GALILEO AND HIS JUDGES. 



CHAPTER I. 



BEFORE entering on any details relating to Galileo's 

 life and works, I propose to give a brief sketch of the 

 progress of astronomical knowledge up to his time ; 

 for without this, one cannot appreciate correctly the 

 value of his contributions to science, a value exag- 

 gerated or underrated by different writers, each 

 according to his respective bias. 



The primitive conception of the Earth as a vast 

 plain with the ocean flowing round it, and the solid 

 firmament in the sky above it, with the Sun, Moon, 

 and Stars driven across by some mysterious agency, 

 need not be noticed from an astronomical point of 

 view ; it appeared naturally in ancient poetry and in 

 the forms of speech adopted and continued by popular 

 usage ; but it is not necessary to dwell upon it. 



The first astronomers with whom we are acquainted 

 were the Greeks, though it is said by some writers that 

 the Chaldeans and Egyptians were really the original 

 astronomers of the ancient world, and what the 

 Greeks knew was borrowed from them. 



