PHYSICAL SCIENCE 23 



imagination also, to frame hypotheses to guide his 

 experiments, and to be checked, verified, or disproved 

 by his experiments. 



Contemporary with Galileo, Lord Chancellor Bacon 

 (1561-1626) was philosophising in England over scien- 

 tific method. In a healthy reaction from the errors 

 of scholasticism, Bacon laid exclusive stress on ex- 

 periment. But he went too far, in teaching that by 

 experimenting in all directions, scientific laws will 

 appear without need of deductive reasoning. Galileo, 

 who did not philosophise, but had the true scientific 

 instinct for what was practicable and helpful, went 

 straight to the right method. 



In the question of the fall of heavy and light 

 bodies, he saw at once that a crucial experiment 

 was possible. He dropped two bodies from the Lean- 

 ing Tower, and the question was settled. Here we 

 have the simplest kind of investigation. One thing 

 is believed on the word of authority. No one has 

 thought of testing it. Galileo, seeing reason to doubt, 

 is not content with the opinion of Aristotle as to what 

 ought to occur. He goes and tries what does occur. 



In his work on the law of velocity of fall, we have 

 a more complicated problem. It was untouched 

 before ; any result was possible. If he had worked 

 by the Baconian method, Galileo would have made 

 endless experiments on falling bodies, till relations 

 forced themselves on his notice. He did nothing of 

 the kind. As a beginning, he sat and thought. He 



