Excerpt from An Essay on Primaeval History The discovery of an inconsistency between the doctrines of physical astronomy and the language of Scripture presented a more formidable difficulty. A skilful metaphysician might undertake to recon cile free will with predestination - a skilful com mentator, St. Paul with St. James; but to reconcile the Copernican system of the universe with a phraseology founded on the belief of the revolu tion of the heavenly bodies around the earth, was clearly impossible. In this emergency, the head of the Romish Church was prompt in his decision, and condemned the astronomer and his doctrine, that no suspicion might exist of an error in the language of Scripture and the long-established belief of the Christian world. It was hardly worth while, for such a difference, to encounter the risk of placing religion in contradiction with scientific evidence. For it might be said, with considerable plausibility, that nothing was directly taught in. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.