UI1TIO GLOBI IXTELLECTUALIS. 279 



is probablv the safest explanation of the whole 

 f which I have found no mention elsewhere. 

 Thus much however is certain, that there could have 

 been no such peculiarity in her appearance as to sug- 

 to well-informed persons the notion that she had 

 undergone anv real change, since in the controversy 

 whether there were any evidence of corruption or gen- 

 eration in the heavens a fact like this could not IIP 



juiced over. 



Of the discoveries announced by Galileo in the Sy- 



HB Bacon does not speak at much length, 



though it is difficult not to believe that he was led to 



:!iuch of astronomical theories by the interest 



which the>e discoveries must have excited when they 



were rir^t made known. The discovery of Jupiter's 



ilites, the resolution into stars of the nebula Pra> 



. and the irregularities in the moon's surface, are all 



mentioned in the following tract; but, as I have said, 



somewhat briefly. 1 



It IN remarkable that neither in the following tracts 

 nor in his subsequent writings has Bacon mentioned 

 the discoveries of Kepler. The treatise De Stella Mar- 

 va< published in 1609, and became known in Eng- 

 land at lea^t as early as 1610. Harriot, it appears from 

 I'mtl'N-.ir Ui-aud's account of his papers, was then in 

 A ith him, and repeated his calculations. 



1 The interest which these discoveries excited must have been very 



great. Sir William Lower writes to Harriot, "I gave your letter a double 



welcome, -; it came from you and contained news of that 



strange nature . . . Methinks my diligent Galileus hath done more in 



his threefold discovery than Magrllane in opening the straits to the South 



Sea, or the. hutrhmeii that were eaten by bears in Xova Zembla." The 



- had jut reached him. His date, is " the longest day of 1610." It 



ak.-n rather more than three months to travel from Italy to Wales. 



. &r., p. 2fi. 



