HE stormy opposition to Galileo was not 

 without its advantages. We are adver- 

 tised no less by our rabid enemies than 

 by our loving friends. Cosimo II., Grand- 

 Duke of Tuscany, had intimated that Flor- 

 ence would welcome the great astronomer. 

 Galileo moved to Florence under the protection of 

 Cosimo, intending to devote all of his time to Science. 

 Qln quitting school-teaching and popular lecturing, 

 he really made a virtue of necessity. No orthodox ly- 

 ceum course would tolerate him ; he was neither an 

 impersonator nor an entertainer; the stereopticon, and 

 the melodramatic were out of his line and his passion 

 for truth made him impossible to the many. 

 He was treading the path of Bruno : the accusations, 

 the taurits and jeers, the denials and denunciations, 

 were urging him on to an unseemly earnestness. 

 Father Clavius said that Galileo never saw the satel- 

 lites of Jupiter until he made an instrument that would 

 create them ; and if God had intended that men should 

 see strange things in the heavens, He would have sup- 

 plied them sufficient eyesight. The telescope was really 

 a devil'-s instrument. 



Still another man declared that if the earth moved, 

 acorns falling from a high tree would all fall behind 

 the tree and not directly under it. 



Father Brini said that if the earth revolved, we would 

 all fall off of it into the air when it was upside down ; 

 moreover, its whirling through space would create a 

 wind that would sweep it bald. 



53 



LITTLE 

 JOURNEYS 



