The condition that the Copernican doctrine is only to be employed as a hypothesis is ostensibly fully complied with. If Salviati or Sagredo demonstrate to Simplicius the untenableness of some Ptolemaic axiom, or add an important stone to the Copernican structure, Galileo hastens to interpolate some remark to weaken the impression. It must be confessed, however, that the agreement of this “hypothesis” with all the phenomena of nature is as clear as daylight; and when, for instance, it is said that the final decision in the present controversy rests neither with mathematics and physics, nor with philosophy and logic, but solely with a “higher insight,” or when Salviati repeatedly asserts that he does not in the least wish to maintain the truth of the Copernican doctrine, but applies the word “possibly” to it, or speaks of it as a “fantasia” or “vanissima chimera,” the reader cannot fail to perceive that these prudent reservations, which always occur at critical passages, are made with the sole purpose of rendering the publication of the work possible. The preface and conclusion have no logical agreement with the contents of the “Dialogues,” and owe their origin to the same motive. In the preface the ecclesiastical prohibition of 1616 to teach that the earth moves, is actually called a “salutary edict” (_un salutifero editto_)! The reader learns further, to his no small astonishment, that the purpose of this comprehensive work is to refute the wholly unfounded opinion which has gained much credit abroad, that this adverse judgment of Rome was not the result of mature deliberation, but merely of the hasty impulse of judges who were not qualified to decide on these questions of natural science. Galileo asserts that his zeal did not permit him to keep silence in face of those audacious accusations, and that being in possession of all the circumstances connected with that prudent decision, he felt constrained to bear witness to the truth before all the world. In bringing forward here all his speculations on the Copernican doctrine, he wished to show that at Rome, where he had taken part in the consultations, they had been fully aware of all the arguments which could be adduced in favour of the new doctrine.[213] On the origin of this singular introduction, a point on which divergent and often unwarranted opinions prevail, we shall enter in detail in its right place.