JUNE 329 



close to the villa where Galileo was exiled, when blind 

 and old, to die. Tradition says that he worked from the 

 top of this tower. I wonder whether he did, or whether 

 Milton was right in saying that he studied the moon 

 'from the top of Fiesole. Milton only saw Galileo on his 

 second visit to Florence, as during his first visit the 

 astronomer was kept a close prisoner by the Inquisition. 



What was really at the bottom of Galileo's persecu- 

 tion ? Religious people thought it militated against the 

 dignity and importance of man that this planet of his 

 should go spinning round the sun with men's hopes 

 and feelings hanging on by their eyelids instead of 

 remaining quiet in a dignified manner while the sun did 

 its duty in going round, warming and lighting, the earth. 



Galileo's blindness seems to have had a 'prophetic 

 fascination ' for Milton, and the deep impression left by 

 the sight of the Tuscan astronomer is shown by the way 

 in which Milton once or twice alludes to him in ' Paradise 

 Lost,' not published till nearly thirty years later. 



Mr. Stephen Phillips's fine poem to Milton blind might 

 almost apply to Galileo : 



The hand was taken by Angels who patrol 

 The evening, or are sentries to the dawn, 

 Or pace the wide air everlastingly. 

 Thou wast admitted to the presence, and deep 

 Argument heard est and the large design 

 That brings this world out of woe to bliss. 



Ouida says of Galileo's tower in 'Pascarel,' perhaps 

 the most imaginative and delightful of her Italian books 

 (so true to Nature and so false to human nature !) : ' The 

 world has spoilt most of its places of pilgrimage, but the old 

 star-tower is not harmed as yet where it stands amongst 

 its quiet garden ways and grass-grown slopes, up high 

 amongst the hills, with sounds of dripping water on its court, 

 and wild wood flowers thrusting their bright heads through 



