GALILEO. 105 



genious toys for the amusement of himself and his companions. He 

 acquired, under considerable difficulties owing to his father's straitened 

 circumstances, the rudiments of a classical education and a knowledge 

 of the studies which were then usually followed. Music and drawing 

 formed the occupation of his leisure hours. In the one he became a 

 skilful performer on several instruments, and was so passionately fond 

 of painting that he had at one time decided to make that his vocation. 

 In his desire to fathom the mysteries of perspective, and to unravel the 

 intricacies of the theory of music, he was led to the study of geometry 

 and mathematics. His father had, however, designed him to follow 

 the profession of medicine, and with this object he had been entered 

 as a student of the University of Pisa in 1581. It is said that Galileo's 

 disposition towards intellectual freedom made him at first distasteful 

 to the professors, as he would not accept their quotations from Aristotle 

 in solution of his philosophical problems. When this bold student had, 

 for the reason before indicated, entered upon the study of geometry,, 

 he found such a charm in the demonstrations of Euclid that Hippo- 

 crates and Galen were neglected. From Euclid he passed to the perusal 

 of the writings of Archimedes, and while he was studying the treatise 

 of the Syracusan on bodies immersed in liquids, he himself wrote an 

 essay on the hydrostatic balance, describing its construction and fully 

 indicating the methods which Archimedes must have adopted for de- 

 tecting the fraudulent composition of Hiero's crown (page 40). This 

 essay attracted the attention of a distinguished mathematician, who 

 suggested to Galileo the somewhat difficult problem of the position of 

 the centre of gravity in solid bodies as a subject for his next essay. 

 Galileo's treatment of this subject proved so satisfactory that he was 

 recommended to the reigning Duke of Tuscany for the professorship 

 of mathematics at the University of Pisa. He was appointed, and en- 

 tered upon the duties of the office in 1589, being then in his twenty- 

 sixth year. 



Galileo was no sooner settled in his new position than he proceeded 

 with great ardour in his self-imposed task of putting to the test of ex- 

 periment the truth of Aristotle's physical doctrines. These he found, 

 in most instances, to be without even the shadow of a support from 

 the facts. Though Galileo was not the first who ventured to call in 

 question the trustworthiness of Aristotle in matters of science, no 

 previous philosopher had made so formidable an attack upon the 

 venerated system, -which had become so deeply rooted in men's 

 minds that, in spite of ocular demonstration of its falsity, they clung 

 to it with all the tenacity which is displayed in matters of religious 

 belief. It was one of Aristotle's accepted and self-evident truths that 

 the heavier of two bodies falling to the ground moves with a greater 

 velocity than the other. Galileo, on the other hand, maintained that 

 all bodies fall to the earth with the same velocity, or, if any slight dif- 

 ference in the velocity be found, it is fully accounted<for by the resist- 



