should not cloak them to the disadvantage of his opponent,—not contenting myself, I say, with this excuse,—I resorted to that of the natural complacency which every man feels with regard to his own subtleties and in showing himself more skilful than the generality of men, in devising, even in favour of false propositions, ingenious and plausible arguments. With all this, although with Cicero ‘_avidior sim gloriae quam satis est_,’ if I had now to set forth the same reasonings, without doubt I should so weaken them that they should not be able to make an apparent show of that force of which they are really and essentially devoid. My error, then, has been—and I confess it—one of vainglorious ambition, and of pure ignorance and inadvertence. This is what it occurs to me to say with reference to this particular, and which suggested itself to me during the re-perusal of my book.”[369] After making this humiliating declaration, Galileo was allowed immediately, to withdraw. No questions were put to him this time. But he must have thought that he ought to go still further in the denial of his inmost convictions, further even than Father Firenzuola had desired in his extra-judicial interview, further than the Inquisition itself required. He did not consider the penitent acknowledgment of the “error” into which he had fallen in writing his “Dialogues” sufficient. The Inquisition was to be conciliated by the good resolution publicly to correct it. He therefore returned at once to the court where the sacred tribunal was still sitting, and made the following undignified proposition:— “And in confirmation of my assertion that I have not held and do not hold as true the opinion which has been condemned, of the motion of the earth and the stability of the sun,—if there shall be granted to me, as I desire, means and time to make a clearer demonstration thereof, I am ready to do so: and there is a most favourable opportunity for this, seeing that in the work already published, the interlocutors agree to meet again after a certain time to discuss several distinct problems of nature, connected with the matter discoursed of at their meetings. As this affords me an opportunity of adding one or two other ‘days,’ I promise to resume the arguments already adduced in favour of the said opinion, which is false and has been condemned, and to confute them in such most effectual method as by the blessing of God may be supplied to me. I pray, therefore, this sacred tribunal to aid me in this good resolution, and to enable me to put it in effect.”[370]