above-named Galileo Galilei, have abjured, sworn, promised, and bound
myself as above, and in witness thereof with my own hand have subscribed
this present writing of my abjuration, which I have recited word for
word. At Rome, in the Convent of Minerva, June 22, 1633. I, Galileo
Galilei, have abjured as above with my own hand."

* * * * *

Those who believe the story about his muttering to a friend, as he rose
from his knees, "_E pur si muove_" ("And yet it does move"), do not
realize the scene.

There was no friend in the place. It would have been fatally dangerous
to mutter anything before such an assemblage. He was by this time an
utterly broken and disgraced old man; wishful, of all things, to get
away and hide himself and his miseries from the public gaze; probably
with his senses deadened and stupefied by the mental sufferings he had
undergone, and no longer able to think or care about anything--except
perhaps his daughter--certainly not about any motion of this wretched
earth.

Far and wide the news of the recantation spread. Copies of the
abjuration were immediately sent to all universities, with instructions
to the professors to read it publicly. At Florence, his home, it was
read out in the cathedral church, all his friends and adherents being
specially summoned to hear it.

For a short time more he was imprisoned in Rome, but at length was
permitted to depart, nevermore of his own will to return.

FOOTNOTES:

[33] They remained there till 1835, when they were dropped.

EDUCATIONAL REFORM OF COMENIUS

A.D. 1638

S. S. LAURIE

John Amos Comenius (1592-1671) is now generally recognized as
the founder of modern education. Just what his work has been is
best left to Mr. Laurie, the leading authority upon his life.
What the schools were before his time is almost too dreary a
picture to attempt to draw. Everything was hopelessly
haphazard, almost hopelessly uninteresting. Only in the schools
of the Jesuits was anything approaching skill employed to
stimulate the learner. If a child did not advance, the teacher
held himself no way responsible. The lad was adjudged a dullard
and left to remain in his stupidity with the rest of the
blockhead world.

The chief work of Comenius, the _Didactica Magna_, was probably
finished about 1638, and was shown in manuscript to many
persons at that time. Its ide