GALILEO AND HIS JUDGES. 9 



likely, in the long run, to satisfy any thoughtful 

 mind ; while the bulk of men, even the learned, 

 adhered to the old Ptolemaic scheme. Something, 

 however, now occurred which was destined to work, 

 sooner or later, a complete revolution in astronomy. 

 The telescope was invented, and, at the same time, 

 there arose a man who knew how to use it : that 

 man was Galileo. He was not the inventor of it, 

 for it was first constructed in Holland or Belgium : 

 yet he had the energy and the skill to make a 

 telescope, without having previously seen one, simply 

 from the account he had heard of the instrument. 

 The telescope that he constructed, which still bears 

 his name, was the simplest possible. It was of a 

 form now disused excepting for opera-glasses and 

 for the far more powerful binocular field-glasses with 

 which we are so familiar ; but for telescopes properly 

 so called an improved principle has long since 

 been introduced. Galileo was the first man that 

 ever, so far as we know, turned the telescope upon 

 the heavens. How he was rewarded for his pains 

 we shall presently see ; and I propose to intro- 

 duce a narrative of the principal events in his 

 life, since there are no means for forming a judgment 

 so valuable as having the facts of the case clearly 

 before the mind. 



For most of the facts I am indebted to M. Henri 

 cle TEpinois, whose elaborate article in the French 

 publication known as La Revue des Questions 

 Historiques is of the highest value ; as the author 



