12 GALILEO GALILEI. 



appeared three times nearer and nine times larger. 

 A few days later, he hastened with his leaden tube 

 to Venice, to exhibit it to the Doge and the Senate. 

 He wrote to a friend : 



" Many gentlemen and senators, even the oldest, 

 have ascended at various times the highest bell- 

 towers in Venice, to spy out ships at sea, making 

 sail for the mouth of the harbor, and have seen 

 them clearly, though without my telescope they 

 would have been invisible for more than two hours. 

 The effect of this instrument is to show an object 

 at a distance of, say, fifty miles, as if it were but 

 five miles off. 



" Perceiving of what great utility such an instru- 

 ment would prove in naval and military operations, 

 and seeing that His Serenity greatly desired to pos- 

 sess it, I resolved four days ago to go to the palace 

 and present it to the Doge as a free gift. And on 

 quitting the presence-chamber, I was commanded 

 to bide awhile in the hall of the senate, where- 

 unto, after a little, the Illustrissimo Prioli, who 

 is Procurator and one of the Eiformatori of the 

 University, came forth to me from the presence- 

 chamber, and, taking me by the hand, said, 'that 

 the senate, knowing the manner in which I had 

 served it for seventeen years at Padua, and being 

 sensible of my courtesy in making it a present 

 of my telescope, had immediately ordered the 

 Illustrious Rlformatori to elect me (with my good- 

 will) to the professorship for life, with a stipend of 

 one thousand florins yearly.' " 



