A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



young iconoclast performed, in the year 1590, one of 

 the most theatrical demonstrations in the history of 

 science. Assembling a multitude of champions of the 

 old ideas, he proposed to demonstrate the falsity 

 of the Aristotelian doctrine that the velocity of fall- 

 ing bodies is proportionate to their weight. There is 

 perhaps no fact more strongly illustrative of the temper 

 of the Middle Ages than the fact that this doctrine, 

 as taught by the Aristotelian philosopher, should so 

 long have gone unchallenged. Now, however, it was 

 put to the test; Galileo released a half-pound weight 

 and a hundred-pound cannon-ball from near the top 

 of the tower, and, needless to say, they reached the 

 ground together. Of course, the spectators were but 

 little pleased with what they saw. They could not 

 doubt the evidence of their own senses as to the 

 particular experiment in question; they could suggest, 

 however, that the experiment involved a violation of 

 the laws of nature through the practice of magic. 

 To controvert so firmly established an idea savored of 

 heresy. The young man guilty of such iconoclasm 

 was naturally looked at askance by the scholarship of 

 his time. Instead of being applauded, he was hissed, 

 and he found it expedient presently to retire from 

 Pisa. 



Fortunately, however, the new spirit of progress had 

 made itself felt more effectively in some other portions 

 of Italy, and so Galileo found a refuge and a following 

 in Padua, and afterwards in Florence; and while, as 

 we have seen, he was obliged to curb his enthusiasm 

 regarding the subject that was perhaps nearest his 

 heart the promulgation of the Copernican theory- 



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