perties of the lodestone. Sarpi was so great a scholar that 

 Galileo spoke of him as his "master"; and his contemporaries 

 say he was profoundly versed in the "Hebrew and Greek 

 languages, mathematics, astronomy, history, the nutrition of 

 life in animals, geometry including conic sections, magnetism, 

 botany, mineralogy, hydraulics, acoustics, animal statics, 

 atmospheric pressure, the rising and falling of objects in air 

 and \vater, the reflection of light from curved surfaces, 

 mechanics, civil and military architecture, medicine, herbs and 

 anatomy." He is credited with anticipating Harvey in the 

 discovery of the circulation of the blood, and Kepler in certain 

 optical phenomena. Unhappily his valuable manuscripts were 

 destroyed by fire in 1766, and the extant extracts are being 

 tardily appreciated by historians of science. 



The foolishness of science did not always assume debas- 

 ing forms like judicial astrology and sorcery, but was char- 

 acterized by fervent beliefs in the false assertions of venerated 

 authorities that became veritable superstitions; these dog- 

 mas were endorsed by scholars without any attempt to test 

 their verity, until some independent genius arose, who broke 

 loose from the shackles of a great name and hardily ventured 

 to ascertain the facts for himself. In this way the dogma of 

 Aristotle, that the heavier of two bodies falling to the ground 

 moves faster than the lighter one, was disproved by Galileo 

 in experiments made from the top of the Leaning Tower of 

 Pisa. So blinded were the Aristotelians, that, when they saw 

 the one pound weight and the ten pound weight strike the 

 ground simultaneously, they asserted as strenuously as be- 

 fore, that the weight of ten pounds would have reached the 

 ground ten times as quick as the one pound, had not "the 

 natural velocities been interfered with" from some unknown 

 cause. 



None of the harmless follies of science were more firmly 



210 



