1 82 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. PT. III. 



CHAPTER XXI L 



SUMMARY OF THE SCIENCE OF THE SEVENTEENTH 



CENTURY. 



WE have now arrived at the close of the seventeenth century, 

 and it only remains for us, before going farther, to try and 

 picture to ourselves the great steps in advance which had 

 been made between the years 1600 and 1700. We saw at 

 p. 82 that the work of the sixteenth century consisted 

 chiefly in making men aware of their own ignorance, and 

 teaching them to inquire into the facts of nature, instead of 

 merely repeating what they had heard from others. In the 

 seventeenth century we find them following out this rule of 

 patient research, and being rewarded by arriving at grand 

 and true laws. 



Astronomy. To begin with Astronomy. Here Galileo 

 led the way with his telescope. The structure of the moon, 

 with its mountains and valleys ; the existence of Jupiter's 

 four moons revolving round it and giving it light by night ; 

 the myriads of stars of the Milky Way ; the spots of the sun 

 coming into view at regular intervals, and thus proving that 

 the sun turns on its axis ; all these discoveries forced upon 

 men's minds the truth that our little world is not the centre 

 of everything, but a mere speck among the millions of 

 heavenly bodies. But while they humbled man's false pride 

 in his own importance, they taught him on the other hand 

 the true greatness which God has put in his power by giving 



