. The Open court. bals and in-trigues formed in consequence of his work on the sun-spots, andthat there was a plan to charge him with a crime against allowed himself to be beguiled by this into entering intothe theological side of the question, and he sent his friend a de-tailed statement of his conception of the interpretation of theBible. I2 Kings xs. 8-11; Is. xxxviii. 7-8. 2See the article, Charles V., in Bayle. 456 THE OPEN COURT. The Bible in itself, he writes as a good Catholic, canneither lie nor err, but the same is not true of its interpreters whoare so much the more
. The Open court. bals and in-trigues formed in consequence of his work on the sun-spots, andthat there was a plan to charge him with a crime against allowed himself to be beguiled by this into entering intothe theological side of the question, and he sent his friend a de-tailed statement of his conception of the interpretation of theBible. I2 Kings xs. 8-11; Is. xxxviii. 7-8. 2See the article, Charles V., in Bayle. 456 THE OPEN COURT. The Bible in itself, he writes as a good Catholic, canneither lie nor err, but the same is not true of its interpreters whoare so much the more exposed to misunderstanding as the HolyScriptures use figurative expressions in many places, which maybe understood differently. Since Holy Scripture, he continuesin many places not merely allows, but actually demands anotherinterpretation than is apparently shown by the tenor of its words,it seems to me that in mathematical discussions the last placeshould be conceded to it. For both Book and Nature proceed from. the divine word, the former as inspired by the Holy Ghost, thelatter as the carrying out of divine command. In Holy Scriptureit was necessary, in order that it be adapted to the understandingof the majority, to say much that is apparently different from itsexact meaning; Nature, on the contrary, is inexorable and im-mutable, unconcerned whether her hidden principles and meansof operation are comprehensible or not by human understanding,for which she never deviates from her previously sketched it seems to me that no work of Nature, either which experi-ence brings before our eyes, or which necessarily follows as a THE STRUGGLE REGARDING THE POSITION OF THE EARTH. 457 consequence of demonstration, should have doubt cast upon it onaccount of passages of Scripture. For the Bible contains thousandsof words of several meanings, and not every sentence in HolyScripture is subject to so strict a law as every work in Nature. Qa/7/eus ^o/tTeus
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