SCIENCE AND REVOLUTION 



experimental philosophy. When the pilgrims 

 were landing in Plymouth, in 1620, Galileo Gali- 

 lei and John Kepler were engaged in further un- 

 dermining dogmatic ignorance by their revolu- 

 tionary work. Galilei is the founder of experi- 

 mental physics. He gave a scientific foundation 

 to the theory of gravity, invented the pendulum, 

 a hydrostatic balance, a thermometer, compasses 

 used in designing, and a telescope. In 1610, he 

 for the first time observed the satellites of the 

 planet Jupiter. In 1632, he published his main 

 work, " Four Dialogues on the Ptolemaic and 

 Copernican World Systems." 



Perhaps the church would not have cared so 

 much about these scientific revolts against its es- 

 tablished ideas of the world, had they remained 

 mere academic discussions. For after all, none 

 of them touched the foundation of the spiritual 

 beliefs of the dogmatic religion, and it would 

 have been easy enough to adjust the spiritual 

 creed to this new science, without losing control 

 of the minds of the masses who believed in the 

 spiritual basis of the church. Even the ideas of 

 Luther might have been tolerated, had they pre- 

 served a mere scholastic existence. They were 

 no more dangerous than had been many other 

 religious heresies before that time. 



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