soul, too much oppressed with happiness, lost every single pleasure in the ocean of them all.

6

"While I thus gazed and wondered, and lost myself in his greatness whose omnipotence and wisdom created the whole, and whose love, ever active, upholds and supports it, I was raised by the conversation of my guide to still higher and more exalted conceptions. Not the limits of thy senses,' said he, are also the limits of the universe. Numerous, indeed, is the host of suns whose lustre is apparent even to thy view, although from such an inconceivable distance; but there are many thousands more which you cannot discern, shining through the endless expanse of ether; and each of these suns is peopled as well as each of the spheres which surround them, with sensible beings and with thinking souls; wherever there was space sufficient for their motions, there worlds were commanded to roll; and wherever intelligent beings could be happy, there intelligent beings were produced. In the whole immensity of the Eternal's existence, there is not a single span to be found which the provident Creator has not furnished with life, or at least with matter serviceable to life; and through all this countless multiplicity of beings, down even to the smallest atom, reigns the most inviolable regularity and order; all is maintained by eternal laws, in

ravishing harmony, from earth to earth, from heaven to heaven, and from sun to sun; the matter for contemplation to an immortal sage is as unfathomable as eternity itself, and as inexhaustible the spring of his enjoyments. But why, Galileo, should I thus speak to you at present? Such enjoyments cannot be comprehended by a spirit still fettered to a sluggish companion, which can proceed no farther in its labours than that companion is able to go along, and scarcely begins to carry itself aloft, before it is forcibly dragged back to the dust.'

"It may not be able to comprehend these enjoyments in all their godlike fulness and perfection; but surely, Copernicus,' exclaimed I, 'it knows them in their nature, and in their essence. For what joys does not wisdom procure us, even in this sublunary life? What rapture is not felt by the soul, even in this frame of mortality, when the dark and doubtful twilight of its understanding begins to give place to the dawn of science, and the secret splendour extends wider and wider, till the full light of knowledge at last arises and displays before the enraptured eye regions full of eternal beauty? Call to mind, thou who hast penetrated