MEMOIE OE GALILEO. 



" When in dungeon damply lying, 

 Faint and tortured, hardly dying, 

 Yet for truth, with honest pride, 

 Yet, 'It moves! it moves 1 ' he cried.' 



GALILEO GALILEI, the eldest son of Vincentio Galilei, 

 was born at Pisa in Italy, on the 15th of February, 1564. 

 Like most experimental philosopher^ Galileo, in his earliest 

 years, gave indications of that bent of mind, and intellec- 

 tual superiority, which has made him rank so high among 

 the philosophers of antiquity. Although his father was by 

 no means wealthy, Galileo received a tolerable education. 

 He was desirous of following the profession of a painter ; 

 but in obedience to his father's desire, he entered as a scholar 

 of arts at the university of Pisa, on the 5th of November, 

 1581, and applied himself to the study of medicine. Music 

 was a favorite study of Galileo's. In studying the princi- 

 ples of this science, he found it necessary to learn something 

 of geometry, and commenced with Euclid's Elements. The 

 demonstrations of the mathematician, and the new and won- 

 drous truths which this science unfolds, took such hold of 

 the ardent mind of Galileo, that after many fruitless at- 

 tempts to confine him to the study of medicine, his father 

 gave up the attempt, and allowed him to follow his own 

 inclinations. From Euclid he ascended to the higher mathe- 

 maticians ; and, while studying Archimedes' treatise on hy- 



