92 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. rr. in. 



fail, and he soon became totally blind. At this time he 

 wrote to an acquaintance these touching words : * Alas ! 

 your dear friend and servant has become totally and irrepar- 

 ably blind. These heavens, this earth, this universe, which 

 by wonderful observation I had enlarged a thousand times 

 beyond the belief of past ages, are henceforth shrunk into 

 the narrow space I myself occupy. So it pleases God, 

 it shall therefore please me also.' He died January 28, 

 1642, in his seventy-eighth year; having accomplished his 

 work. In spite of all opposition his discoveries had firmly 

 established the truth of the Copernican system of the 

 universe. 



Chief Works conmlted. Brewster's 'Martyrs of Science;' Drink- 

 water's ' Life of Galileo ;' Herschel's ' Astronomy ; ' Whewell's Induc- 

 tive Sciences;' 'Encyclopaedia Britannica,' art. 'Astronomy ;' Baden 

 Powell's 'Hist, of Natural Philosophy ; ' Ganot's Physics,' edited by 

 Atkinson. 



