CHAPTER VI. 



GALILEI. 



"Dans la Science nous sommes tous disciples de Galilee." 

 TROUESSART. 



" Bacon pointed out at a distance the road to true philosophy : 

 Galileo both pointed it out to others, and made himself considerable 

 advances in it." DAVID HUME. 



113. To the generation which succeeded Tycho belonged 

 two of the best known of all astronomers, Galilei and Kepler. 

 Although they were nearly contemporaries, Galilei having 

 been born seven years earlier than Kepler, and surviving 

 him by twelve years, their methods of work and their, 

 contributions to astronomy were so different in character, 

 and their influence on one another so slight, that it is 

 convenient to make some departure from strict chrono- 

 logical order, and to devote this chapter exclusively to 

 Galilei, leaving Kepler to the next. 



Galileo Galilei was born in 1564, at Pisa, at that time 

 in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, on the day of Michel 

 Angelo's death and in the year of Shakespeare's birth. 

 His father, Vincenzo, was an impoverished member of a 

 good Florentine family, and was distinguished by his skill 

 in music and mathematics. Galileo's talents shewed them- 

 selves early, and although it was originally intended that 

 he should earn his living by trade, Vincenzo was wise 

 enough to see that his son's ability and tastes rendered him 

 much more fit for a professional career, and accordingly 

 he sent him in 1581 to study medicine at the University 

 of Pisa. Here his unusual gifts soon made him con- 

 spicuous, and he became noted in particular for his 

 unwillingness to accept without question the dogmatic 

 statements of his teachers, which were based not on direct 



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