"Some years ago, a salutary edict was promulgated at Rome, which, in order to obviate the perilous scandals of the present age, enjoined an opportune silence on the Pythagorean opinion of the earth's motion. Some were not wanting, who rashly asserted that this decree originated, not in a judicious examination, but in ill-informed passion; and complaints were heard, that counsellors totally inexperienced in astronomical observations ought not, by hasty prohibitions, to clip the wings of speculative minds. My zeal could not keep silence when I heard these rash lamentations, and I thought it proper, as being fully informed with regard to that most prudent determination, to appear publicly on the theatre of the world, as a witness of the actual truth. I happened at that time to be in Rome: I was admitted to the audiences, and enjoyed the approbation, of the most eminent prelates of that court; nor did the publication of that decree occur without my receiving some prior intimation of it. Wherefore, it is my intention, in this present work, to show to foreign nations, that as much is known of this matter in Italy, and particularly in Rome, as ultramontane diligence can ever have formed any notion of, and collecting together all my own speculations on the Copernican system, to give them to understand that the knowledge of all these preceded the Roman censures; and that from this country proceed not only dogmas for the salvation of the soul, but also ingenious discoveries for the gratification of the understanding. With this object, I have taken up in the 'Dialogue' the Copernican side of the question, treating it as a pure mathematical hypothesis; and endeavoring, in every artificial manner, to represent it as having the advantage, not over the opinion of the stability of the earth absolutely, but according to the manner in which that opinion is defended by some, who indeed profess to be Aristotelians, but retain only the name, and are contented, without improvement, to worship shadows, not philosophizing with their own reason, but only from the recollection of the four principles imperfectly understood."