GALILEO AND THE OPTIC TUBE 199 



of another post, and is very glad to go. It is a hard day for 

 the university. His glory might have been its glory ; but he 

 never returns. 



At his new post at Padua he perfects the new mechanics, 

 and meditates upon the great work which, other interests having 

 been sated, he will dictate and give to the world in his blind 

 and helpless old age. All the while he is growing to a profound 

 interest in astronomy. He studies his Coppernicus long and 

 thoughtfully, opens his correspondence with Kepler, and, as we 

 have seen, writes to Kepler in his first letter that he has long 

 been a convert to the new ideas. There is a paragraph in this 

 letter which reveals well his state of mind, and very vividly 

 the state of the times. He says : 



" I have collected many arguments for the purpose of refuting 

 the accepted hypothesis ; but I do not venture to bring them 

 to the light of publicity for fear of sharing the fate of our 

 master, Coppernicus, who, although he has earned immortal 

 fame with some, yet with very many (so great is the number of 

 fools) has become an object of ridicule and scorn. I should 

 certainly venture to publish my speculations if there were more 

 people like you. But this not being the case, I refrain from such 

 an undertaking." 



" So great is the number of fools ! " Remember that from 

 near by Venice very soon after, a champion of these same views is 

 taken to Rome in chains to be roasted over a slow fire. By-and- 

 by, when his fame is spread wide, Galileo will have more courage ; 

 but for his courage there is scarce a schoolboy who does not 

 know how dearly he will pay. He will wait, but in the interval 

 he is polishing that mordant wit, perfecting that strength of 

 exposition, which is to make him one of the masters of modern 

 Italian prose. 



In the year 1604 such little part of the world as thinks upon 

 such things is disturbed. A new star swims into its ken. In 

 the bible of Aristotle there is no accounting for this. Still, 

 the star is there. Galileo lectures about it. They must have 

 been wonderful lectures, for such a throng gathers that the 

 university theatre is inadequate ; he speaks in the open air. 

 The philosophers of the books are again irritated. A great 

 controversy springs up, and now it is that, with all the polished 

 weapons of the subtlest dialectics, with a wit and gorgeousness 

 of illustration and clear and convincing argument that make 



