

FIG. 33. COPERNICUS. 



CHAPTER IV. 



SCIENCE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 



THE sixteenth century is one of the most notable periods in the 

 history of science. It is the period in which astronomy, after re- 

 maining for hundreds of years barren of great discoveries, acquired new 

 life by the Copernican reversion to the theories of Pythagoras and Aris- 

 tarchus ; after which an advance of unparalleled rapidity and brilliancy 

 was effected by the labours of three remarkable men, all living during 

 some part of the sixteenth century. This century saw the foundation 

 of modern physics laid by Galileo's mechanical investigations; it saw 

 also the origin of the prolific sciences of electricity and magnetism in 

 the experiments of Gilbert ; and its close found Francis Bacon pre- 

 paring his great treatise on the philosophy of science. 



Astronomy, as we have seen, began to be cultivated in Germany in 

 the fifteenth century, and during the sixteenth century that country 

 was the scene of the labours of Copernicus, of Tycho Brahe, and of 



81 G 



