GALILEO GALILEI. 13 



This must have been a comfort to the now 

 famous Galileo, as it was, doubtlesss, to the use- 

 less Michelangelo, and the two brothers-in-law ! 

 He could now live in comparative peace and 

 rest. 



On his return to Padua, he began eagerly to 

 study the heavens. He found that the surface of 

 the moon was mountainous ; that the Milky Way 

 was composed of an immense number of small 

 stars and nebulous matter ; that Orion, instead of 

 being made up of seven heavenly bodies, had over 

 five hundred stars ; and that the Pleiades were not 

 seven, but thirty-six. In January, 1610, he dis- 

 covered the four moons of Jupiter, and that they 

 revolved around him. July 25 of the same year, 

 he discovered the ring of Saturn ; in October, the 

 phases of Venus, and later, the solar spots. 



Florence and Padua were in a blaze of excite- 

 ment. These new discoveries seemed to prove 

 that the earth was not the centre of the universe, 

 / but that Copernicus was right when he declared 

 the sun to be the centre. Great opposition began 

 to develop itself. Some of the Aristotelians de- 

 clared that the telescope of Galileo showed things 

 which do not exist. "It was ridiculous," they 

 said, "that four planets (Jupiter's moons) were 

 chasing each other around a large planet. 



"It is angels who niake Saturn, Jupiter, the, 

 sun, etc., turn round. If the earth revolves, it 

 must also have an angel in the centre to set it in 

 motion; but if only devils live there, it would, 



