etter as well as those which refer to Galileo’s unhappy situation:— “I am sorry that the two books of Morin[324] and Fromond[325] did not reach me till six months after the publication of my ‘Dialogues,’ because otherwise I should have had an opportunity of saying much in praise of both, and of giving some consideration to a few particular points, especially to one in Morin and to another in Fromond. I am quite astonished that Morin should attach so great a value to astrology, and that he should pretend to be able, with his conjectures (which seem to me very uncertain) to establish its truth. It will really be a wonderful thing, if, as he promises, he raises astrology by his acuteness to the first rank among human sciences, and I await such a startling novelty with great curiosity. As to Fromond, who proves himself to be a man of much mind, I could have wished not to see him fall into, in my opinion, a grave though wide-spread error; namely, in order to refute the opinions of Copernicus, he first hurls scornful jests at his followers, and then (which seems to me still more unsuitable), fortifies himself by the authority of Holy Scripture, and at length goes so far as to call those views on these grounds nothing less than heretical. That such a proceeding is not praiseworthy seems to me to admit of very easy proof. For if I were to ask Fromond, who made the sun, the moon
