TO
Her moſt Serene
HIGHNES
THE
Gran Ducheſs Mother.
Her moſt Serene
HIGHNES
THE
Gran Ducheſs Mother.
Some years ſince, as Your moſt Serene Highneſs well
knoweth, I did diſcover many particulars in Hea
ven that had been unſeen and unheard of untill
this our Age; which, as well for their Novelty, as
for certain conſequences which depend upon
them, claſhing with ſome Phyſical Propoſitions commonly recei
ved by the Schools, did ſtir up againſt me no ſmall number of
ſuch as profeſſed the vulgar Philoſophy in the Univerſities; as if
I had with my own hand newly placed theſe things in Heaven to
obſcure and diſturb Nature and the Sciences: who forgetting
that the multitude of Truths contribute, and concur to the inve
ſtigation, augmentation, and eſtabliſhment of the Arts, and not to
their diminution, and deſtruction; and at the ſame time ſhewing
themſelves more affectionate to their own Opinions, than to
Truth, went about to deny, and to diſprove thoſe Novelties; of
which their very ſenſe, had they but pleaſed to have intenſly be
held them, would have rendered them thorowly aſſured. And
to this purpoſe they alledged ſundry things, and publiſhed cer
tain Papers fraughted with vain diſcourſes; and which was a
more groſs errour, interwoven with the atteſtations of the Sacred
Scriptures, taken from places by them not rightly underſtood,
and which did not any thing concern the point for which they
were produced Into which errour perhaps they would not
have run, if they had but been advertiſed of a moſt profitable
Document which S. Auguſtine giveth us, concerning our pro
ceeding warily, in making poſitive determinations in points that
knoweth, I did diſcover many particulars in Hea
ven that had been unſeen and unheard of untill
this our Age; which, as well for their Novelty, as
for certain conſequences which depend upon
them, claſhing with ſome Phyſical Propoſitions commonly recei
ved by the Schools, did ſtir up againſt me no ſmall number of
ſuch as profeſſed the vulgar Philoſophy in the Univerſities; as if
I had with my own hand newly placed theſe things in Heaven to
obſcure and diſturb Nature and the Sciences: who forgetting
that the multitude of Truths contribute, and concur to the inve
ſtigation, augmentation, and eſtabliſhment of the Arts, and not to
their diminution, and deſtruction; and at the ſame time ſhewing
themſelves more affectionate to their own Opinions, than to
Truth, went about to deny, and to diſprove thoſe Novelties; of
which their very ſenſe, had they but pleaſed to have intenſly be
held them, would have rendered them thorowly aſſured. And
to this purpoſe they alledged ſundry things, and publiſhed cer
tain Papers fraughted with vain diſcourſes; and which was a
more groſs errour, interwoven with the atteſtations of the Sacred
Scriptures, taken from places by them not rightly underſtood,
and which did not any thing concern the point for which they
were produced Into which errour perhaps they would not
have run, if they had but been advertiſed of a moſt profitable
Document which S. Auguſtine giveth us, concerning our pro
ceeding warily, in making poſitive determinations in points that