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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



which Galileo did not court, but found forced on 

 him, was the " unshunned consequence" of the 

 scientific revolution effected by aid of his tele- 

 scopic discoveries. The question between the 

 two world-systems, Ptolemaic and Copernican, as 

 Herr von Gebler justly remarks, had hitherto 

 been exclusively one for the schools. Neither 

 the less known precursors of Copernicus, nor 

 Copernicus himself, had ever adventured openly 

 to declare war against the Aristotelian philoso- 

 phy, or to overthrow, by the unanswerable evi- 

 dence of observed facts, the hollow fabric of 

 physical science founded on that philosophy. 



" They had fought with the same weapons as 

 the Ptolemaic doctors ; those of the school-logic. 

 They did not possess direct evidence of astronom- 

 ical facts, as they did not yet possess the telescope. 

 But Galileo, with his system of demonstration, 

 founded on ocular evidence of the actual facts of 

 Nature, was too formidable an antagonist to obtain 

 tolerance from the schoolmen. The Peripatetic 

 philosophers had no armor of proof to parry the 

 blows of arguments addressed to the understand- 

 ing on the direct evidence of the senses ; and their 

 adherents accordingly, if they -would not give up 

 their cause as lost, must call in aid other allies 

 than those of the schools. They caught accord- 

 ingly at the readiest means within reach. To re- 

 enforce the tottering authority of Aristotle, they 

 invoked the unassailable authority of Scripture. 



" We must not ascribe this mainly to mere 

 party spirit, or mere personal malevolence. The 

 bulk of the learned class, which still adhered to 

 the old world system, and had hitherto carelessly 

 regarded Copernicus, with his new theory appar- 

 ently unsupported by visible proofs, as a mere 

 dreaming speculator, now stood aghast at Galileo's 

 telescopic discoveries, which apparently threat- 

 ened to overthrow all that had hitherto been be- 

 lieved. The learned, and still more the half- 

 learned, world of Italy felt the solid ground shak- 

 ing beneath their feet, and the threatened down- 

 fall of Aristotle's authority of three thousand years 

 must, it seemed to them, draw after it the over- 

 throw from the very foundation of all that had 

 hitherto been held as truth in physics, mathe- 

 matics, philosophy, and religion." 



If Galileo had been content with making a 

 mere raree-show of his telescopes, or a mere lucra- 

 tive trade in them, he might have been petted 

 and patronized to the end of the chapter at Rome, 

 as he had been at Venice and Florence. He 

 need have incurred no risk of persecution for 

 truths he might have forborne to enunciate. 

 But he would have missed the main scope of his 

 life, which was simply to demonstrate those 

 truths. What Galileo's critics really make mat- 



ter of reproach is his manly frankness and sin- 

 cerity. Having a plain tale to tell, he saw no 

 reason why he should not plainly tell it. Having 

 no "heretical pravity" to conceal, he too san- 

 guinely anticipated that he could engage the 

 Roman hierarchy in the pure interest of scientific 

 truth. 



It was ecclesiastical rather than philosophical 

 favor that Galileo felt he had most need to con- 

 ciliate. It was the opinion which might be 

 formed at Rome of his views of the Copernican 

 system, about which he was most solicitous : for, 

 should Rome prove hostile, he knew too well 

 that it would be difficult or impossible for him 

 to exercise with freedom the function of an ex- 

 pounder of those views in Italy. 



" Belisario Vinta, secretary of the grand- 

 duke" [of Tuscany], says M. Berti, " wrote to 

 Galileo that so soon as the truth of his specula- 

 tions on the Medicean planets [the satellites of 

 Jupiter, which Galileo had so named in compli- 

 ment to his Tuscan patrons] should be confirmed 

 at Rome, the new constitution of the universe 

 might be said to be established for all the world, 

 and would be assured of obtaining the concur- 

 rence of all mathematicians and all astrologers. 

 This assent of Rome Galileo felt to be of such 

 moment, that he was prepared to make every 

 effort to obtain it. He assiduously cultivated 

 friendly relations with the cardinals, the monsi- 

 gnori, the prelates. But the quarter where he 

 chiefly aimed to conquer opinion was the Collegio 

 Romano, as well because there were among its 

 members not a few men well versed in science, as 

 because it constituted a sort of theologico-philo- 

 sophical tribunal." 



The prospects of success for the new science 

 at the metropolis of Latin Christendom seemed 

 at first promising. 



" Would we form an idea," says M. Bcrti, " how 

 Galileo was appreciated and courted at Rome, we 

 must figure him to ourselves in the vigor of life, 

 at the age of forty-seven, with ample forehead, 

 grave countenance, expressive of profound thought, 

 fine figure and very distinguished manners, clear, 

 elegant, and pleasing, and at times imaginative and 

 vivid in discourse. The letters of the time super- 

 abound in his praise. Cardinals, patricians, and 

 other persons in authority, vied with each other 

 for the honor of having him in their houses, and 

 hearing him discourse. A choice society of men, 

 eminent for learning or high public office, were in 

 the habit of assembling round Cardinal Bandini in 

 the palace of the Quirinal. In the gardens of that 

 palace, which commanded a great part of the city 

 of Rome, and the view from which extends over a 

 vast horizon, Galileo, in the fine evenings of April, 



