There was another observatory which had a reputation and was known in America.

It was the observatory of the Collegio Romano, and was in the monastery behind the Church of St.
Ignasio.

Its director was the Father Secchi who had visited the United States, and was well known to the scientists of this country.
"I said to myself, 'This is the land of Galileo, and this is the city in which he was tried.

I knew of no sadder picture in the history of science than that of the old man, Galileo, worn by a long life of scientific research, weak and feeble, trembling before that tribunal whose frown was torture, and declaring that to be false which he knew to be true.

And I know of no picture in the history of religion more weakly pitiable than that of the Holy Church trembling before Galileo, and denouncing him because he found in the Book of Nature truths not stated in their own Book of God--forgetting that the Book of Nature is also a Book of God.
"It seems to be difficult for any one to take in the idea that two truths cannot conflict.
"Galileo was the first to see the four moons of Jupiter; and when he announced the fact that four such moons existed, of course he was met by various objections from established authority.