The Martyrs of Science, or, The lives of Galileo, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler
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Title: The Martyrs of Science, or, The lives of Galileo, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler
Author: David Brewster
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THE
MARTYRS OF SCIENCE,
OR
THE LIVES
OF
GALILEO, TYCHO BRAHE, AND KEPLER.
BY
SIR DAVID BREWSTER, K.H. D.C.L.,
PRINCIPAL OF THE UNITED COLLEGE OF ST SALVATOR AND ST LEONARD,
ST ANDREWS; FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON; VICE-PRESIDENT
OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH; CORRESPONDING MEMBER
OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE; AND MEMBER OF THE
ACADEMIES OF ST PETERSBURG, STOCKHOLM,
BERLIN, COPENHAGEN, GOTTINGEN,
PHILADELPHIA, &c. &c.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1841.
G. S. TULLIS, PRINTER, CUPAR.
TO THE
RIGHT HON. FRANCIS LORD GRAY,
F.R.S., F.R.S.E.
MY LORD,
In submitting this volume to the public under your Lordship's auspices,
I avail myself of the opportunity thus afforded me of expressing the
deep sense which I entertain of the friendship and kindness with which
your Lordship has so long honoured me.
Although in these days, when Science constitutes the power and wealth of
nations, and encircles the domestic hearth with its most substantial
comforts, there is no risk of its votaries being either persecuted or
neglected, yet the countenance of those to whom Providence has given
rank and station will ever be one of the most powerful incitements to
scientific enterprise, as well as one of its most legitimate rewards.
Next to the satisfaction of cultivating Science, and thus laying up the
only earthly treasure which we can carry along with us into a better
state, is that of having encouraged and assisted others in the same
beneficent labours. That your Lordship may long continue to enjoy these
sources of happiness is the earnest prayer of,
MY LORD,
Your Lordship's
Most faithful and obedient servant,
DAVID BREWSTER.
ST LEONARDS, ST ANDREWS,
October 12, 1840.
CONTENTS.
LIFE OF GALILEO.
Page.
CHAPTER I. 1
Peculiar interest attached to his Life--His Birth--His early
studies--His passion for Mathematics--His work on the Hydrostatic
Balance--Appointed Lecturer on Mathematics at Pisa--His antipathy
to the Philosophy of Aristotle--His contentions with the
Aristotelians--Chosen Professor of Mathematics in Padua--Adopts the
Copernican system, but still teaches the Ptolemaic doctrine--His
alarming illness--He observes the new Star in 1604--His Magnetical
experiments,
CHAPTER II. 20
Cosmo, Grand Duke of Tuscany, invites Galileo to Pisa--Galileo
visits Venice in 1609, where he first hears of the Telescope--He
invents and constructs one, which excites a great
sensation--Discovers Mountains in the Moon, and Forty Stars in the
Pleiades--Discovers Jupiter's Satellites in 1610--Effect of this
discovery on Kepler--Manner in which these discoveries were
received--Galileo appointed Mathematician to Cosmo--Mayer claims the
discovery of the Satellites of Jupiter--Harriot observes them in
England in October 1610,
CHAPTER III. 42
Galileo announces his discoveries in Enigmas--Discovers the
Crescent of Venus--the Ring of Saturn--the Spots on the
Sun--Similar Observations made in England by Harriot--Claims of
Fabricius and Scheiner to the discovery of the Solar
Spots--Galileo's Letters to Velser on the claims of Scheiner--His
residence at the Villa of Salviati--Composes his work on Floating
Bodies, which involves him in new controversies,
CHAPTER IV. 56
Galileo treats his Opponents with severity and sarcasm--He is aided
by the Sceptics of the day--The Church Party the most
powerful--Galileo commences the attack, and is answered by Caccini,
a Dominican--Galileo's Letter to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, in
support of the motion of the Earth and the stability of the
Sun--Galileo visits Rome--Is summoned before the Inquisition--And
renounces his opinions as Heretical--The Inquisition denounces the
Copernican system--Galileo has an audience of the Pope, but still
maintains his opinions in private society--Proposes to find out the
Longitude at Sea by means of Jupiter's Satellites--His negotiation
on this subject with the Court of Spain--Its failure--He is unable
to observe the three Comets of 1618, but is involved in the
controversy to which they gave rise,
CHAPTER V. 72
Urban VIII., Galileo's friend, raised to the Pontificate--Galileo
goes to Rome to offer his congratulations--The Pope loads Galileo
with presents, and promises a Pension to his Son--Galileo in
pecuniary difficulties, owing to the death of his patron,
Cosmo--Galileo again rashly attacks the Church, notwithstanding the
Pope's kindness--He composes his System of the World, to
demonstrate the Copernican System--Artfully obtains a license to
print it--Nature of the work--Its influence on the public mind--The
Pope resolves on suppressing it--Galileo summoned before the
Inquisition--His Trial--His Defence--His formal Abjuration of his
Opinions--Observations on his conduct--The Pope shews great
indulgence to Galileo, who is allowed to return to his own house at
Arcetri as the place of his confinement,
CHAPTER VI. 102
Galileo loses his favourite Daughter--He falls into a state of
melancholy and ill health--Is allowed to go to Florence for its
recovery in 1638--But is prevented from leaving his House or
receiving his Friends--His friend Castelli permitted to visit him
in the presence of an Officer of the Inquisition--He composes his
celebrated Dialogues on Local Motion--Discovers the Moon's
Libration--Loses the sight of one Eye--The other Eye attacked by
the same Disease--Is struck Blind--Negociates with the Dutch
Government respecting his Method of finding the Longitude--He is
allowed free intercourse with his Friends--His Illness and Death in
1642--His Epitaph--His Social, Moral, and Scientific Character,
* * * * *
LIFE OF TYCHO BRAHE.
CHAPTER I. 123
Tycho's Birth, Family, and Education--An Eclipse of the Sun turns
his attention to Astronomy--Studies Law at Leipsic--But pursues
Astronomy by stealth--His Uncle's Death--He returns to Copenhagen,
and resumes his Observations--Revisits Germany--Fights a Duel, and
loses his Nose--Visits Augsburg, and meets Hainzel--Who assists him
in making a large Quadrant--Revisits Denmark--And is warmly
received by the King--He settles at his Uncle's Castle of
Herritzvold--His Observatory and Laboratory--Discovers the new Star
in Cassiopeia--Account of this remarkable Body--Tycho's Marriage
with a Peasant Girl--Which irritates his Friends--His Lectures on
Astronomy--He visits the Prince of Hesse--Attends the Coronation of
the Emperor Rudolph at Ratisbon--He returns to Denmark,
CHAPTER II. 145
Frederick II. patronizes Tycho--And resolves to establish him in
Denmark--Grants him the Island of Huen for Life--And Builds the
splendid Observatory of Uraniburg--Description of the Island, and
of the Observatory--Account of its Astronomical Instruments--Tycho
begins his Observations--His Pupils--Tycho is made Canon of
Rothschild, and receives a large Pension--His Hospitality to his
Visitors--Ingratitude of Wittichius--Tycho sends an Assistant to
take the Latitude of Frauenburg and Konigsberg--Is visited by
Ulric, Duke of Mecklenburg--Change in Tycho's fortunes,
CHAPTER III. 160
Tycho's Labours do honour to his Country--Death of Frederick
II.--James VI. of Scotland visits Tycho at Uraniburg--Christian IV.
visits Tycho--The Duke of Brunswick's visit to Tycho--The Danish
Nobility, jealous of his fame, conspire against him--He is
compelled to quit Uraniburg--And to abandon his Studies--Cruelty of
the Minister Walchendorp--Tycho quits Denmark with his Family and
Instruments--Is hospitably received by Count Rantzau--Who
introduces him to the Emperor Rudolph--The Emperor invites him to
Prague--He gives him a Pension of 3000 Crowns--And the Castle of
Benach as a Residence and an Observatory--Kepler visits Tycho--Who
obtains for him the Appointment of Mathematician to Rudolph,
CHAPTER IV. 179
Tycho resumes his Astronomical Observations--Is attacked with a
Painful Disease--His Sufferings and Death in 1601--His Funeral--His
Temper--His Turn for Satire and Raillery--His Piety--Account of his
Astronomical Discoveries--His Love of Astrology and
Alchymy--Observations on the Character of the Alchymists--Tycho's
Elixir--His Fondness for the Marvellous--His Automata and Invisible
Bells--Account of the Idiot, called Lep, whom he kept as a
Prophet--History of Tycho's Instruments--His Great Brass Globe
preserved at Copenhagen--Present state of the Island of Huen,
* * * * *
LIFE OF JOHN KEPLER.
CHAPTER I. 203
Kepler's Birth in 1571--His Family--And early Education--The
Distresses and Poverty of his Family--He enters the Monastic School
of Maulbronn--And is admitted into the University of Tubingen,
where he distinguishes himself, and takes his Degree--He is
appointed Professor of Astronomy and Greek in 1594--His first
speculations on the Orbits of the Planets--Account of their
Progress and Failure--His "Cosmographical Mystery" published--He
Marries a Widow in 1597--Religious troubles at Gratz--He retires
from thence to Hungary--Visits Tycho at Prague in 1600--Returns to
Gratz, which he again quits for Prague--He is taken ill on the
road--Is appointed Tycho's Assistant in 1601--Succeeds Tycho as
Imperial Mathematician--His Work on the New Star of 1604--Singular
specimen of it,
CHAPTER II. 220
Kepler's Pecuniary Embarrassments--His Inquiries respecting the Law
of Refraction--His Supplement to Vitellio--His Researches on
Vision--His Treatise on Dioptrics--His Commentaries on Mars--He
discovers that the orbit of Mars is an Ellipse, with the Sun in one
focus--And extends this discovery to all the other Planets--He
establishes the two first laws of Physical Astronomy--His Family
Distresses--Death of his Wife--He is appointed Professor of
Mathematics at Linz--His Method of Choosing a Second Wife--Her
Character, as given by Himself--Origin of his Treatise on
Gauging--He goes to Ratisbon to give his Opinion to the Diet on the
change of Style--He refuses the Mathematical Chair at Bologna,
CHAPTER III. 237
Kepler's continued Embarrassments--Death of Mathias--Liberality of
Ferdinand--Kepler's "Harmonies of the World"--The Epitome of the
Copernican Astronomy--It is prohibited by the Inquisition--Sir
Henry Wotton, the British Ambassador, invites Kepler to
England--He declines the Invitation--Neglect of Genius by the
English Government--Trial of Kepler's Mother--Her final
Acquittal--And Death at the age of Seventy-five--The States of
Styria burn publicly Kepler's Calendar--He receives his Arrears of
Salary from Ferdinand--The Rudolphine Tables published in 1628--He
receives a Gold Chain from the Grand Duke of Tuscany--He is
Patronised by the Duke of Friedland--He removes to Sagan, in
Silesia--Is appointed Professor of Mathematics at Rostoch--Goes to
Ratisbon to receive his Arrears--His Death, Funeral, and
Epitaph--Monument Erected to his Memory in 1803--His Family--His
Posthumous Volume, entitled "The Dream, or Lunar Astronomy,"
CHAPTER IV. 252
Number of Kepler's published Works--His numerous Manuscripts in 22
folio volumes--Purchased by Hevelius, and afterwards by Hansch--Who
publishes Kepler's Life and Correspondence at the expense of
Charles VI.--The History of the rest of his Manuscripts, which are
deposited in the Library of the Academy of Sciences at St
Petersburg--General Character of Kepler--His Candour in
acknowledging his Errors--His Moral and Religious Character--His
Astrological Writings and Opinions considered--His Character as an
Astronomer and a Philosopher--The Splendour of his
Discoveries--Account of his Method of Investigating Truth,
LIFE OF GALILEO.
CHAPTER I.
_Peculiar interest attached to his Life--His Birth--His early
studies--His passion for Mathematics--His work on the Hydrostatic
Balance--Appointed Lecturer on Mathematics at Pisa--His antipathy
to the Philosophy of Aristotle--His contentions with the
Aristotelians--Chosen professor of Mathematics in Padua--Adopts the
Copernican system, but still teaches the Ptolemaic doctrine--His
alarming illness--He observes the new Star in 1604--His magnetical
experiments._
The history of the life and labours of Galileo is pregnant with a
peculiar interest to the general reader, as well as to the philosopher.
His brilliant discoveries, the man of science regards as his peculiar
property; the means by which they were made, and the development of his
intellectual character, belong to the logician and to the philosopher;
but the triumphs and the reverses of his eventful life must be claimed
for our common nature, as a source of more than ordinary instruction.
The lengthened career which Providence assigned to Galileo was filled up
throughout its rugged outline with events even of dramatic interest. But
though it was emblazoned with achievements of transcendent magnitude,
yet his noblest discoveries were the derision of his contemporaries, and
were even denounced as crimes which merited the vengeance of Heaven.
Though he was the idol of his friends, and the favoured companion of
princes, yet he afterwards became the victim of persecution, and spent
some of his last hours within the walls of a prison; and though the
Almighty granted him, as it were, a new sight to descry unknown worlds
in the obscurity of space, yet the eyes which were allowed to witness
such wonders, were themselves doomed to be closed in darkness.
Such were the lights and shadows in which history delineates
"The starry Galileo with his woes."[1]
[1] Childe Harold, canto iv. stanza liv.
But, however powerful be their contrasts, they are not unusual in
their proportions. The balance which has been struck between his days of
good and evil, is that which regulates the lot of man, whether we study
it in the despotic sway of the autocrat, in the peaceful inquiries of
the philosopher, or in the humbler toils of ordinary life.
Galileo Galilei was born at Pisa, on the 15th of February, 1564, and was
the eldest of a family of three sons and three daughters. Under the name
of Bonajuti, his noble ancestors had filled high offices at Florence;
but about the middle of the 14th century they seem to have abandoned
this surname for that of Galileo. Vincenzo Galilei, our author's father,
was himself a philosopher of no mean powers; and though his talents seem
to have been exercised only in the composition of treatises on the
theory and practice of music, yet he appears to have anticipated even
his son in a just estimate of the philosophy of the age, and in a
distinct perception of the true method of investigating truth.[2]
[2] Life of Galileo, Library of Useful Knowledge, p. 1.
The early years of Galileo were, like those of almost all great
experimental philosophers, spent in the construction of instruments and
pieces of machinery, which were calculated chiefly to amuse himself and
his schoolfellows. This employment of his hands, however, did not
interfere with his regular studies; and though, from the straitened
circumstances of his father, he was educated under considerable
disadvantages, yet he acquired the elements of classical literature, and
was initiated into all the learning of the times. Music, drawing, and
painting were the occupations of his leisure hours; and such was his
proficiency in these arts, that he was reckoned a skilful performer on
several musical instruments, especially the lute; and his knowledge of
pictures was held in great esteem by some of the best artists of his
day.
Galileo seems to have been desirous of following the profession of a
painter: but his father had observed decided indications of early
genius; and, though by no means able to afford it, he resolved to send
him to the university to pursue the study of medicine. He accordingly
enrolled himself as a scholar in arts at the university of Pisa, on the
5th of November, 1581, and pursued his medical studies under the
celebrated botanist Andrew Caesalpinus, who filled the chair of medicine
from 1567 to 1592.
In order to study the principles of music and drawing, Galileo found it
necessary to acquire some knowledge of geometry. His father seems to
have foreseen the consequences of following this new pursuit, and though
he did not prohibit him from reading Euclid under Ostilio Ricci, one of
the professors at Pisa, yet he watched his progress with the utmost
jealousy, and had resolved that it should not interfere with his medical
studies. The demonstrations, however, of the Greek mathematician had too
many charms for the ardent mind of Galileo. His whole attention was
engrossed with the new truths which burst upon his understanding; and
after many fruitless attempts to check his ardour and direct his
thoughts to professional objects, his father was obliged to surrender
his parental control, and allow the fullest scope to the genius of his
son.
From the elementary works of geometry, Galileo passed to the writings of
Archimedes; and while he was studying the hydrostatical treatise[3] of
the Syracusan philosopher, he wrote his essay on the hydrostatical
balance,[4] in which he describes the construction of the instrument,
and the method by which Archimedes detected the fraud committed by the
jeweller in the composition of Hiero's crown. This work gained for its
author the esteem of Guido Ubaldi, who had distinguished himself by his
mechanical and mathematical acquirements, and who engaged his young
friend to investigate the subject of the centre of gravity in solid
bodies. The treatise on this subject, which Galileo presented to his
patron, proved the source of his future success in life.
[3] De Insidentibus in Fluido.
[4] Opere di Galileo. Milano, 1810, vol. iv. p. 248-257.
Through the Cardinal del Monte, the brother-in-law of Ubaldi, the
reigning Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand de Medici was made acquainted with
the merits of our young philosopher; and, in 1589, he was appointed
lecturer on mathematics at Pisa. As the salary, however, attached to
this office was only sixty crowns, he was compelled to enlarge this
inadequate income by the additional occupation of private teaching, and
thus to encroach upon the leisure which he was anxious to devote to
science.
With this moderate competency, Galileo commenced his philosophical
career. At the early age of eighteen, when he had entered the
university, his innate antipathy to the Aristotelian philosophy began to
display itself. This feeling was strengthened by his earliest inquiries;
and upon his establishment at Pisa he seems to have regarded the
doctrines of Aristotle as the intellectual prey which, in his chace of
glory, he was destined to pursue. Nizzoli, who flourished near the
beginning of the sixteenth century, and Giordano Bruno, who was burned
at Rome in 1600, led the way in this daring pursuit; but it was reserved
for Galileo to track the Thracian boar through its native thickets, and,
at the risk of his own life, to strangle it in its den.
With the resolution of submitting every opinion to the test of
experiment, Galileo's first inquiries at Pisa were directed to the
mechanical doctrines of Aristotle. Their incorrectness and absurdity
soon became apparent; and with a zeal, perhaps, bordering on
indiscretion, he denounced them to his pupils with an ardour of manner
and of expression proportioned to his own conviction of the truth. The
detection of long-established errors is apt to inspire the young
philosopher with an exultation which reason condemns. The feeling of
triumph is apt to clothe itself in the language of asperity; and the
abettor of erroneous opinions is treated as a species of enemy to
science. Like the soldier who fleshes his first spear in battle, the
philosopher is apt to leave the stain of cruelty on his early
achievements. It is only from age and experience, indeed, that we can
expect the discretion of valour, whether it is called forth in
controversy or in battle. Galileo seems to have waged this stern warfare
against the followers of Aristotle; and such was the exasperation which
was excited by his reiterated and successful attacks, that he was
assailed, during the rest of his life, with a degree of rancour which
seldom originates in a mere difference of opinion. Forgetting that all
knowledge is progressive, and that the errors of one generation call
forth the comments, and are replaced by the discoveries, of the next,
Galileo did not anticipate that his own speculations and incompleted
labours might one day provoke unmitigated censure; and he therefore
failed in making allowance for the prejudices and ignorance of his
opponents. He who enjoys the proud lot of taking a position in advance
of his age, need not wonder that his less gifted contemporaries are left
behind. Men are not necessarily obstinate because they cleave to deeply
rooted and venerable errors, nor are they absolutely dull when they are
long in understanding and slow in embracing newly discovered truths.
It was one of the axioms of the Aristotelian mechanics, that the heavier
of two falling bodies would reach the ground sooner than the other, and
that their velocities would be proportional to their weights. Galileo
attacked the arguments by which this opinion was supported; and when he
found his reasoning ineffectual, he appealed to direct experiment. He
maintained, that all bodies would fall through the same height in the
same time, if they were not unequally retarded by the resistance of the
air: and though he performed the experiment with the most satisfactory
results, by letting heavy bodies fall from the leaning tower of Pisa,
yet the Aristotelians, who with their own eyes saw the unequal weights
strike the ground at the same instant, ascribed the effect to some
unknown cause, and preferred the decision of their master to that of
nature herself.
Galileo could not brook this opposition to his discoveries; nor could
the Aristotelians tolerate the rebukes of their young instructor. The
two parties were, consequently, marshalled in hostile array; when,
fortunately for both, an event occurred, which placed them beyond the
reach of danger. Don Giovanni de Medici, a natural son of Cosmo, had
proposed a method of clearing out the harbour of Leghorn. Galileo, whose
opinion was requested, gave such an unfavourable report upon it, that
the disappointed inventor directed against him all the force of his
malice. It was an easy task to concentrate the malignity of his enemies
at Pisa; and so effectually was this accomplished, that Galileo resolved
to accept another professorship, to which he had been previously
invited.
The chair of mathematics in the university of Padua having been vacant
for five years, the republic of Venice had resolved to fill it up; and,
on the recommendation of Guido Ubaldi, Galileo was appointed to it, in
1592, for a period of six years.
Previous to this event, Galileo had lost his father, who died, in 1591,
at an advanced age. As he was the eldest son, the support of the family
naturally devolved upon him; and this sacred obligation must have
increased his anxiety to better his circumstances, and therefore added
to his other inducements to quit Pisa. In September 1592, he removed to
Padua, where he had a salary of only 180 florins, and where he was again
obliged to add to his income by the labours of tuition. Notwithstanding
this fruitless occupation of his time, he appears to have found leisure
for composing several of his works, and completing various inventions,
which will be afterwards described. His manuscripts were circulated
privately among his friends and pupils; but some of them strayed beyond
this sacred limit, and found their way into the hands of persons, who
did not scruple to claim and publish, as their own, the discoveries and
inventions which they contained.
It is not easy to ascertain the exact time when Galileo became a convert
to the doctrines of Copernicus, or the particular circumstances under
which he was led to adopt them. It is stated by Gerard Voss, that a
public lecture of Moestlin, the instructor of Kepler, was the means of
making Galileo acquainted with the true system of the universe. This
assertion, however, is by no means probable; and it has been ably shown,
by the latest biographer of Galileo,[5] that, in his dialogues on the
Copernican system, our author gives the true account of his own
conversion. This passage is so interesting, that we shall give it
entire.
[5] Life of Galileo, in Library of Useful Knowledge, p. 9.
"I cannot omit this opportunity of relating to you what happened to
myself at the time when this opinion (the Copernican system) began to be
discussed. I was then a very young man, and had scarcely finished my
course of philosophy, which other occupations obliged me to leave off,
when there arrived in this country, from Rostoch, a foreigner, whose
name, I believe, was Christian Vurstisius (Wurteisen), a follower of
Copernicus. This person delivered, on this subject, two or three
lectures in a certain academy, and to a crowded audience. Believing that
several were attracted more by the novelty of the subject than by any
other cause, and being firmly persuaded that this opinion was a piece of
solemn folly, I was unwilling to be present. Upon interrogating,
however, some of those who were there, I found that they all made it a
subject of merriment, with the exception of one, who assured me that it
was not a thing wholly ridiculous. As I considered this individual to be
both prudent and circumspect, I repented that I had not attended the
lectures; and, whenever I met any of the followers of Copernicus, I
began to inquire if they had always been of the same opinion. I found
that there was not one of them who did not declare that he had long
maintained the very opposite opinions, and had not gone over to the new
doctrines till he was driven by the force of argument. I next examined
them one by one, to see if they were masters of the arguments on the
opposite side; and such was the readiness of their answers, that I was
satisfied they had not taken up this opinion from ignorance or vanity.
On the other hand, whenever I interrogated the Peripatetics and the
Ptolemeans--and, out of curiosity, I have interrogated not a
few--respecting their perusal of Copernicus's work, I perceived that
there were few who had seen the book, and not one who understood it. Nor
have I omitted to inquire among the followers of the Peripatetic
doctrines, if any of them had ever stood on the opposite side; and the
result was, that there was not one. Considering, then, that nobody
followed the Copernican doctrine, who had not previously held the
contrary opinion, and who was not well acquainted with the arguments of
Aristotle and Ptolemy; while, on the other hand, nobody followed Ptolemy
and Aristotle, who had before adhered to Copernicus, and had gone over
from him into the camp of Aristotle;--weighing, I say, these things, I
began to believe that, if any one who rejects an opinion which he has
imbibed with his milk, and which has been embraced by an infinite
number, shall take up an opinion held only by a few, condemned by all
the schools, and really regarded as a great paradox, it cannot be
doubted that he must have been induced, not to say driven, to embrace it
by the most cogent arguments. On this account I have become very curious
to penetrate to the very bottom of the subject."[6]
[6] Systema Cosmicum, Dial. ii. p. 121.
It appears, on the testimony of Galileo himself, that he taught the
Ptolemaic system, in compliance with the popular feeling, after he had
convinced himself of the truth of the Copernican doctrines. In the
treatise on the sphere, indeed, which bears his name,[7] and which must
have been written soon after he went to Padua, and subsequently to 1592,
the stability of the earth, and the motion of the sun, are supported by
the very arguments which Galileo afterwards ridiculed; but we have no
means of determining whether or not he had then adopted the true system
of the universe. Although he might have taught the Ptolemaic system in
his lectures after he had convinced himself of its falsehood, yet it is
not likely that he would go so far as to publish to the world, as true,
the very doctrines which he despised. In a letter to Kepler, dated in
1597, he distinctly states that he _had, many years ago, adopted the
opinions of Copernicus_; but that _he had not yet dared to publish his
arguments in favour of them, and his refutation of the opposite
opinions_. These facts would leave us to place Galileo's conversion
somewhere between 1593 and 1597, although _many_ years cannot be said
to have elapsed between these two dates.
[7] The authenticity of this work has been doubted. It was printed
at Rome, in 1656, from a MS. in the library of Somaschi, at Venice.
See Opere di Galileo, tom. vii. p. 427.
At this early period of Galileo's life, in the year 1593, he met with an
accident which had nearly proved fatal. A party at Padua, of which he
was one, were enjoying, at an open window, a current of air, which was
artificially cooled by a fall of water. Galileo unfortunately fell
asleep under its influence; and so powerful was its effect upon his
robust constitution, that he contracted a severe chronic disorder,
accompanied with acute pains in his body, and loss of sleep and
appetite, which attacked him at intervals during the rest of his life.
Others of the party suffered still more severely, and perished by their
own rashness.
Galileo's reputation was now widely extended over Europe. The Archduke
Ferdinand (afterwards Emperor of Germany), the Landgrave of Hesse, and
the Princes of Alsace and Mantua, honoured his lectures with their
presence; and Prince Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden also received
instructions from him in mathematics, during his sojourn in Italy.
When Galileo had completed the first period of his engagement at Padua,
he was re-elected for other six years, with an increased salary of 320
florins. This liberal addition to his income is ascribed by Fabbroni to
the malice of one of his enemies, who informed the Senate that Galileo
was living in illicit intercourse with Marina Gamba. Without inquiring
into the truth of the accusation, the Senate is said to have replied,
that if "he had a family to support, he had the more need of an
increased salary." It is more likely that the liberality of the republic
had been called forth by the high reputation of their professor, and
that the terms of their reply were intended only to rebuke the malignity
of the informer. The mode of expression would seem to indicate that one
or more of Galileo's children had been born previous to his re-election
in 1598; but as this is scarcely consistent with other facts, we are
disposed to doubt the authenticity of Fabbroni's anecdote.
The new star which attracted the notice of astronomers in 1604, excited
the particular attention of Galileo. The observations which he made upon
it, and the speculations which they suggested, formed the subject of
three lectures, the beginning of the first of which only has reached
our times. From the absence of parallax, he proved that the common
hypothesis of its being a meteor was erroneous, and that, like the fixed
stars, it was situated far beyond the bounds of our own system. The
popularity of the subject attracted crowds to his lecture-room; and
Galileo had the boldness to reproach his hearers for taking so deep an
interest in a temporary phenomenon, while they overlooked the wonders of
creation which were daily presented to their view.
In the year 1606, Galileo was again appointed to the professorship at
Padua, with an augmented stipend of 520 florins. His popularity had now
risen so high, that his audience could not be accommodated in his
lecture-room; and even when he had assembled them in the school of
medicine, which contained 1000 persons, he was frequently obliged to
adjourn to the open air.
Among the variety of pursuits which occupied his attention, was the
examination of the properties of the loadstone. In 1607, he commenced
his experiments; but, with the exception of a method of arming
loadstones, which, according to the report of Sir Kenelm Digby, enabled
them to carry twice as much weight as before, he does not seem to have
made any additions to our knowledge of magnetism. He appears to have
studied with care the admirable work of our countryman, Dr Gilbert, "De
Magnete," which was published in 1600; and he recognised in the
experiments and reasonings of the English philosopher the principles of
that method of investigating truth which he had himself adopted. Gilbert
died in 1603, in the 63d year of his age, and probably never read the
fine compliment which was paid to him by the Italian philosopher--"I
extremely praise, admire, and envy this author."
CHAPTER II.
_Cosmo, Grand Duke of Tuscany, invites Galileo to Pisa--Galileo
visits Venice in 1609, where he first hears of the Telescope--He
invents and constructs one, which excites a great
sensation--Discovers Mountains in the Moon, and Forty Stars in the
Pleiades--Discovers Jupiter's Satellites in 1610--Effect of this
discovery on Kepler--Manner in which these discoveries were
received--Galileo appointed Mathematician to Cosmo--Mayer claims
the discovery of the Satellites of Jupiter--Harriot observes them
in England in October 1610._
In the preceding chapter we have brought down the history of Galileo's
labours to that auspicious year in which he first directed the telescope
to the heavens. No sooner was that noble instrument placed in his hands,
than Providence released him from his professional toils, and supplied
him with the fullest leisure and the amplest means for pursuing and
completing the grandest discoveries.
Although he had quitted the service and the domains of his munificent
patron, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, yet he maintained his connection with
the family, by visiting Florence during his academic vacations, and
giving mathematical instruction to the younger branches of that
distinguished house. Cosmo, who had been one of his pupils, now
succeeded his father Ferdinand; and having his mind early imbued with a
love of knowledge, which had become hereditary in his family, he felt
that the residence of Galileo within his dominions, and still more his
introduction into his household, would do honour to their common
country, and reflect a lustre upon his own name. In the year 1609,
accordingly, Cosmo made proposals to Galileo to return to his original
situation at Pisa. These overtures were gratefully received; and in the
arrangements which Galileo on this occasion suggested, as well as in the
manner in which they were urged, we obtain some insight into his temper
and character. He informs the correspondent through whom Cosmo's offer
was conveyed, that his salary of 520 florins at Padua would be increased
to as many crowns at his re-election, and that he could enlarge his
income to any extent he pleased, by giving private lectures and
receiving pupils. His public duties, he stated, occupied him only sixty
half-hours in the year; but his studies suffered such interruptions from
his domestic pupils and private lectures, that his most ardent wish was
to be relieved from them, in order that he might have sufficient rest
and leisure, before the close of his life, to finish and publish those
great works which he had projected. In the event, therefore, of his
returning to Pisa, he hoped that it would be the first object of his
serene highness to give him leisure to complete his works without the
drudgery of lecturing. He expresses his anxiety to gain his bread by his
writings, and he promises to dedicate them to his serene master. He
enumerates, among these books, two on the system of the universe, three
on local motion, three books of mechanics, two on the demonstration of
principles, and one of problems; besides treatises on sound and speech,
on light and colours, on the tides, on the composition of continuous
quantity, on the motions of animals, and on the military art. On the
subject of his salary, he makes the following curious observations:--
"I say nothing," says he, "on the amount of my salary; being convinced
that, as I am to live upon it, the graciousness of his highness would
not deprive me of any of those comforts, of which, however, I feel the
want of less than many others; and, therefore, I say nothing more on the
subject. Finally, on the title and profession of my service, I should
wish that, to the title of mathematician, his highness would add that of
philosopher, as I profess to have studied a greater number of years in
philosophy, than months in pure mathematics; and how I have profited by
it, and if I can or ought to deserve this title, I may let their
highnesses see, as often as it shall please them to give me an
opportunity of discussing such subjects in their presence with those who
are most esteemed in this knowledge."
During the progress of this negotiation, Galileo went to Venice, on a
visit to a friend, in the month of April or May 1609. Here he learned,
from common rumour, that a Dutchman had presented to prince Maurice of
Nassau an optical instrument, which possessed the singular property of
causing distant objects to appear nearer the observer. This Dutchman was
Hans or John Lippershey, who, as has been clearly proved by the late
Professor Moll of Utrecht,[8] was in the possession of a telescope made
by himself so early as 2d October 1608. A few days afterwards, the truth
of this report was confirmed by a letter which Galileo received from
James Badorere at Paris, and he immediately applied himself to the
consideration of the subject. On the first night after his return to
Padua, he found, in the doctrines of refraction, the principle which he
sought. He placed at the ends of a leaden tube two spectacle glasses,
both of which were plain on one side, while one of them had its other
side convex, and the other its second side concave, and having applied
his eye to the concave glass, he saw objects pretty large and pretty
near him. This little instrument, which magnified only three times, he
carried in triumph to Venice, where it excited the most intense
interest. Crowds of the principal citizens flocked to his house to see
the magical toy; and after nearly a month had been spent in gratifying
this epidemical curiosity, Galileo was led to understand from Leonardo
Deodati, the Doge of Venice, that the senate would be highly gratified
by obtaining possession of so extraordinary an instrument. Galileo
instantly complied with the wishes of his patrons, who acknowledged the
present by a mandate conferring upon him for life his professorship at
Padua, and generously raising his salary from 520 to 1000 florins.[9]
[8] On the First Invention of Telescopes.--_Journ. R. Instit._,
1831., vol i., p. 496.
[9] Viviani _Vita del' Galileo_, p. 69.
Although we cannot doubt the veracity of Galileo, when he affirms that
he had never seen any of the Dutch telescopes, yet it is expressly
stated by Fuccarius, that one of these instruments had at this time been
brought to Florence; and Sirturus assures us that a Frenchman, calling
himself a partner of the Dutch inventor, came to Milan in May 1609, and
offered a telescope to the Count de Fuentes. In a letter from Lorenzo
Pignoria to Paolo Gualdo, dated from Padua, on the 31st of August 1609,
it is expressly said, that, at the re-election of the professors,
Galileo had contrived to obtain 1000 florins for life, which was alleged
to be on account of an eye-glass like the one which was sent from
Flanders to the Cardinal Borghese.
In a memoir so brief and general as the present, it would be out of
place to discuss the history of this extraordinary invention. We have no
hesitation in asserting that a method of magnifying distant objects was
known to Baptista Porta and others; but it seems to be equally certain
that an _instrument_ for producing these effects was first constructed
in Holland, and that it was from that kingdom that Galileo derived the
knowledge of its existence. In considering the contending claims, which
have been urged with all the ardour and partiality of national feeling,
it has been generally overlooked, _that a single convex lens_, whose
focal length exceeds the distance at which we examine minute objects,
performs the part of a telescope, when an eye, placed behind it, sees
distinctly the inverted image which it forms. A lens, twenty feet in
focal length, will in this manner magnify twenty times; and it was by
the same principle that Sir William Herschel discovered a new satellite
of Saturn, by using only the mirror of his forty-feet telescope. The
instrument presented to Prince Maurice, and which the Marquis Spinola
found in the shop of John Lippershey, the spectacle maker of Middleburg,
must have been an astronomical telescope consisting of two convex
lenses. Upon this supposition, it differed from that which Galileo
constructed; and the Italian philosopher will be justly entitled to the
honour of having invented that form of the telescope which still bears
his name, while we must accord to the Dutch optician the honour of
having previously invented the astronomical telescope.
The interest which the exhibition of the telescope excited at Venice did
not soon subside: Sirturi[10] describes it as amounting almost to
phrensy. When he himself had succeeded in making one of these
instruments, he ascended the tower of St Mark, where he might use it
without molestation. He was recognised, however, by a crowd in the
street; and such was the eagerness of their curiosity, that they took
possession of the wondrous tube, and detained the impatient philosopher
for several hours, till they had successively witnessed its effects.
Desirous of obtaining the same gratification for their friends, they
endeavoured to learn the name of the inn at which he lodged; but Sirturi
fortunately overheard their inquiries, and quitted Venice early next
morning, in order to avoid a second visitation of this new school of
philosophers. The opticians speedily availed themselves of the new
instrument. Galileo's tube,--or the double eye-glass, or the cylinder,
or the trunk, as it was then called, for Demisiano had not yet given it
the appellation of _telescope_,--was manufactured in great quantities,
and in a very superior manner. The instruments were purchased merely as
philosophical toys, and were carried by travellers into every corner of
Europe.
[10] De Telescopio.
The art of grinding and polishing lenses was at this time very
imperfect. Galileo, and those whom he instructed, were alone capable of
making tolerable instruments. It appears, from the testimony of Gassendi
and Gaertner, that, in 1634, a good telescope could not be procured in
Paris, Venice, or Amsterdam; and that, even in 1637, there was not one
in Holland which could shew Jupiter's disc well defined.
After Galileo had completed his first instrument, which magnified only
_three_ times, he executed a larger and a better one, with a power of
about _eight_. "At length," as he himself remarks, "sparing neither
labour nor expense," he constructed an instrument so excellent, that it
bore a magnifying power of more than _thirty_ times.
The first celestial object to which Galileo applied his telescope was
the moon, which, to use his own words, appeared as near as if it had
been distant only two semidiameters of the earth. He then directed it to
the planets and the fixed stars, which he frequently observed with
"incredible delight."[11]
[11] Incredibili animi jucunditate.
The observations which he made upon the moon possessed a high degree of
interest. The general resemblance of its surface to that of our own
globe naturally fixed his attention; and he was soon able to trace, in
almost every part of the lunar disc, ranges of mountains, deep hollows,
and other inequalities, which reverberated from their summits and
margins the rays of the rising sun, while the intervening hollows were
still buried in darkness. The dark and luminous spaces he regarded as
indicating seas and continents, which reflected, in different degrees,
the incidental light of the sun; and he ascribed the phosphorescence, as
it has been improperly called, or the secondary light, which is seen on
the dark limb of the moon in her first and last quarters, to the
reflection of the sun's light from the earth.
These discoveries were ill received by the followers of Aristotle.
According to their preconceived opinions, the moon was perfectly
spherical, and absolutely smooth; and to cover it with mountains, and
scoop it out into valleys, was an act of impiety which defaced the
regular forms which Nature herself had imprinted. It was in vain that
Galileo appealed to the evidence of observation, and to the actual
surface of our own globe. The very irregularities on the moon were, in
his opinion, the proof of divine wisdom; and had its surface been
absolutely smooth, it would have been "but a vast unblessed desert, void
of animals, of plants, of cities, and of men--the abode of silence and
inaction--senseless, lifeless, soulless, and stripped of all those
ornaments which now render it so varied and so beautiful."
In examining the fixed stars, and comparing them with the planets,
Galileo observed a remarkable difference in the appearance of their
discs. All the planets appeared with round globular discs like the moon;
whereas the fixed stars never exhibited any disc at all, but resembled
lucid points sending forth twinkling rays. Stars of all magnitudes he
found to have the same appearance; those of the fifth and sixth
magnitude having the same character, when seen through a telescope, as
Sirius, the largest of the stars, when seen by the naked eye. Upon
directing his telescope to nebulae and clusters of stars, he was
delighted to find that they consisted of great numbers of stars which
could not be recognised by unassisted vision. He counted no fewer than
_forty_ in the cluster called the _Pleiades_, or _Seven Stars_; and he
has given us drawings of this constellation, as well as of the belt and
sword of Orion, and of the nebula of Praesepe. In the great nebula of the
Milky Way, he descried crowds of minute stars; and he concluded that
this singular portion of the heavens derived its whiteness from still
smaller stars, which his telescope was unable to separate.
Important and interesting as these discoveries were, they were thrown
into the shade by those to which he was led during an accurate
examination of the planets with a more powerful telescope. On the 7th of
January 1610, at one o'clock in the morning, when he directed his
telescope to Jupiter, he observed three stars near the body of the
planet, two being to the east and one to the west of him. They were all
in a straight line, and parallel to the ecliptic, and appeared brighter
than other stars of the same magnitude. Believing them to be fixed
stars, he paid no great attention to their distances from Jupiter and
from one another. On the 8th of January, however, when, from some cause
or other,[12] he had been led to observe the stars again, he found a
very different arrangement of them: all the three were on the west side
of Jupiter, _nearer one another than before_, and almost at equal
distances. Though he had not turned his attention to the extraordinary
fact of the mutual approach of the stars, yet he began to consider how
Jupiter could be found to the east of the three stars, when but the day
before he had been to the west of two of them. The only explanation
which he could give of this fact was, that the motion of Jupiter was
_direct_, contrary to astronomical calculations, and that he had got
before these two stars by his own motion.
[12] Nescio quo fato ductus.
In this dilemma between the testimony of his senses and the results of
calculation, he waited for the following night with the utmost anxiety;
but his hopes were disappointed, for the heavens were wholly veiled in
clouds. On the 10th, two only of the stars appeared, and both on the
east of the planet. As it was obviously impossible that Jupiter could
have advanced from west to east on the 8th of January, and from east to
west on the 10th, Galileo was forced to conclude that the phenomenon
which he had observed arose from the motion of the stars, and he set
himself to observe diligently their change of place. On the 11th, there
were still only two stars, and both to the east of Jupiter; but the more
eastern star was now _twice as large as the other one_, though on the
preceding night they had been perfectly equal. This fact threw a new
light upon Galileo's difficulties, and he immediately drew the
conclusion, which he considered to be indubitable, "_that there were in
the heavens three stars which revolved round Jupiter, in the same manner
as Venus and Mercury revolve round the sun_." On the 12th of January, he
again observed them in new positions, and of different magnitudes; and,
on the 13th, he discovered a fourth star, which completed the _four_
secondary planets with which Jupiter is surrounded.
Galileo continued his observations on these bodies every clear night
till the 22d of March, and studied their motions in reference to fixed
stars that were at the same time within the field of his telescope.
Having thus clearly established that the four new stars were satellites
or moons, which revolved round Jupiter in the same manner as the moon
revolves round our own globe, he drew up an account of his discovery, in
which he gave to the four new bodies the names of the _Medicean Stars_,
in honour of his patron, Cosmo de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. This
work, under the title of "Nuncius Sidereus," or the "Sidereal
Messenger," was dedicated to the same prince; and the dedication bears
the date of the 24th of March, only two days after he concluded his
observations.
The importance of this great discovery was instantly felt by the enemies
as well as by the friends of the Copernican system. The planets had
hitherto been distinguished from the fixed stars only by their relative
change of place, but the telescope proved them to be bodies so near to
our own globe as to exhibit well-defined discs, while the fixed stars
retained, even when magnified, the minuteness of remote and lucid
points. The system of Jupiter, illuminated by four moons performing
their revolutions in different and regular periods, exhibited to the
proud reason of man the comparative insignificance of the globe he
inhabits, and proclaimed in impressive language that that globe was not
the centre of the universe.
The reception which these discoveries met with from Kepler is highly
interesting, and characteristic of the genius of that great man. He was
one day sitting idle, and thinking of Galileo, when his friend
Wachenfels stopped his carriage at his door, to communicate to him the
intelligence. "Such a fit of wonder," says he, "seized me at a report
which seemed to be so very absurd, and I was thrown into such agitation
at seeing an old dispute between us decided in this way, that between
his joy, my colouring, and the laughter of both, confounded as we were
by such a novelty, we were hardly capable, he of speaking, or I of
listening. On our parting, I immediately began to think how there could
be any addition to the number of the planets without overturning my
'Cosmographic Mystery,' according to which Euclid's five regular solids
do not allow more than six planets round the sun.... I am so far from
disbelieving the existence of the four circumjovial planets, that I long
for a telescope, to anticipate you, if possible, in discovering _two_
round Mars, as the proportion seems to require, _six_ or _eight_ round
Saturn, and perhaps _one_ each round Mercury and Venus."
In a very different spirit did the Aristotelians receive the "Sidereal
Messenger" of Galileo. The principal professor of philosophy at Padua
resisted Galileo's repeated and urgent entreaties to look at the moon
and planets through his telescope; and he even laboured to convince the
Grand Duke that the satellites of Jupiter could not possibly exist.
Sizzi, an astronomer of Florence, maintained that as there were only
_seven_ apertures in the head--_two_ eyes, _two_ ears, _two_ nostrils,
and _one_ mouth--and as there were only _seven_ metals, and _seven_ days
in the week, so there could be only _seven_ planets. He seems, however,
to have admitted the visibility of the four satellites through the
telescope; but he argues, that as they are invisible to the naked eye,
they can exercise no influence on the earth; and being useless, they do
not therefore exist.
A _protege_ of Kepler's, of the name of Horky, wrote a volume against
Galileo's discovery, after having declared, "that he would never concede
his four new planets to that Italian from Padua, even if he should die
for it." This resolute Aristotelian was at no loss for arguments. He
asserted that he had examined the heavens _through Galileo's own glass_,
and that no such thing as a satellite existed round Jupiter. He
affirmed, that he did not more surely know that he had a soul in his
body, than that reflected rays are the sole cause of Galileo's erroneous
observations; and that the only use of the new planets was to gratify
Galileo's thirst for gold, and afford to himself a subject of
discussion.
When Horky first presented himself to Kepler, after the publication of
this work, the opinion of his patron was announced to him by a burst of
indignation which overwhelmed the astonished author. Horky supplicated
mercy for his offence; and, as Kepler himself informed Galileo, he took
him again into favour, on the condition that Kepler was to show him
Jupiter's satellites, and that Horky was not only to see them, but to
admit their existence.
When the spirit of philosophy had thus left the individuals who bore so
unworthily her sacred name, it was fortunate for science that it found a
refuge among princes. Notwithstanding the reiterated logic of his
philosophical professor at Padua, Cosmo de Medici preferred the
testimony of his senses to the syllogisms of his instructor. He observed
the new planets several times, along with Galileo, at Pisa; and when he
parted with him, he gave him a present worth more than 1000 florins, and
concluded that liberal arrangement to which we have already referred.
As philosopher and principal mathematician to the Grand Duke of Tuscany,
Galileo now took up his residence at Florence, with a salary of 1000
florins. No official duties, excepting that of lecturing occasionally to
sovereign princes, were attached to this appointment; and it was
expressly stipulated that he should enjoy the most perfect leisure to
complete his treatises on the constitution of the universe, on
mechanics, and on local motion. The resignation of his professorship in
the university of Padua, which was the necessary consequence of his new
appointment, created much dissatisfaction: but though many of his former
friends refused at first to hold any communication with him, this
excitement gradually subsided; and the Venetian senate at last
appreciated the feelings, as well as the motives, which induced a
stranger to accept of promotion in his native land.
While Galileo was enjoying the reward and the fame of his great
discovery, a new species of enmity was roused against him. Simon Mayer,
an astronomer of no character, pretended that he had discovered the
satellites of Jupiter before Galileo, and that his first observation was
made on the 29th of December, 1609. Other astronomers announced the
discovery of new satellites: Scheiner reckoned five, Rheita nine, and
others found even so many as twelve: these satellites, however, were
found to be only fixed stars. The names of _Vladislavian_, _Agrippine_,
_Uranodavian_, and _Ferdinandotertian_, which were hastily given to
these common telescopic stars, soon disappeared from the page of
science, and even the splendid telescopes of modern times have not been
able to add another gem to the diadem of Jupiter.
A modern astronomer of no mean celebrity has, even in the present day,
endeavoured to rob Galileo of this staple article of his reputation.
From a careless examination of the papers of our celebrated countryman,
Thomas Harriot, which Baron Zach had made in 1784, at Petworth, the seat
of Lord Egremont, this astronomer has asserted[13] that Harriot first
observed the satellites of Jupiter on the 16th of January, 1610; and
continued his observations till the 25th of February, 1612. Baron Zach
adds the following extraordinary conclusion:--"Galileo pretends to have
discovered them on the 7th of January, 1610; so that it is not
improbable that Harriot was likewise the first discoverer of these
attendants of Jupiter." In a communication which I received from Dr
Robertson, of Oxford, in 1822,[14] he informed me that he had examined a
portion of Harriot's papers, entitled, "De Jovialibus Planetis;" and
that it appears, from two pages of these papers, _that Harriot first
observed Jupiter's satellites on the 17th of October, 1610_. These
observations are accompanied with rough drawings of the positions of the
satellites, and rough calculations of their periodical revolutions. My
friend, Professor Rigaud,[15] who has very recently examined the Harriot
MSS., has confirmed the accuracy of Dr Robertson's observations, and has
thus restored to Galileo the honour of being the first and the sole
discoverer of these secondary planets.
[13] Berlin Ephemeris, 1788.
[14] Edin. Phil. Journ. vol. vi. p. 313.
[15] Life and Correspondence of Dr Bradley, Oxford, 1832, p. 533,
See also his Supplement. Oxford, 1833, p. 17.
CHAPTER III.
_Galileo announces his discoveries in Enigmas--Discovers the
Crescent of Venus--the Ring of Saturn--the Spots on the
Sun--Similar Observations made in England by Harriot--Claims of
Fabricius and Scheiner to the discovery of the Solar
Spots--Galileo's Letters to Velser on the claims of Scheiner--His
residence at the Villa of Salviati--Composes his work on Floating
Bodies, which involves him in new controversies._
The great success which attended the first telescopic observations of
Galileo, induced him to apply his best instruments to the other planets
of our system. The attempts which had been made to deprive him of the
honour of some of his discoveries, combined, probably, with a desire to
repeat his observations with better telescopes, led him to announce his
discoveries under the veil of an enigma, and to invite astronomers to
declare, within a given time, if they had observed any new phenomena in
the heavens.
Before the close of 1610, Galileo excited the curiosity of astronomers
by the publication of his first enigma. Kepler and others tried in vain
to decipher it; but in consequence of the Emperor Rodolph requesting a
solution of the puzzle, Galileo sent him the following clue:--
"Altissimam planetam tergeminam observavi."
I have observed that the most remote planet is triple.
In explaining more fully the nature of his observation, Galileo remarked
that Saturn was not a single star, but three together, nearly touching
one another. He described them as having no relative motion, and as
having the form of three o's, namely, oOo, the central one being larger
than those on each side of it.
Although Galileo had announced that nothing new appeared in the other
planets, yet he soon communicated to the world another discovery of no
slight interest. The enigmatical letters in which it was concealed
formed the following sentence:--
"Cynthiae figuras aemulatur mater Amorum."
Venus rivals the phases of the moon.
Hitherto, Galileo had observed Venus when her disc was largely
illuminated; but having directed his telescope to her when she was not
far removed from the sun, he saw her in the form of a crescent,
resembling exactly the moon at the same elongation. He continued to
observe her night after night, during the whole time that she could be
seen in the course of her revolution round the sun, and he found that
she exhibited the very same phases which resulted from her motion round
that luminary.
Galileo had long contemplated a visit to the metropolis of Italy, and he
accordingly carried his intentions into effect in the early part of the
year 1611. Here he was received with that distinction which was due to
his great talents and his extended reputation. Princes, Cardinals, and
Prelates hastened to do him honour; and even those who discredited his
discoveries, and dreaded their results, vied with the true friends of
science in their anxiety to see the intellectual wonder of the age.
In order to show the new celestial phenomena to his friends at Rome,
Galileo took with him his best telescope; and as he had discovered the
spots on the sun's surface in October or November 1610, or even
earlier,[16] he had the gratification of exhibiting them to his admiring
disciples. He accordingly erected his telescope in the Quirinal garden,
belonging to Cardinal Bandini; and in April 1611 he shewed them to his
friends in many of their most interesting variations. From their change
of position on the sun's disc, Galileo at first inferred, either that
the sun revolved about an axis, or that other planets, like Venus and
Mercury, revolved so near the sun as to appear like black spots when
they were opposite to his disc. Upon continuing his observations,
however, he saw reason to abandon this hasty opinion. He found that the
spots must be in contact with the surface of the sun,--that their
figures were irregular,--that they had different degrees of
darkness,--that one spot would often divide itself into three or
four,--that three or four spots would often unite themselves into
one,--and that all the spots revolved regularly with the sun, which
appeared to complete its revolution in about twenty-eight days.
[16] Professor Rigaud is of opinion that Galileo had discovered the
solar spots at an earlier period than eighteen months before May
1612.
Previous to the invention of the telescope, spots had been more than
once seen on the sun's disc with the unassisted eye. But even if these
were of the same character as those which Galileo and others observed,
we cannot consider them as anticipations of their discovery by the
telescope. As the telescope was now in the possession of several
astronomers, Galileo began to have many rivals in discovery; but
notwithstanding the claims of Harriot, Fabricius, and Scheiner, it is
now placed beyond the reach of doubt that he was the first discoverer of
the solar spots. From the communication which I received in 1822 from
the late Dr Robertson, of Oxford,[17] it appeared that Thomas Harriot
had observed the solar spots on the 8th of December 1610; but his
manuscripts, in Lord Egremont's possession,[18] incontestably prove that
his regular observations on the spots did not commence till December 1,
1611, although he had seen the spots at the date above mentioned, and
that they were continued till the 18th of January 1613. The
observations which he has recorded are 199 in number, and the accounts
of them are accompanied with rough drawings representing the number,
position, and magnitude of the spots.[19] In the observation of Harriot,
made on the 8th December 1610, before he knew of Galileo's discovery, he
saw three spots on the sun, which he has represented in a diagram. The
sun was then 7 deg. or 8 deg. high, and there was a frost and a mist, which no
doubt acted as a darkening glass. Harriot does not apply the name of
spots to what he noticed in this observation, and he does not enumerate
it among the 199 observations above mentioned. Professor Rigaud[20]
considers it "a misapplication of terms to call such an observation a
discovery;" but, with all the respect which we feel for the candour of
this remark, we are disposed to confer on Harriot the merit of an
original discoverer of the spots on the sun.
[17] See page 40.
[18] These interesting MSS. I have had the good fortune of seeing
in the possession of my much valued friend, the late Professor
Rigaud of Oxford.
[19] Edin. Phil. Journ. 1822, vol. vi. p. 317. See Rigaud's Life of
Bradley, Supplement, p. 31.
[20] Id. It., p. 37, 38.
Another candidate for the honour of discovering the spots of the sun,
was John Fabricius, who undoubtedly saw them previous to June 1611. The
dedication of the work[21] in which he has recorded his observation,
bears the date of the 13th of June 1611; and it is obvious, from the
work itself, that he had seen the spots about the end of the year 1610;
but as there is no proof that he saw them before October, we are
compelled to assign the priority of the discovery to the Italian
astronomer.
[21] Joh. Fabricii Phrysii de Maculis in Sole observatis, et
apparente earum cum Sole conversione, Narratio. Wittemb. 1611.
The claim of Scheiner, professor of mathematics at Ingolstadt, is more
intimately connected with the history of Galileo. This learned
astronomer having, early in 1611, turned his telescope to the sun,
necessarily discovered the spots which at that time covered his disc.
Light flying clouds happened, at the time, to weaken the intensity of
his light, so that he was able to show the spots to his pupils. These
observations were not published till January 1612; and they appeared in
the form of three letters, addressed to Mark Velser, one of the
magistrates of Augsburg, under the signature of _Appelles post Tabulam_.
Scheiner, who, many years afterwards, published an elaborate work on
the subject, adopted the same idea which had at first occurred to
Galileo--that the spots were the dark sides of planets revolving round
and near the sun.[22]
[22] It does not appear from the history of solar observations at
what time, and by whom, coloured glasses were first introduced for
permitting the eye to look at the sun with impunity. Fabricius was
obviously quite ignorant of the use of coloured glasses. He
observed the sun when he was in the horizon, and when his
brilliancy was impaired by the interposition of thin clouds and
floating vapours; and he advises those who may repeat his
observations to admit at first to the eye a small portion of the
sun's light, till it is gradually accustomed to its full splendour.
When the sun's altitude became considerable, Fabricius gave up his
observations, which he often continued so long that he was scarcely
able, for two days together, to see objects with their usual
distinctness. Fabricius speaks of observing the sun by admitting
his rays through a small _hole_ into a dark room, and receiving his
image on paper; but he says nothing about a lens or a telescope
being applied to the hole; and he does not say that he saw the
spots of the sun in this way. Harriot also viewed the solar spots
when the sun was near the horizon, or was visible through "thick
layer and thin cloudes," or through thin mist. On December 21,
1611, at a quarter past 2 P.M., he observed the spots when the sky
was perfectly clear, but his "sight was after dim for an houre."
Scheiner, in his "Appelles post Tabulam," describes four different
ways of viewing the spots; one of which is by the _interposition of
blue or green glasses_. His first method was to observe the sun
near the horizon; the second was to view him through a transparent
cloud; the third was to look at him through his telescope with a
blue or a green glass of a proper thickness, and plane on both
sides, or to use a thin blue glass when the sun was covered with a
thin vapour or cloud; and the fourth method was to begin and
observe the sun at his margin, till the eye gradually reached the
middle of his disc.
On the publication of Scheiner's letters, Velser transmitted a copy of
them to his friend Galileo, with the request that he would favour him
with his opinion of the new phenomena. After some delay, Galileo
addressed three letters to Velser, in which he combated the opinions of
Scheiner on the cause of the spots. The first of these letters was dated
the 4th of May 1612;[23] but though the controversy was carried on in
the language of mutual respect and esteem, it put an end to the
friendship which had existed between the two astronomers. In these
letters Galileo showed that the spots often dispersed like vapours or
clouds; that they sometimes had a duration of only one or two days, and
at other times of thirty or forty days; that they contracted in their
breadth when they approached the sun's limb, without any diminution of
their length; that they describe circles parallel to each other; that
the monthly rotation of the sun again brings the same spots into view;
and that they are seldom seen at a greater distance than 30 deg. from the
sun's equator. Galileo likewise discovered on the sun's disc _faculae_,
or _luculi_, as they were called, which differ in no respect from the
common ones but in their being brighter than the rest of the sun's
surface.[24]
[23] The original of this letter is in the British Museum.
[24] See Istoria e Dimonstrazioni, intorno alle macchie solare.
_Roma_, 1616. See Opere di Galileo, vol, v., p. 131-293.
In the last of the letters which our author addressed to Velser, and
which was written in December 1612, he recurs to his former discovery of
the elongated shape, or rather the triple structure, of Saturn. The
singular figure which he had observed in this planet had entirely
disappeared; and he evidently announces the fact to Velser, lest it
should be used by his enemies to discredit the accuracy of his
observations. "Looking on Saturn," says he, "within these few days, I
found it solitary, without the assistance of its accustomed stars, and,
in short, perfectly round and defined like Jupiter; and such it still
remains. Now, what can be said of so strange a metamorphosis? Are the
two smaller stars consumed like the spots on the sun? Have they suddenly
vanished and fled? or has Saturn devoured his own children? or was the
appearance indeed fraud and illusion, with which the glasses have for so
long a time mocked me, and so many others who have often observed with
me? Now, perhaps, the time is come to revive the withering hopes of
those who, guided by more profound contemplations, have followed all the
fallacies of the new observations, and recognised their impossibilities.
I cannot resolve what to say in a chance so strange, so new, and so
unexpected; the shortness of the time, the unexampled occurrence, the
weakness of my intellect, and the terror of being mistaken, have greatly
confounded me." Although Galileo struggled to obtain a solution of this
mystery, yet he had not the good fortune to succeed. He imagined that
the two smaller stars would reappear, in consequence of the supposed
revolution of the planet round its axis; but the discovery of the ring
of Saturn, and of the obliquity of its plane to the ecliptic, was
necessary to explain the phenomena which were so perplexing to our
author.
The ill health to which Galileo was occasionally subject, and the belief
that the air of Florence was prejudicial to his complaints, induced him
to spend much of his time at Selve, the villa of his friend Salviati.
This eminent individual had ever been the warmest friend of Galileo, and
seems to have delighted in drawing round him the scientific genius of
the age. He was a member of the celebrated Lyncaean Society, founded by
Prince Frederigo Cesi; and though he is not known as the author of any
important discovery, yet he has earned, by his liberality to science, a
glorious name, which will be indissolubly united with the immortal
destiny of Galileo.
The subject of floating bridges having been discussed at one of the
scientific parties which had assembled at the house of Salviati, a
difference of opinion arose respecting the influence of the shape of
bodies on their disposition to float or to sink in a fluid. Contrary to
the general opinion, Galileo undertook to prove that it depended on
other causes; and he was thus led to compose his discourse on floating
bodies,[25] which was published in 1612, and dedicated to Cosmo de
Medici. This work contains many ingenious experiments, and much acute
reasoning in support of the true principles of hydrostatics; and it is
now chiefly remarkable as a specimen of the sagacity and intellectual
power of its author. Like all his other works, it encountered the most
violent opposition; and Galileo was more than once summoned into the
field to repel the aggressions of his ignorant and presumptuous
opponents. The first attack upon it was made by Ptolemy Nozzolini, in a
letter to Marzemedici, Archbishop of Florence;[26] and to this Galileo
replied in a letter addressed to his antagonist.[27] A more elaborate
examination of it was published by Lodovico delle Colombe, and another
by M. Vincenzo di Grazia. To these attacks, a minute and overwhelming
answer was printed in the name of Benedetti Castelli, the friend and
pupil of Galileo; but it was discovered, some years after Galileo's
death, that he was himself the author of this work.[28]
[25] Discorso intorno alle cose che stanno in su l'acqua, o che in
quella si muovono. Opere di Galileo, vol. ii. pp. 165-311.
[26] Opere di Galileo, vol. ii. pp. 355-367.
[27] Ibid. 367-390.
[28] These three treatises occupy the whole of the third volume of
the Opere di Galileo.
CHAPTER IV.
_Galileo treats his opponents with severity and sarcasm--He is
aided by the sceptics of the day--The Church party the most
powerful--Galileo commences the attack, and is answered by Caccini,
a Dominican--Galileo's Letter to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, in
support of the motion of the Earth and the stability of the Sun---
Galileo visits Rome--Is summoned before the Inquisition, and
renounces his opinions as heretical--The Inquisition denounces the
Copernican System--Galileo has an audience of the Pope, but still
maintains his opinions in private society--Proposes to find out the
Longitude at Sea by means of Jupiter's Satellites--His negociation
on this subject with the Court of Spain--Its failure--He is unable
to observe the three Comets of 1618, but is involved in the
controversy to which they gave rise._
The current of Galileo's life had hitherto flowed in a smooth and
unobstructed channel. He had now attained the highest objects of earthly
ambition. His discoveries had placed him at the head of the great men of
the age; he possessed a professional income far beyond his wants, and
even beyond his anticipations; and, what is still dearer to a
philosopher, he enjoyed the most perfect leisure for carrying on and
completing his discoveries. The opposition which these discoveries
encountered, was to him more a subject for triumph than for sorrow.
Prejudice and ignorance were his only enemies; and if they succeeded for
a while in harassing his march, it was only to lay a foundation for
fresh achievements. He who contends for truths which he has himself been
permitted to discover, may well sustain the conflict in which
presumption and error are destined to fall. The public tribunal may
neither be sufficiently pure nor enlightened to decide upon the issue;
but he can appeal to posterity, and reckon with confidence on "its sure
decree."
The ardour of Galileo's mind, the keenness of his temper, his clear
perception of truth, and his inextinguishable love of it, combined to
exasperate and prolong the hostility of his enemies. When argument
failed to enlighten their judgment, and reason to dispel their
prejudices, he wielded against them his powerful weapons of ridicule
and sarcasm; and in this unrelenting warfare, he seems to have forgotten
that Providence had withheld from his enemies those very gifts which he
had so liberally received. He who is allowed to take the start of his
species, and to penetrate the veil which conceals from common minds the
mysteries of nature, must not expect that the world will be patiently
dragged at the chariot wheels of his philosophy. Mind has its inertia as
well as matter; and its progress to truth can only be insured by the
gradual and patient removal of the obstructions which surround it.
The boldness--may we not say the recklessness--with which Galileo
insisted upon making proselytes of his enemies, served but to alienate
them from the truth. Errors thus assailed speedily entrench themselves
in general feelings, and become embalmed in the virulence of the
passions. The various classes of his opponents marshalled themselves for
their mutual defence. The Aristotelian professors, the temporising
Jesuits, the political churchmen, and that timid but respectable body
who at all times dread innovation, whether it be in religion or in
science, entered into an alliance against the philosophical tyrant who
threatened them with the penalties of knowledge.
The party of Galileo, though weak in numbers, was not without power and
influence. He had trained around him a devoted band, who idolised his
genius and cherished his doctrines. His pupils had been appointed to
several of the principal professorships in Italy. The enemies of
religion were on this occasion united with the Christian philosopher;
and there were, even in these days, many princes and nobles who had felt
the inconvenience of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and who secretly
abetted Galileo in his crusade against established errors.
Although these two parties had been long dreading each others power, and
reconnoitring each others position, yet we cannot exactly determine
which of them hoisted the first signal for war. The church party,
particularly its highest dignitaries, were certainly disposed to rest on
the defensive. Flanked on one side by the logic of the schools, and on
the other by the popular interpretation of Scripture, and backed by the
strong arm of the civil power, they were not disposed to interfere with
the prosecution of science, however much they may have dreaded its
influence. The philosophers, on the contrary, united the zeal of
innovators with that firmness of purpose which truth alone can inspire.
Victorious in every contest, they were flushed with success, and they
panted for a struggle in which they knew they must triumph.
In this state of warlike preparation Galileo addressed a letter, in
1613, to his friend and pupil, the Abbe Castelli, the object of which
was to prove that the Scriptures were not intended to teach us science
and philosophy. Hence he inferred, that the language employed in the
sacred volume in reference to such subjects should be interpreted only
in its common acceptation; and that it was in reality as difficult to
reconcile the Ptolemaic as the Copernican system to the expressions
which occur in the Bible.
A demonstration was about this time made by the opposite party, in the
person of Caccini, a Dominican friar, who made a personal attack upon
Galileo from the pulpit. This violent ecclesiastic ridiculed the
astronomer and his followers, by addressing them sarcastically in the
sacred language of Scripture--"Ye men of _Galilee_, why stand ye here
looking up into heaven?" But this species of warfare was disapproved of
even by the church; and Luigi Maraffi, the general of the Dominicans,
not only apologised to Galileo, who had transmitted to him a formal
complaint against Caccini, but expressed the acuteness of his own
feelings on being implicated in the "brutal conduct of thirty or forty
thousand monks."
From the character of Caccini, and the part which he afterwards played
in the persecution of Galileo, we can scarcely avoid the opinion that
his attack from the pulpit was intended as a snare for the unwary
philosopher. It roused Galileo from his wonted caution; and stimulated,
no doubt, by the nature of the answer which he received from Maraffi, he
published a long letter of seventy pages, defending and illustrating his
former views respecting the influence of scriptural language on the two
contending systems. As if to give the impress of royal authority to this
new appeal, he addressed it to Christian, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, the
mother of Cosmo; and in this form it seems to have excited a new
interest, as if it had expressed the opinion of the grand ducal family.
These external circumstances gave additional weight to the powerful and
unanswerable reasoning which this letter contains; and it was scarcely
possible that any man, possessed of a sound mind, and willing to learn
the truth, should refuse his assent to the judicious views of our
author. He expresses his belief that the Scriptures were designed to
instruct mankind respecting their salvation, and that the faculties of
our minds were given us for the purpose of investigating the phenomena
of nature. He considers Scripture and nature as proceeding from the same
divine author, and, therefore, incapable of speaking a different
language; and he points out the absurdity of supposing that professors
of astronomy will shut their eyes to the phenomena which they discover
in the heavens, or will refuse to believe those deductions of reason
which appeal to their judgment with all the power of demonstration. He
supports these views by quotations from the ancient fathers; and he
refers to the dedication of Copernicus's own work to the Roman Pontiff,
Paul III., as a proof that the Pope himself did not regard the new
system of the world as hostile to the sacred writings. Copernicus, on
the contrary, tells his Holiness, that the reason of inscribing to him
his new system was, that the authority of the Pontiff might put to
silence the calumnies of some individuals, who attacked it by arguments
drawn from passages of Scripture twisted for their own purpose.
It was in vain to meet such reasoning by any other weapons than those of
the civil power. The enemies of Galileo saw that they must either crush
the dangerous innovation, or allow it the fullest scope; and they
determined upon an appeal to the inquisition. Lorini, a monk of the
Dominican order, had already denounced to this body Galileo's letter to
Castelli; and Caccini, bribed by the mastership of the convent of St
Mary of Minerva, was invited to settle at Rome for the purpose of
embodying the evidence against Galileo.
Though these plans had been carried on in secret, yet Galileo's
suspicions were excited; and he obtained leave from Cosmo to go to Rome
about the end of 1615.[29] Here he was lodged in the palace of the
Grand Duke's ambassador, and kept up a constant correspondence with the
family of his patron at Florence; but, in the midst of this external
splendour, he was summoned before the inquisition to answer for the
heretical doctrines which he had published. He was charged with
maintaining the motion of the earth, and the stability of the sun--with
teaching this doctrine to his pupils--with corresponding on the subject
with several German mathematicians--and with having published it, and
attempted to reconcile it to Scripture, in his letters to Mark Velser in
1612. The inquisition assembled to consider these charges on the 25th of
February 1615; and it was decreed that Galileo should be enjoined by
Cardinal Bellarmine to renounce the obnoxious doctrines, and to pledge
himself that he would neither teach, defend, nor publish them in future.
In the event of his refusing to acquiesce in this sentence, it was
decreed that he should be thrown into prison. Galileo did not hesitate
to yield to this injunction. On the day following, the 26th of February,
he appeared before Cardinal Bellarmine, to renounce his heretical
opinions; and, having declared that he abandoned the doctrine of the
earth's motion, and would neither defend nor teach it, in his
conversation or in his writings, he was dismissed from the bar of the
inquisition.
[29] It is said that Galileo was cited to appear at Rome on this
occasion; and the opinion is not without foundation.
Having thus disposed of Galileo, the inquisition conceived the design of
condemning the whole system of Copernicus as heretical. Galileo, with
more hardihood than prudence, remained at Rome for the purpose of giving
his assistance in frustrating this plan; but there is reason to think
that he injured by his presence the very cause which he meant to
support. The inquisitors had determined to put down the new opinions;
and they now inserted among the prohibited books Galileo's letters to
Castelli and the Grand Duchess, Kepler's epitome of the Copernican
theory, and Copernicus's own work on the revolutions of the heavenly
bodies.
Notwithstanding these proceedings, Galileo had an audience of the Pope,
Paul V., in March 1616. He was received very graciously, and spent
nearly an hour with his Holiness. When they were about to part, the Pope
assured Galileo, that the congregation were not disposed to receive upon
light grounds any calumnies which might be propagated by his enemies,
and that, as long as he occupied the papal chair, he might consider
himself as safe.
These assurances were no doubt founded on the belief that Galileo would
adhere to his pledges; but so bold and inconsiderate was he in the
expression of his opinions, that even in Rome he was continually engaged
in controversial discussions. The following very interesting account of
these disputes is given by Querenghi, in a letter to the Cardinal
D'Este:--
"Your eminence would be delighted with Galileo if you heard him holding
forth, as he often does, in the midst of fifteen or twenty, all
violently attacking him, sometimes in one house, sometimes in another.
But he is armed after such fashion that he laughs all of them to scorn;
and even if the novelty of his opinions prevents entire persuasion, he
at least convicts of emptiness most of the arguments with which his
adversaries endeavour to overwhelm him. He was particularly admirable on
Monday last in the house of Signor Frederico Ghisilieri; and what
especially pleased me was, that before replying to the contrary
arguments, he amplified and enforced them with new grounds of great
plausibility, so as to leave his adversaries in a more ridiculous
plight, when he afterwards overturned them all."
The discovery of Jupiter's satellites suggested to Galileo a new method
of finding the longitude at sea. Philip III. had encouraged astronomers
to direct their attention to this problem, by offering a reward for its
solution; and in those days, when new discoveries in science were
sometimes rejected as injurious to mankind, it was no common event to
see a powerful sovereign courting the assistance of astronomers in
promoting the commercial interests of his empire. Galileo seems to have
regarded the solution of this problem as an object worthy of his
ambition; and he no doubt anticipated the triumph which he would obtain
over his enemies, if the Medicean stars, which they had treated with
such contempt, could be made subservient to the great interests of
mankind. During his residence at Rome in 1615 and 1616, Galileo had
communicated his views on this subject to the Comte di Lemos, the
Viceroy of Naples, who had presided over the council of the Spanish
Indies. This nobleman advised him to apply to the Spanish minister the
Duke of Lerma; and, through the influence of the Grand Duke Cosmo, his
ambassador at the court of Madrid was engaged to manage the affair. The
anxiety of Galileo on this subject was singularly great. He assured the
Tuscan ambassador that, in order to accomplish this object, "he was
ready to leave all his comforts, his country, his friends, and his
family, to cross over into Spain, and to stay as long as he might be
wanted at Seville or at Lisbon, or wherever it might be convenient to
communicate a knowledge of his method." The lethargy of the Spanish
court seems to have increased with the enthusiasm of Galileo; and though
the negotiations were occasionally revived for ten or twelve years, yet
no steps were taken to bring them to a close. This strange
procrastination has been generally ascribed to jealousy or indifference
on the part of Spain; but Nelli, one of Galileo's biographers, declares,
on the authority of Florentine records, that Cosmo had privately
requested from the government the privilege of sending annually to the
Spanish Indies two Leghorn merchantmen free of duty, as a compensation
for the loss of Galileo!
The failure of this negotiation must have been a source of extreme
mortification to the high spirit and sanguine temperament of Galileo.
He had calculated, however, too securely on his means of putting the new
method to a successful trial. The great imperfection of the time-keepers
of that day, and the want of proper telescopes, would have baffled him
in all his efforts, and he would have been subject to a more serious
mortification from the failure and rejection of his plan, than that
which he actually experienced from the avarice of his patron, or the
indifference of Spain. Even in the present day, no telescope has been
invented which is capable of observing at sea the eclipses of Jupiter's
satellites; and though this method of finding the longitude has great
advantages on shore, yet it has been completely abandoned at sea, and
superseded by easier and more correct methods.
In the year 1618, when no fewer than _three_ comets visited our system,
and attracted the attention of all the astronomers of Europe, Galileo
was unfortunately confined to his bed by a severe illness; but, though
he was unable to make a single observation upon these remarkable bodies,
he contrived to involve himself in the controversies which they
occasioned. Marco Guiducci, an astronomer of Florence, and a friend of
Galileo, had delivered a discourse on comets before the Florentine
Academy. The heads of this discourse, which was published in 1619,[30]
were supposed to have been communicated to him by Galileo, and this
seems to have been universally admitted during the controversy to which
it gave rise. The opinion maintained in this treatise, that comets are
nothing but meteors which occasionally appear in our atmosphere, like
halos and rainbows, savours so little of the sagacity of Galileo that we
should be disposed to question its paternity. His inability to partake
in the general interest which these three comets excited, and to employ
his powerful telescope in observing their phenomena, and their
movements, might have had some slight share in the formation of an
opinion which deprived them of their importance as celestial bodies.
But, however this may have been, the treatise of Guiducci afforded a
favourable point of attack to Galileo's enemies, and the dangerous task
was entrusted to Horatio Grassi, a learned Jesuit, who, in a work
entitled _The Astronomical and Philosophical Balance_, criticised the
discourse on comets, under the feigned name of Lotario Sarsi.
[30] Discorso delle Comete. Printed in the Opere di Galileo, vol.
vi., pp. 117-191.
Galileo replied to this attack in a volume entitled _Il Saggiatore_, or
_The Assayer_, which, owing to the state of his health, was not
published till the autumn of 1623.[31] This work was written in the form
of a letter to Virginio Cesarini, a member of the Lyncaean Academy, and
master of the chamber to Urban VIII., who had just ascended the papal
throne. It was dedicated to the Pontiff himself, and has been long
celebrated among literary men for the beauty of its language, though it
is doubtless one of the least important of Galileo's writings.
[31] Printed in the Opere di Galileo, vol. vi., pp. 191-571.
CHAPTER V.
_Urban VIII., Galileo's friend, raised to the Pontificate--Galileo
goes to Rome to offer his congratulations--The Pope loads Galileo
with presents, and promises a Pension to his Son--Galileo in
pecuniary difficulties, owing to the death of his patron,
Cosmo--Galileo again rashly attacks the Church, notwithstanding the
Pope's kindness--He composes his System of the World, to
demonstrate the Copernican System--Artfully obtains a license to
print it--Nature of the work--Its influence on the public mind--The
Pope resolves on suppressing it--Galileo summoned before the
Inquisition--His Trial--His Defence--His formal abjuration of his
opinions--Observations on his conduct--The Pope shews great
indulgence to Galileo, who is allowed to return to his own house at
Arcetri, as the place of his confinement._
The succession of the Cardinal Maffeo Barberini to the papal throne,
under the name of Urban VIII., was hailed by Galileo and his friends as
an event favourable to the promotion of science. Urban had not only been
the personal friend of Galileo and of Prince Cesi, the founder of the
Lyncaean Academy, but had been intimately connected with that able and
liberal association; and it was therefore deemed prudent to secure his
favour and attachment. If Paul III. had, nearly a century before,
patronised Copernicus, and accepted of the dedication of his great work,
it was not unreasonable to expect that, in more enlightened times,
another Pontiff might exhibit the same liberality to science.
The plan of securing to Galileo the patronage of Urban VIII. seems to
have been devised by Prince Cesi. Although Galileo had not been able for
some years to travel, excepting in a litter, yet he was urged by the
Prince to perform a journey to Rome, for the express purpose of
congratulating his friend upon his elevation to the papal chair. This
request was made in October 1623; and though Galileo's health was not
such as to authorise him to undergo so much fatigue, yet he felt the
importance of the advice, and, after visiting Cesi at Acqua Sparta, he
arrived at Rome in the spring of 1624. The reception which he here
experienced far exceeded his most sanguine expectations. During the two
months which he spent in the capital he was permitted to have no fewer
than six long and gratifying audiences of the Pope. The kindness of his
Holiness was of the most marked description. He not only loaded Galileo
with presents,[32] and promised him a pension for his son Vincenzo, but
he wrote a letter to Ferdinand, who had just succeeded Cosmo as Grand
Duke of Tuscany, recommending Galileo to his particular patronage. "For
we find in him," says he, "not only literary distinction, but the love
of piety; and he is strong in those qualities by which Pontifical
good-will is easily obtained. And now, when he has been brought to this
city to congratulate us on our elevation, we have very lovingly embraced
him; nor can we suffer him to return to the country whither your
liberality recalls him, without an ample provision of Pontifical love.
And that you may know how dear he is to us, we have willed to give him
this honourable testimonial of virtue and piety. And we further
signify, that every benefit which you shall confer upon him, imitating
or even surpassing your father's liberality, will conduce to our
gratification."
[32] A fine painting in gold, and a silver medal, and "a good
quantity of agnus dei."
Not content with thus securing the friendship of the Pope, Galileo
endeavoured to bespeak the good-will of the Cardinals towards the
Copernican system. He had, accordingly, many interviews with several of
these dignitaries; and he was assured, by Cardinal Hohenzoller, that in
a representation which he had made to the Pope on the subject of
Copernicus, he stated to his Holiness, "that as all the heretics
considered that system as undoubted, it would be necessary to be very
circumspect in coming to any resolution on the subject." To this remark
his Holiness replied--"that the church had not condemned this system;
and that it should not be condemned as heretical, but only as rash;" and
he added, "that there was no fear of any person undertaking to prove
that it must necessarily be true."
The recent appointment of the Abbe Castelli, the friend and pupil of
Galileo, to be mathematician to the Pope, was an event of a most
gratifying nature; and when we recollect that it was to Castelli that
he addressed the famous letter which was pronounced heretical by the
Inquisition, we must regard it also as an event indicative of a new and
favourable feeling towards the friends of science. The opinions of
Urban, indeed, had suffered no change. He was one of the few Cardinals
who had opposed the inquisitorial decree of 1616, and his subsequent
demeanour was in every respect conformable to the liberality of his
early views. The sincerity of his conduct was still further evinced by
the grant of a pension of one hundred crowns to Galileo, a few years
after his visit to Rome; though there is reason to think that this
allowance was not regularly paid.
The death of Cosmo, whose liberality had given him both affluence and
leisure, threatened Galileo with pecuniary difficulties. He had been
involved in a "great load of debt," owing to the circumstances of his
brother's family; and, in order to relieve himself, he had requested
Castelli to dispose of the pension of his son Vincenzo. In addition to
this calamity he was now alarmed at the prospect of losing his salary as
an extraordinary professor at Pisa. The great youth of Ferdinand, who
was scarcely of age, induced Galileo's enemies, in 1629, to raise
doubts respecting the payment of a salary to a professor who neither
resided nor lectured in the university; but the question was decided in
his favour, and we have no doubt that the decision was facilitated by
the friendly recommendation of the Pope, to which we have already
referred.
Although Galileo had made a narrow escape from the grasp of the
Inquisition, yet he was never sufficiently sensible of the lenity which
he experienced. When he left Rome in 1616, under the solemn pledge of
never again teaching the obnoxious doctrine, it was with a hostility
against the church, suppressed but deeply cherished; and his resolution
to propagate the heresy seems to have been coeval with the vow by which
he renounced it. In the year 1618, when he communicated his theory of
the tides to the Archduke Leopold, he alludes in the most sarcastic
manner to the conduct of the church. The same hostile tone, more or
less, pervaded all his writings, and, while he laboured to sharpen the
edge of his satire, he endeavoured to guard himself against its effects,
by an affectation of the humblest deference to the decisions of
theology. Had Galileo stood alone, his devotion to science might have
withdrawn him from so hopeless a contest; but he was spurred on by the
violence of a party. The Lyncaean Academy never scrupled to summon him
from his researches. They placed him in the forlorn hope of their
combat, and he at last fell a victim to the rashness of his friends.
But whatever allowance we may make for the ardour of Galileo's temper,
and the peculiarity of his position; and however we may justify and even
approve of his past conduct, his visit to Urban VIII., in 1624, placed
him in a new relation to the church, which demanded on his part a new
and corresponding demeanour. The noble and generous reception which he
met with from Urban, and the liberal declaration of Cardinal Hohenzoller
on the subject of the Copernican system, should have been regarded as
expressions of regret for the past, and offers of conciliation for the
future. Thus honoured by the head of the church, and befriended by its
dignitaries, Galileo must have felt himself secure against the
indignities of its lesser functionaries, and in the possession of the
fullest license to prosecute his researches and publish his discoveries,
provided he avoided that dogma of the church which, even in the present
day, it has not ventured to renounce. But Galileo was bound to the
Romish hierarchy by even stronger ties. His son and himself were
pensioners of the church, and, having accepted of its alms, they owed to
it, at least, a decent and respectful allegiance. The pension thus given
by Urban was not a remuneration which sovereigns sometimes award to the
services of their subjects. Galileo was a foreigner at Rome. The
sovereign of the papal state owed him no obligation; and hence we must
regard the pension of Galileo as a donation from the Roman Pontiff to
science itself, and as a declaration to the Christian world that
religion was not jealous of philosophy, and that the church of Rome was
willing to respect and foster even the genius of its enemies.
Galileo viewed all these circumstances in a different light. He resolved
to compose a work in which the Copernican system should be demonstrated;
but he had not the courage to do this in a direct and open manner. He
adopted the plan of discussing the subject in a dialogue between three
speakers, in the hope of eluding by this artifice the censure of the
church. This work was completed in 1630, but, owing to some
difficulties in obtaining a license to print it, it was not published
till 1632.
In obtaining this license, Galileo exhibited considerable address, and
his memory has not escaped from the imputation of having acted unfairly,
and of having involved his personal friends in the consequences of his
imprudence.
The situation of master of the palace was, fortunately for Galileo's
designs, filled by Nicolo Riccardi, a friend and pupil of his own. This
officer was a sort of censor of new publications, and when he was
applied to on the subject of printing his work, Galileo soon found that
attempts had previously been made to thwart his views. He instantly set
off for Rome, and had an interview with his friend, who was in every
respect anxious to oblige him. Riccardi examined the manuscript, pointed
out some incautious expressions which he considered it necessary to
erase, and returned it with his written approbation, on the
understanding that the alterations he suggested would be made. Dreading
to remain in Rome during the unhealthy season, which was fast
approaching, Galileo returned to Florence, with the intention of
completing the index and dedication, and of sending the MS. to Rome, to
be printed under the care of Prince Cesi. The death of that
distinguished individual, in August 1630, frustrated Galileo's plan, and
he applied for leave to have the book printed in Florence. Riccardi was
at first desirous to examine the MS. again, but, after inspecting only
the beginning and the end of it, he gave Galileo leave to print it
wherever he chose, providing it bore the license of the
Inquisitor-General of Florence, and one or two other persons whom he
named.
Having overcome all these difficulties, Galileo's work was published in
1632, under the title of "_The System of the World of Galileo Galilei_,
&c., in which, in four dialogues concerning the two principal systems of
the world--the Ptolemaic and the Copernican--he discusses,
indeterminately and firmly, the arguments proposed on both sides." It is
dedicated to Ferdinand, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and is prefaced by an
"Address to the prudent reader," which is itself characterised by the
utmost imprudence. He refers to the decree of the Inquisition in the
most insulting and ironical language. He attributes it to passion and to
ignorance, not by direct assertion, but by insinuations ascribed to
others; and he announces his intention to defend the Copernican system,
as a pure mathematical hypothesis, and not as an opinion having an
advantage over that of the stability of the earth absolutely. The
dialogue is conducted by three persons, Salviati, Sagredo, and
Simplicio. Salviati, who is the true philosopher in the dialogue, was
the real name of a nobleman whom we have already had occasion to
mention. Sagredo, the name of another noble friend of Galileo's,
performs a secondary part under Salviati. He proposes doubts, suggests
difficulties, and enlivens the gravity of the dialogue with his wit and
pleasantry. Simplicio is a resolute follower of Ptolemy and Aristotle,
and, with a proper degree of candour and modesty, he brings forward all
the common arguments in favour of the Ptolemaic system. Between the wit
of Sagredo, and the powerful philosophy of Salviati, the peripatetic
sage is baffled in every discussion; and there can be no doubt that
Galileo aimed a more fatal blow at the Ptolemaic system by this mode of
discussing it, than if he had endeavoured to overturn it by direct
arguments.
The influence of this work on the public mind was such as might have
been anticipated. The obnoxious doctrines which it upheld were eagerly
received, and widely disseminated; and the church of Rome became
sensible of the shock which was thus given to its intellectual
supremacy. Pope Urban VIII., attached though he had been to Galileo,
never once hesitated respecting the line of conduct which he felt
himself bound to pursue. His mind was, nevertheless, agitated with
conflicting sentiments. He entertained a sincere affection for science
and literature, and yet he was placed in the position of their enemy. He
had been the personal friend of Galileo, and yet his duty compelled him
to become his accuser. Embarrassing as these feelings were, other
considerations contributed to soothe him. He had, in his capacity of a
Cardinal, opposed the first persecution of Galileo. He had, since his
elevation to the pontificate, traced an open path for the march of
Galileo's discoveries; and he had finally endeavoured to bind the
recusant philosopher by the chains of kindness and gratitude. All these
means, however, had proved abortive, and he was now called upon to
support the doctrine which he had subscribed, and administer the law of
which he was the guardian.
It has been supposed, without any satisfactory evidence, that Urban may
have been influenced by less creditable motives. Salviati and Sagredo
being well-known personages, it was inferred that Simplicio must also
have a representative. The enemies of Galileo are said to have convinced
his Holiness that Simplicio was intended as a portraiture of himself;
and this opinion received some probability from the fact, that the
peripatetic disputant had employed many of the arguments which Urban had
himself used in his discussions with Galileo. The latest biographer of
Galileo[33] regards this motive as necessary to account for "the
otherwise inexplicable change which took place in the conduct of Urban
to his old friend;"--but we cannot admit the truth of this supposition.
The church had been placed in hostility to a powerful and liberal party,
which was adverse to its interests. The dogmas of the Catholic faith had
been brought into direct collision with the deductions of science. The
leader of the philosophic band had broken the most solemn armistice with
the Inquisition: he had renounced the ties of gratitude which bound him
to the Pontiff; and Urban was thus compelled to entrench himself in a
position to which he had been driven by his opponents.
[33] Library of Useful Knowledge, Life of Galileo, chap. viii.
The design of summoning Galileo before the Inquisition, seems to have
been formed almost immediately after the publication of his book; for
even in August 1632, the preliminary proceedings had reached the ears of
the Grand Duke Ferdinand. The Tuscan ambassador at Rome was speedily
acquainted with the dissatisfaction which his Sovereign felt at these
proceedings; and he was instructed to forward to Florence a written
statement of the charges against Galileo, in order to enable him to
prepare for his defence. Although this request was denied, Ferdinand
again interposed, and transmitted a letter to his ambassador,
recommending the admission of Campanella and Castelli into the
congregation of ecclesiastics by whom Galileo was to be judged.
Circumstances, however, rendered it prudent to withhold this letter.
Castelli was sent away from Rome, and Scipio Chiaramonte, a bigotted
ecclesiastic, was summoned from Pisa to complete the number of the
judges.
It appears from a despatch of the Tuscan minister, that Ferdinand was
enraged at the transaction; and he instructed his ambassador, Niccolini,
to make the strongest representations to the Pope. Niccolini had several
interviews with his Holiness; but all his expostulations were fruitless.
He found Urban highly incensed against Galileo; and his Holiness begged
Niccolini to advise the Archduke not to interfere any farther, as he
would not "get through it with honour." On the 15th of September the
Pope caused it to be intimated to Niccolini, as a mark of his especial
esteem for the Grand Duke, that he was obliged to refer the work to the
Inquisition; but both the prince and his ambassador were declared liable
to the usual censures if they divulged the secret.
From the measures which this tribunal had formerly pursued, it was not
difficult to foresee the result of their present deliberations. They
summoned Galileo to appear before them at Rome, to answer in person the
charges under which he lay. The Tuscan ambassador expostulated warmly
with the court of Rome on the inhumanity of this proceeding. He urged
his advanced age, his infirm health, the discomforts of the journey, and
the miseries of the quarantine,[34] as motives for reconsidering their
decision: But the Pope was inexorable, and though it was agreed to relax
the quarantine as much as possible in his favour, yet it was declared
indispensable that he should appear in person before the Inquisition.
[34] The communication between Florence and Rome was at this time
interrupted by a contagious disease which had broken out in
Tuscany.
Worn out with age and infirmities, and exhausted with the fatigues of
his journey, Galileo arrived at Rome on the 14th of February, 1633. The
Tuscan ambassador announced his arrival in an official form to the
commissary of the holy office, and Galileo awaited in calm dignity the
approach of his trial. Among those who proffered their advice in this
distressing emergency, we must enumerate the Cardinal Barberino, the
Pope's nephew, who, though he may have felt the necessity of an
interference on the part of the church, was yet desirous that it should
be effected with the least injury to Galileo and to science. He
accordingly visited Galileo, and advised him to remain as much at home
as possible, to keep aloof from general society, and to see only his
most intimate friends. The same advice was given from different
quarters; and Galileo, feeling its propriety, remained in strict
seclusion in the palace of the Tuscan ambassador.
During the whole of the trial which had now commenced, Galileo was
treated with the most marked indulgence. Abhorring, as we must do, the
principles and practice of this odious tribunal, and reprobating its
interference with the cautious deductions of science, we must yet admit
that, on this occasion, its deliberations were not dictated by passion,
nor its power directed by vengeance. Though placed at their
judgment-seat as a heretic, Galileo stood there with the recognised
attributes of a sage; and though an offender against the laws of which
they were the guardian, yet the highest respect was yielded to his
genius, and the kindest commiseration to his infirmities.
In the beginning of April, when his examination in person was to
commence, it became necessary that he should be removed to the holy
office; but instead of committing him, as was the practice, to solitary
confinement, he was provided with apartments in the house of the fiscal
of the Inquisition. His table was provided by the Tuscan ambassador, and
his servant was allowed to attend him at his pleasure, and to sleep in
an adjoining apartment. Even this nominal confinement, however,
Galileo's high spirit was unable to brook. An attack of the disease to
which he was constitutionally subject contributed to fret and irritate
him, and he became impatient for a release from his anxiety as well as
from his bondage. Cardinal Barberino seems to have received notice of
the state of Galileo's feelings, and, with a magnanimity which posterity
will ever honour, he liberated the philosopher on his own
responsibility; and in ten days after his first examination, and on the
last day of April, he was restored to the hospitable roof of the Tuscan
ambassador.
Though this favour was granted on the condition of his remaining in
strict seclusion, Galileo recovered his health, and to a certain degree
his usual hilarity, amid the kind attentions of Niccolini and his
family; and when the want of exercise had begun to produce symptoms of
indisposition, the Tuscan minister obtained for him leave to go into the
public gardens in a half-closed carriage.
After the Inquisition had examined Galileo personally, they allowed him
a reasonable time for preparing his defence. He felt the difficulty of
adducing any thing like a plausible justification of his conduct; and he
resorted to an ingenious, though a shallow artifice, which was regarded
by the court as an aggravation of the crime. After his first appearance
before the Inquisition in 1616, he was publicly and falsely charged by
his enemies with having then abjured his opinions; and he was taunted as
a criminal who had been actually punished for his offences. As a
refutation of these calumnies, Cardinal Bellarmine had given him a
certificate in his own handwriting, declaring that he neither abjured
his opinions, nor suffered punishment for them; and that the doctrine of
the earth's motion, and the sun's stability, was only denounced to him
as contrary to Scripture, and as one which could not be defended. To
this certificate the Cardinal did not add, because he was not called
upon to do it, that Galileo was enjoined not _to teach in any manner_
the doctrine thus denounced; and Galileo ingeniously avails himself of
this supposed omission, to account for his having, in the lapse of
fourteen or sixteen years, forgotten the injunction. He assigned the
same excuse for his having omitted to mention this injunction to
Riccardi, and to the Inquisitor-General at Florence, when he obtained
the licence to print his Dialogues. The court held the production of
this certificate to be at once a proof and an aggravation of his
offence, because the certificate itself declared that the obnoxious
doctrines had been pronounced contrary to the Holy Scriptures.
Having duly weighed the confessions and excuses of their prisoner, and
considered the general merits of the case, the Inquisition came to an
agreement upon the sentence which they were to pronounce, and appointed
the 22d of June as the day on which it was to be delivered. Two days
previous to this, Galileo was summoned to appear at the holy office; and
on the morning of the 21st, he obeyed the summons. On the 22d of June he
was clothed in a penitential dress, and conducted to the convent of
Minerva, where the Inquisition was assembled to give judgment. A long
and elaborate sentence was pronounced, detailing the former proceedings
of the Inquisition, and specifying the offences which he had committed
in teaching heretical doctrines, in violating his former pledges, and in
obtaining by improper means a license for the printing of his Dialogues.
After an invocation of the name of our Saviour, and of the Holy Virgin,
Galileo is declared to have brought himself under strong suspicions of
heresy, and to have incurred all the censures and penalties which are
enjoined against delinquents of this kind; but from all these
consequences he is to be held absolved, provided that with a sincere
heart, and a faith unfeigned, he abjures and curses the heresies he has
cherished, as well as every other heresy against the Catholic church. In
order that his offence might not go altogether unpunished, that he might
be more cautious in future, and be a warning to others to abstain from
similar delinquencies, it was also decreed that his Dialogues should be
prohibited by public edict; that he himself should be condemned to the
prison of the Inquisition during their pleasure, and that, in the
course of the next three years, he should recite once a week the seven
penitential psalms.
The ceremony of Galileo's abjuration was one of exciting interest, and
of awful formality. Clothed in the sackcloth of a repentant criminal,
the venerable sage fell upon his knees before the assembled Cardinals;
and laying his hands upon the Holy Evangelists, he invoked the Divine
aid in abjuring and detesting, and vowing never again to teach, the
doctrine of the earth's motion, and of the sun's stability. He pledged
himself that he would never again, either in words or in writing,
propagate such heresies; and he swore that he would fulfil and observe
the penances which had been inflicted upon him.[35] At the conclusion of
this ceremony, in which he recited his abjuration word for word, and
then signed it, he was conveyed, in conformity with his sentence, to the
prison of the Inquisition.
[35] It has been said, but upon what authority we cannot state,
that when Galileo rose from his knees, he stamped on the ground,
and said in a whisper to one of his friends, "_E pur si muove._"
"It does move, though."--Life of Galileo, Lib. Useful Knowledge,
part ii. p. 63.
The account which we have now given of the trial and the sentence of
Galileo, is pregnant with the deepest interest and instruction. Human
nature is here drawn in its darkest colouring; and in surveying the
melancholy picture, it is difficult to decide whether religion or
philosophy has been most degraded. While we witness the presumptuous
priest pronouncing infallible the decrees of his own erring judgment, we
see the high-minded philosopher abjuring the eternal and immutable
truths which he had himself the glory of establishing. In the ignorance
and prejudices of the age--in a too literal interpretation of the
language of Scripture--in a mistaken respect for the errors that had
become venerable from their antiquity--and in the peculiar position
which Galileo had taken among the avowed enemies of the church, we may
find the elements of an apology, poor though it be, for the conduct of
the Inquisition. But what excuse can we devise for the humiliating
confession and abjuration of Galileo? Why did this master-spirit of the
age--this high-priest of the stars--this representative of science--this
hoary sage, whose career of glory was near its consummation--why did he
reject the crown of martyrdom which he had himself coveted, and which,
plaited with immortal laurels, was about to descend upon his head? If,
in place of disavowing the laws of Nature, and surrendering in his own
person the intellectual dignity of his species, he had boldly asserted
the truth of his opinions, and confided his character to posterity, and
his cause to an all-ruling Providence, he would have strung up the
hair-suspended sabre, and disarmed for ever the hostility which
threatened to overwhelm him. The philosopher, however, was supported
only by philosophy; and in the love of truth he found a miserable
substitute for the hopes of the martyr. Galileo cowered under the fear
of man, and his submission was the salvation of the church. The sword of
the Inquisition descended on his prostrate neck; and though its stroke
was not physical, yet it fell with a moral influence fatal to the
character of its victim, and to the dignity of science.
In studying with attention this portion of scientific history, the
reader will not fail to perceive that the Church of Rome was driven into
a dilemma, from which the submission and abjuration of Galileo could
alone extricate it. He who confesses a crime and denounces its
atrocity, not only sanctions but inflicts the punishment which is
annexed to it. Had Galileo declared his innocence, and avowed his
sentiments, and had he appealed to the past conduct of the Church
itself, to the acknowledged opinions of its dignitaries, and even to the
acts of its pontiffs, he would have at once confounded his accusers, and
escaped from their toils. After Copernicus, himself a catholic priest,
had _openly_ maintained the motion of the earth, and the stability of
the sun:--after he had dedicated the work which advocated these opinions
to Pope Paul III., on the express ground that the _authority of the
pontiff_ might silence the calumnies of those who attacked these
opinions by arguments drawn from Scripture:--after the Cardinal
Schonberg and the Bishop of Culm had urged Copernicus to publish the new
doctrines;--and after the Bishop of Ermeland had erected a monument to
commemorate his great discoveries;--how could the Church of Rome have
appealed to its pontifical decrees as the ground of persecuting and
punishing Galileo? Even in later times, the same doctrines had been
propagated with entire toleration: Nay, in the very year of Galileo's
first persecution, Paul Anthony Foscarinus, a learned Carmelite monk,
wrote a pamphlet, in which he illustrates and defends the mobility of
the earth, and endeavours to reconcile to this new doctrine the passages
of Scripture which had been employed to subvert it. This very singular
production was dated from the Carmelite convent at Naples; was dedicated
to the very reverend Sebastian Fantoni, general of the Carmelite order;
and, sanctioned by the ecclesiastical authorities, it was published at
Naples in 1615, the very year of the first persecution of Galileo.
Nor was this the only defence of the Copernican system which issued from
the bosom of the Church. Thomas Campanella, a Calabrian monk, published,
in 1622, "_An Apology for Galileo_," and he even dedicates it to D.
Boniface, Cardinal of Cajeta. Nay, it appears from the dedication, that
he undertook the work at the command of the Cardinal, and that the
examination of the question had been entrusted to the Cardinal by the
Holy Senate. After an able defence of his friend, Campanella refers, at
the conclusion of his apology, to the suppression of Galileo's writings,
and justly observes, that the effect of such a measure would be to make
them more generally read, and more highly esteemed. The boldness of the
apologist, however, is wisely tempered with the humility of the
ecclesiastic, and he concludes his work with the declaration, that in
all his opinions, whether written or to be written, he submits himself
to the opinions of the Holy Mother Church of Rome and to the judgment of
his superiors.
By these proceedings of the dignitaries, as well as the clergy of the
Church of Rome, which had been tolerated for more than a century, the
decrees of the pontiffs against the doctrine of the earth's motion were
virtually repealed; and Galileo might have pleaded them with success in
arrest of judgment. Unfortunately, however, for himself and for science,
he acted otherwise. By admitting their authority, he revived in fresh
force these obsolete and obnoxious enactments; and, by yielding to their
power, he riveted for another century the almost broken chains of
spiritual despotism.
It is a curious fact in the annals of heresy and sedition, that opinions
maintained with impunity by one individual, have, in the same age,
brought others to the stake or to the scaffold. The results of deep
research or extravagant speculation seldom provoke hostility, when
meekly announced as the deductions of reason or the convictions of
conscience. As the dreams of a recluse or of an enthusiast, they may
excite pity or call forth contempt; but, like seed quietly cast into the
earth, they will rot and germinate according to the vitality with which
they are endowed. But, if new and startling opinions are thrown in the
face of the community--if they are uttered in triumph or in insult--in
contempt of public opinion, or in derision of cherished errors, they
lose the comeliness of truth in the rancour of their propagation; and
they are like seed scattered in a hurricane, which only irritates and
blinds the husbandman. Had Galileo concluded his _System of the World_
with the quiet peroration of his apologist Campanella, and dedicated it
to the Pope, it might have stood in the library of the Vatican, beside
the cherished though equally heretical volume of Copernicus.
In the abjuration of his opinions by Galileo, Pope Urban VII. did not
fail to observe the full extent of his triumph; and he exhibited the
utmost sagacity in the means which he employed to secure it. While he
endeavoured to overawe the enemies of the church by the formal
promulgation of Galileo's sentence and abjuration, and by punishing the
officials who had assisted in obtaining the license to print his work,
he treated Galileo with the utmost lenity, and yielded to every request
that was made to diminish, and almost suspend, the constraint under
which he lay. The sentence of abjuration was ordered to be publicly read
at several universities. At Florence the ceremonial was performed in the
church of Santa Croce, and the friends and disciples of Galileo were
especially summoned to witness the public degradation of their master.
The inquisitor at Florence was ordered to be reprimanded for his
conduct; and Riccardi, the master of the sacred palace, and Ciampoli,
the secretary of Pope Urban himself, were dismissed from their
situations.
Galileo had remained only four days in the prison of the Inquisition,
when, on the application of Niccolini, the Tuscan ambassador, he was
allowed to reside with him in his palace. As Florence still suffered
under the contagious disease which we have already mentioned, it was
proposed that Sienna should be the place of Galileo's confinement, and
that his residence should be in one of the convents of that city.
Niccolini, however, recommended the palace of the Archbishop Piccolomoni
as a more suitable residence; and though the Archbishop was one of
Galileo's best friends, the Pope agreed to the arrangement, and in the
beginning of July Galileo quitted Rome for Sienna.
After having spent nearly six months under the hospitable roof of his
friend, with no other restraint than that of being confined to the
limits of the palace, Galileo was permitted to return to his villa near
Florence under the same restrictions; and as the contagious disease had
disappeared in Tuscany, he was able in the month of December to re-enter
his own house at Arcetri, where he spent the remainder of his days.
CHAPTER VI.
_Galileo loses his favourite Daughter--He falls into a state of
melancholy and ill health--Is allowed to go to Florence for its
recovery in 1638--But is prevented from leaving his House or
receiving his Friends--His friend Castelli permitted to visit him
in the presence of an Officer of the Inquisition--He composes his
celebrated Dialogues on Local Motion--Discovers the Moon's
Libration--Loses the sight of one Eye--The other Eye attacked by
the same Disease--Is struck blind--Negociates with the Dutch
Government respecting his Method of finding the Longitude--He is
allowed free intercourse with his Friends--His Illness and Death in
1642--His Epitaph--His Social, Moral, and Scientific Character._
Although Galileo had now the happiness of rejoining his family under
their paternal roof, yet, like all sublunary blessings, it was but of
short duration. His favourite daughter Maria, who along with her sister
had joined the convent of St Matthew in the neighbourhood of Arcetri,
had looked forward to the arrival of her father with the most
affectionate anticipations. She hoped that her filial devotion might
form some compensation for the malignity of his enemies, and she eagerly
assumed the labour of reciting weekly the seven penitentiary psalms
which formed part of her father's sentence. These sacred duties,
however, were destined to terminate almost at the moment they were
begun. She was seized with a fatal illness in the same month in which
she rejoined her parent, and before the month of April she was no more.
This heavy blow, so suddenly struck, overwhelmed Galileo in the deepest
agony. Owing to the decline of his health, and the recurrence of his old
complaints, he was unable to oppose to this mental suffering the
constitutional energy of his mind. The bulwarks of his heart broke down,
and a flood of grief desolated his manly and powerful mind. He felt, as
he expressed it, that he was incessantly called by his daughter--his
pulse intermitted--his heart was agitated with unceasing
palpitations--his appetite entirely left him, and he considered his
dissolution so near at hand, that he would not permit his son Vicenzo to
set out upon a journey which he had contemplated.
From this state of melancholy and indisposition, Galileo slowly, though
partially, recovered, and, with the view of obtaining medical
assistance, he requested leave to go to Florence. His enemies, however,
refused this application, and he was given to understand that any
additional importunities would be visited with a more vigilant
surveillance. He remained, therefore, five years at Arcetri, from 1634
to 1638, without any remission of his confinement, and pursuing his
studies under the influence of a continued and general indisposition.
There is no reason to think that Galileo or his friends renewed their
application to the Church of Rome; but, in 1638, the Pope transmitted,
through the Inquisitor Fariano, his permission that he might remove to
Florence for the recovery of his health, on the condition that he should
present himself at the office of the Inquisitor to learn the terms upon
which this indulgence was granted. Galileo accepted of the kindness thus
unexpectedly proffered. But the conditions upon which it was given were
more severe than he expected. He was prohibited from leaving his house
or admitting his friends; and so sternly was this system pursued, that
he required a special order for attending mass during passion week.
The severity of this order was keenly felt by Galileo. While he remained
at Arcetri, his seclusion from the world would have been an object of
choice, if it had not been the decree of a tribunal; but to be debarred
from the conversation of his friends in Florence--in that city where his
genius had been idolised, and where his fame had become immortal, was an
aggravation of punishment which he was unable to bear. With his
accustomed kindness, the Grand Duke made a strong representation on the
subject to his ambassador at the Court of Rome. He stated that, from his
great age and infirmities, Galileo's career was near its close; that he
possessed many valuable ideas, which the world might lose if they were
not matured and conveyed to his friends; and that Galileo was anxious to
make these communications to Father Castelli, who was then a stipendiary
of the Court of Rome. The Grand Duke commanded his ambassador to see
Castelli on the subject--to urge him to obtain leave from the Pope to
spend a few months in Florence--and to supply him with money and every
thing that was necessary for his journey. Influenced by this kind and
liberal message, Castelli obtained an audience of the Pope, and
requested leave to pay a visit to Florence. Urban instantly suspected
the object of his journey; and, upon Castelli's acknowledging that he
could not possibly refrain from seeing Galileo, he received permission
to visit him in the company of an officer of the Inquisition. Castelli
accordingly went to Florence, and, a few months afterwards, Galileo was
ordered to return to Arcetri.
During Galileo's confinement at Sienna and Arcetri, between 1633 and
1638, his time was principally occupied in the composition of his
"Dialogues on Local Motion," in which he treats of the strength and
cohesion of solid bodies, of the laws of uniform and accelerated
motions, of the motion of projectiles, and of the centre of gravity of
solids. This remarkable work, which was considered by its author as the
best of his productions, was printed by Louis Elzevir, at Amsterdam, and
dedicated to the Count de Noailles, the French ambassador at Rome.
Various attempts to have it printed in Germany had failed; and, in order
to save himself from the malignity of his enemies, he was obliged to
pretend that the edition published in Holland had been printed from a
MS. entrusted to the French ambassador.
Although Galileo had for a long time abandoned his astronomical studies,
yet his attention was directed, about the year 1636, to a curious
appearance in the lunar disc, which is known by the name of the moon's
libration. When we examine with a telescope the outline of the moon, we
observe that certain parts of her disc, which are seen at one time, are
invisible at another. This change or libration is of four different
kinds, viz. the diurnal libration, the libration in longitude, the
libration in latitude, and the spheroidal libration. Galileo discovered
the first of these kinds of libration, and appears to have had some
knowledge of the second; but the third was discovered by Hevelius, and
the fourth by Lagrange.
This curious discovery was the result of the last telescopic
observations of Galileo. Although his right eye had for some years lost
its power, yet his general vision was sufficiently perfect to enable him
to carry on his usual researches. In 1636, however, this affection of
his eye became more serious; and, in 1637, his left eye was attacked
with the same disease. His medical friends at first supposed that
cataracts were formed in the crystalline lens, and anticipated a cure
from the operation of couching. These hopes were fallacious. The disease
turned out to be in the cornea, and every attempt to restore its
transparency was fruitless. In a few months the white cloud covered the
whole aperture of the pupil, and Galileo became totally blind. This
sudden and unexpected calamity had almost overwhelmed Galileo and his
friends. In writing to a correspondent he exclaims, "Alas! your dear
friend and servant has become totally and irreparably 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 which I myself occupy. So it pleases God;
it shall, therefore, please me also." His friend, Father Castelli,
deplores the calamity in the same tone of pathetic sublimity:--"The
noblest eye," says he, "which nature ever made, is darkened; an eye so
privileged, and gifted with such rare powers, that it may truly be said
to have seen more than the eyes of all that are gone, and to have
opened the eyes of all that are to come."
Although Galileo had been thwarted in his attempt to introduce into the
Spanish marine his new method of finding the longitude at sea, yet he
never lost sight of an object to which he attached the highest
importance. As the formation of correct tables of the motion of
Jupiter's satellites was a necessary preliminary to its introduction, he
had occupied himself for twenty-four years in observations for this
purpose, and he had made considerable progress in this laborious task.
After the publication of his "Dialogues on Motion," in 1636, he renewed
his attempts to bring his method into actual use. For this purpose he
addressed himself to Lorenzo Real, who had been the Dutch
Governor-General in India, and offered the free use of his method to the
States-General of Holland.[36] The Dutch government received this
proposal with an anxious desire to have it carried into effect. At the
instigation of Constantine Huygens, the father of the illustrious
Huygens, and the secretary to the Prince of Orange, they appointed
commissioners to communicate with Galileo; and while they transmitted
him a gold chain as a mark of their esteem, they at the same time
assured him, that if his plan should prove successful it should not pass
unrewarded. The commissioners entered into an active correspondence with
Galileo, and had even appointed one of their number to communicate
personally with him in Italy. Lest this, however, should excite the
jealousy of the court of Rome, Galileo objected to the arrangement, so
that the negociation was carried on solely by correspondence.
[36] It is a curious fact that Morin had about this time proposed
to determine the longitude by the moon's distance from a fixed
star, and that the commissioners assembled in Paris to examine it
requested Galileo's opinion of its value and practicability.
Galileo's opinion was highly unfavourable. He saw clearly, and
explained distinctly, the objection to Morin's method, arising from
the imperfection of the lunar tables, and the inadequacy of
astronomical instruments; but he seemed not to be conscious that
the very same objections applied with even greater force to his own
method, which has since been supplanted by that of the French
savant. See Life of Galileo, Library of Useful Knowledge, p. 94.
It was at this time that Galileo was struck with blindness. His friend
and pupil, Renieri, undertook in this emergency to arrange and complete
his observations and calculations; but before he had made much progress
in the arduous task, each of the four commissioners died in succession,
and it was with great difficulty that Constantine Huygens succeeded in
renewing the scheme. It was again obstructed, however, by the death of
Galileo; and when Renieri was about to publish, by the order of the
Grand Duke, the "Ephemeris," and "Tables of the Jovian Planets," he was
attacked with a mortal disease, and the manuscripts of Galileo, which he
was on the eve of publishing, were never more heard of. By such a series
of misfortunes were the plans of Galileo and of the States-General
completely overthrown. It is some consolation, however, to know that
neither science nor navigation suffered any severe loss. Notwithstanding
the perfection of our present tables of Jupiter's satellites, and of the
astronomical instruments by which their eclipses may be observed, the
method of Galileo is still impracticable at sea.
In consequence of the strict seclusion to which Galileo had been
subjected, he was in the practice of dating his letters from his prison
at Arcetri; but after he had lost the use of his eyes, the Inquisition
seems to have relaxed its severity, and to have allowed him the freest
intercourse with his friends. The Grand Duke of Tuscany paid him
frequent visits; and among the celebrated strangers who came from
distant lands to see the ornament of Italy, were Gassendi, Deodati, and
our illustrious countryman Milton. During the last three years of his
life, his eminent pupil Viviani formed one of his family; and in October
1641, the celebrated Torricelli, another of his pupils, was admitted to
the same distinction.
Though the powerful mind of Galileo still retained its vigour, yet his
debilitated frame was exhausted with mental labour. He often complained
that his head was too busy for his body; and the continuity of his
studies was frequently broken with attacks of hypochondria, want of
sleep, and acute rheumatic pains. Along with these calamities, he was
afflicted with another still more severe--with deafness almost total;
but though he was now excluded from all communication with the external
world, yet his mind still grappled with the material universe, and while
he was studying the force of percussion, and preparing for a
continuation of his "Dialogues on Motion," he was attacked with fever
and palpitation of the heart, which, after continuing two months,
terminated fatally on the 8th of January 1642, in the 78th year of his
age.
Having died in the character of a prisoner of the Inquisition, this
odious tribunal disputed his right of making a will, and of being buried
in consecrated ground. These objections, however, were withdrawn; but
though a large sum was subscribed for erecting a monument to him in the
church of Santa Croce, in Florence, the Pope would not permit the design
to be carried into execution. His sacred remains were, therefore,
deposited in an obscure corner of the church, and remained for more than
thirty years unmarked with any monumental tablet. The following epitaph,
given without any remark in the Leyden edition of his Dialogues, is, we
presume, the one which was inscribed on a tablet in the church of Santa
Croce:--
GALILAEO GALILAEI Florentino,
Philosopho et Geometrae vere lynceo,
Naturae Oedipo,
Mirabilium semper inventorum machinatori,
Qui inconcessa adhuc mortalibus gloria
Caelorum provincias auxit
Et universo dedit incrementum:
Non enim vitreos spherarum orbes
Fragilesque stellas conflavit:
Sed aeterna mundi corpore
Mediceae beneficentiae dedicavit,
Cujus inextincta gloriae cupiditas
Ut oculos nationum
Saeculorumque omnium
Videre doceret,
Proprios impendit oculos.
Cum jam nil amplius haberet natura
Quod ipse videret.
Cujus inventa vix intra rerum limites comprehensa
Firmamentum ipsum non solum continet,
Sed etiam recipit.
Qui relictis tot scientiarum monumentis
Plura secum tulit, quam reliquit.
Gravi enim
Sed nondum affecta senectute,
Novis contemplationibus
Majorem gloriam affectans
Inexplebilem sapientiae animam
Immaturo nobis obitu
Exhalavit
Anno Domini
MCXLII.
AEtatis suae
LXXVIII.
At his death, in 1703, Viviani purchased his property, with the charge
of erecting a monument over Galileo's remains and his own. This design
was not carried into effect till 1737, at the expense of the family of
Nelli, when both their bodies were disinterred, and removed to the site
of the splendid monument which now covers them. This monument contains
the bust of Galileo, with figures of Geometry and Astronomy. It was
designed by Giulio Foggini. Galileo's bust was executed by Giovanni
Battista Foggini; the figure of Astronomy by Vincenzio Foggini, his son;
and that of Geometry by Girolamo Ticciati.
Galileo's house at Arcetri still remains. In 1821 it belonged to one
Signor Alimari, having been preserved in the state in which it was left
by Galileo; it stands very near the convent of St Matthew, and about a
mile to the S. E. of Florence. An inscription by Nelli, over the door of
the house, still remains.
The character of Galileo, whether we view him as a member of the social
circle, or as a man of science, presents many interesting and
instructive points of contemplation. Unfortunate, and to a certain
extent immoral, in his domestic relations, he did not derive from that
hallowed source all the enjoyments which it generally yields; and it was
owing to this cause, perhaps, that he was more fond of society than
might have been expected from his studious habits. His habitual
cheerfulness and gaiety, and his affability and frankness of manner,
rendered him an universal favourite among his friends. Without any of
the pedantry of exclusive talent, and without any of that ostentation
which often marks the man of limited though profound acquirements,
Galileo never conversed upon scientific or philosophical subjects except
among those who were capable of understanding them. The extent of his
general information, indeed, his great literary knowledge, but, above
all, his retentive memory, stored with the legends and the poetry of
ancient times, saved him from the necessity of drawing upon his own
peculiar studies for the topics of his conversation.
Galileo was not less distinguished for his hospitality and benevolence;
he was liberal to the poor, and generous in the aid which he
administered to men of genius and talent, who often found a comfortable
asylum under his roof. In his domestic economy he was frugal without
being parsimonious. His hospitable board was ever ready for the
reception of his friends; and, though he was himself abstemious in his
diet, he seems to have been a lover of good wines, of which he received
always the choicest varieties out of the Grand Duke's cellar. This
peculiar taste, together with his attachment to a country life, rendered
him fond of agricultural pursuits, and induced him to devote his leisure
hours to the cultivation of his vineyards.
In his personal appearance Galileo was about the middle size, and of a
square-built, but well-proportioned, frame. His complexion was fair, his
eyes penetrating, and his hair of a reddish hue. His expression was
cheerful and animated, and though his temper was easily ruffled, yet the
excitement was transient, and the cause of it speedily forgotten.
One of the most prominent traits in the character of Galileo was his
invincible love of truth, and his abhorrence of that spiritual despotism
which had so long brooded over Europe. His views, however, were too
liberal, and too far in advance of the age which he adorned; and however
much we may admire the noble spirit which he evinced, and the personal
sacrifices which he made, in his struggle for truth, we must yet lament
the hotness of his zeal and the temerity of his onset. In his contest
with the Church of Rome, he fell under her victorious banner; and though
his cause was that of truth, and hers that of superstition, yet the
sympathy of Europe was not roused by his misfortunes. Under the
sagacious and peaceful sway of Copernicus, astronomy had effected a
glorious triumph over the dogmas of the Church; but under the bold and
uncompromising sceptre of Galileo all her conquests were irrecoverably
lost.
The scientific character of Galileo, and his method of investigating
truth, demand our warmest admiration. The number and ingenuity of his
inventions, the brilliant discoveries which he made in the heavens, and
the depth and beauty of his researches respecting the laws of motion,
have gained him the admiration of every succeeding age, and have placed
him next to Newton in the lists of original and inventive genius. To
this high rank he was doubtless elevated by the inductive processes
which he followed in all his inquiries. Under the sure guidance of
observation and experiment, he advanced to general laws; and if Bacon
had never lived, the student of nature Would have found, in the writings
and labours of Galileo, not only the boasted principles of the inductive
philosophy, but also their practical application to the highest efforts
of invention and discovery.
LIFE OF TYCHO BRAHE.
CHAPTER I.
_Tycho's Birth, Family, and Education--An Eclipse of the Sun turns
his attention to Astronomy--Studies Law at Leipsic--But pursues
Astronomy by stealth--His Uncle's Death--He returns to Copenhagen,
and resumes his Observations--Revisits Germany--Fights a Duel, and
loses his Nose--Visits Augsburg, and meets Hainzel--Who assists him
in making a large Quadrant--Revisits Denmark--And is warmly
received by the King--He settles at his Uncle's Castle of
Herritzvold--His Observatory and Laboratory--Discovers the new Star
in Cassiopeia--Account of this remarkable Body--Tycho's Marriage
with a Peasant Girl--Which irritates his Friends--His Lectures on
Astronomy--He visits the Prince of Hesse--Attends the Coronation of
the Emperor Rudolph at Ratisbon--He returns to Denmark._
Among the distinguished men who were destined to revive the sciences,
and to establish the true system of the universe, Tycho Brahe holds a
conspicuous place. He was born on the 14th December 1546, at Knudstorp,
the estate of his ancestors, which is situated near Helsingborg, in
Scania, and was the eldest son and the second child of a family of five
sons and five daughters. His father, Otto Brahe, who was descended from
a noble Swedish family, was in such straitened circumstances, that he
resolved to educate his sons for the military profession; but Tycho
seems to have disliked the choice that was made for him; and his next
brother, Steno, who appears to have had a similar feeling, exchanged the
sword for the more peaceful occupation of Privy Councillor to the King.
The rest of his brothers, though of senatorial rank, do not seem to have
extended the renown of their family; but their youngest sister, Sophia,
is represented as an accomplished mathematician, and is said to have
devoted her mind to astronomy as well as to the astrological reveries of
the age.
George Brahe, the brother of Otto, having no children of his own,
resolved to adopt and to educate one of his nephews. On the birth of
Tycho, accordingly, he was desirous of having him placed under his
wife's care; but his parents could not be prevailed upon to part with
their child till after the birth of Steno, their second son.
Having been instructed in reading and writing under proper masters,
Tycho began the study of Latin in his seventh year; and, in opposition
to his father's views, he prosecuted it for five years under private
teachers, from whom he received also occasional instruction in poetry
and the belles lettres.
In April 1559, about three years after his father's death, Tycho was
sent to the University of Copenhagen, to study rhetoric and philosophy,
with the view of preparing for the study of the law, and qualifying
himself for some of those political offices which his rank entitled him
to expect. In this situation he contracted no fondness for any
particular study; but after he had been sixteen months at college, an
event occurred which directed all the powers of his mind to the science
of astronomy. The attention of the public had been long fixed on a great
eclipse of the sun, which was to happen on the 21st August 1560; and as
in those days a phenomenon of this kind was linked with the destinies of
nations as well as of individuals, the interest which it excited was as
intense as it was general. Tycho watched its arrival with peculiar
anxiety. He read the astrological diaries of the day, in which its
phases and its consequences were described; and when he saw the sun
darkened at the very moment that had been predicted, and to the very
extent that had been delineated, he resolved to make himself master of a
science which was capable of predicting future events, and especially
that branch of it which connected these events with the fortunes and
destinies of man. With this view he purchased the _Tabulae Bergenses_,
calculated by John Stadius, and began with ardour the study of the
planetary motions.
When Tycho had completed his course at Copenhagen, he was sent, in
February 1562, under the charge of a tutor to study jurisprudence at
Leipsic. Astronomy, however, engrossed all his thoughts; and he had no
sooner escaped from the daily surveillance of his master, than he rushed
with headlong impetuosity into his favourite pursuits. With his pocket
money he purchased astronomical books, which he read in secret; and by
means of a celestial globe, the size of his fist, he made himself
acquainted with the stars, and followed them night after night through
the heavens, when sleep had lulled the vigilance of his preceptor. By
means of the Ephemerides of Stadius, he learned to distinguish the
planets, and to trace them through their direct and retrograde
movements; and having obtained the Alphonsine and Prutenic Tables, and
compared his own calculations and observations with those of Stadius, he
observed great differences in the results, and from that moment he seems
to have conceived the design of devoting his life to the accurate
construction of tables, which he justly regarded as the basis of
astronomy.
With this view, he applied himself secretly to the study of arithmetic
and geometry; and, without the assistance of a master, he acquired that
mathematical knowledge which enabled him to realise these early
aspirations. His ardour for astronomy was still farther inflamed, and
the resolution which it inspired still farther strengthened, by the
great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, which took place in August
1563. The calculated time of this phenomenon differed considerably from
the true time which was observed; and in determining the instant of
conjunction Tycho felt in the strongest manner the imperfection of the
instruments which he used. For this purpose he employed a sort of
compass, one leg of which was directed to one planet and the second to
the other planet or fixed star; and, by measuring the angular opening
between them, he determined the distance of the two celestial bodies. By
this rude contrivance he found that the Alphonsine Tables erred a whole
month in the time of conjunction, while the Copernican ones were at
least several days in error. To this celebrated conjunction Tycho
ascribed the great plague which in subsequent years desolated Europe,
because it took place in the beginning of _Leo_, and not far from the
nebulous stars of _Cancer_, two of the zodiacal signs which are reckoned
by Ptolemy "suffocating and pestilent!"
There dwelt at this time at Leipsic an ingenious artisan named
Scultetus, who was employed by Homelius, the professor of mathematics in
that city, to assist him in the construction of his instruments. Having
become acquainted with this young man, Tycho put into his hand a wooden
radius, such as was recommended by Gemma Frisius, for the purpose of
having it divided in the manner adopted by Homelius; and with this
improved instrument he made a great number of astronomical observations
out of his window, without ever exciting the suspicions of his tutor.
Having spent three years at Leipsic, he was about to make the tour of
Germany, when, in consequence of his uncle's death, he was summoned to
his native country to inherit the fortune which had been left him. He
accordingly quitted Leipsic about the middle of May 1565, and after
having arranged his domestic concerns in Denmark, he continued his
astronomical observations with the radius constructed for him by
Scultetus. The ardour with which he pursued his studies gave great
umbrage to his friends as well as to his relations. He was reproached
for having abandoned the profession of the law; his astronomical
observations were ridiculed as not only useless but degrading, and,
among his numerous connexions, his maternal uncle, Steno Bille, was the
only one who applauded him for following the bent of his genius. Under
these uncomfortable circumstances he resolved to quit his country, and
pay a visit to the most interesting cities of Germany.
At Wittemberg, where he arrived in April 1566, he resumed his
astronomical observations; but, in consequence of the plague having
broken out in that city, he removed to Rostoch in the following autumn.
Here an accident occurred which had nearly deprived him of his life. On
the 10th December he was invited to a wedding feast; and, among other
guests, there was present a noble countryman of his own, Manderupius
Pasbergius. Some difference having arisen between them on this occasion,
they parted with feelings of mutual displeasure. On the 27th of the same
month they met again at some festive games, and having revived their
former quarrel, they agreed to settle their differences by the sword.
They accordingly met at 7 o'clock in the evening of the 29th, and fought
in total darkness. In this blind combat, Manderupius cut off the whole
of the front of Tycho's nose, and it was fortunate for astronomy that
his more valuable organs were defended by so faithful an outpost. The
quarrel, which is said to have originated in a difference of opinion
respecting their mathematical acquirements, terminated here; and Tycho
repaired his loss by cementing upon his face a nose of gold and silver,
which is said to have formed a good imitation of the original.
During the years 1567 and 1568, Tycho continued to reside at Rostoch,
with the exception of a few months, during which he made a rapid journey
into Denmark. He lived in a house in the college of the Jesuits, which
he had rented on account of its fitness for celestial observations; but,
though he intended to spend the winter under its roof, he had made no
arrangement respecting his future life, leaving it, as he said, in the
hands of Providence. A desire, however, to visit the south of Germany
induced him to quit Rostoch, and having crossed the Danube, he paid a
visit to Augsburg.
Upon entering this ancient city, Tycho was particularly struck with the
grandeur of its fortifications, the splendour of its private houses, and
the beauty of its fountains; and, after a short residence within its
walls, he was still more delighted with the industry of the people, the
refinement of the higher classes, and the love of literature and science
which was cherished by its wealthy citizens. Among the interesting
acquaintances which he formed at Augsburg, were two brothers, John and
Paul Hainzel, the one a septemvir, and the other the consul or
burgomaster. They were both distinguished by their learning, and both of
them, particularly Paul, were ardent lovers of astronomy. Tycho had
hitherto no other astronomical instrument than the coarse radius which
was made for him by Scultetus, and he waited only for a proper occasion
to have a larger and better instrument constructed for his use. Having
now the command of workmen who could execute his plans, he conceived the
bold design of making a divided instrument which should distinctly
exhibit single minutes of a degree. While he was transferring the first
rude conception of his instrument to paper, Paul Hainzel entered his
study, and was so struck with the grandeur of the plan, that he
instantly undertook to have it executed at his own expense. The
projected instrument was a quadrant of fourteen cubits radius! and Tycho
and his friend entered upon its construction with that intense ardour
which is ever crowned with success.
In the village of Gegginga, about half a mile to the south of the city,
Paul Hainzel had a country house, the garden of which was chosen as the
spot where the quadrant was to be fixed. The best artists in Augsburg,
clockmakers, jewellers, smiths, and carpenters, were engaged to execute
the work, and from the zeal which so novel an instrument inspired, the
quadrant was completed in less than a month. Its size was so great that
twenty men could with difficulty transport it to its place of fixture.
The two principal rectangular radii were beams of oak; the arch which
lay between their extremities was made of solid wood of a particular
kind, and the whole was bound together by twelve beams. It received
additional strength from several iron bands, and the arch was covered
with plates of brass, for the purpose of receiving the 5400 divisions
into which it was to be subdivided. A large and strong pillar of oak,
shod with iron, was driven into the ground, and kept in its place by
solid mason work. To this pillar the quadrant was fixed in a vertical
plane, and steps were prepared to elevate the observer, when stars of a
low altitude required his attention. As the instrument could not be
conveniently covered with a roof, it was protected from the weather by a
covering made of skins, but notwithstanding this and other precautions,
it was broken to pieces by a violent storm, after having remained
uninjured for the space of five years.
As this quadrant was fitted only to determine the altitudes of the
celestial bodies, Tycho constructed a large sextant for the purpose of
measuring their distances. It consisted of two radii, which opened and
shut round a centre, and which were nearly four cubits long, and also of
two arches, one of which was graduated, while the other served to keep
the radii in the same plane. After the radii had been opened or shut
till they nearly comprehended the angle between the stars to be
observed, the adjustment was completed by means of a very fine tangent
screw. With this instrument Tycho made many excellent observations
during his stay at Augsburg. He began also the construction of a wooden
globe about six feet in diameter. Its outer surface was turned with
great accuracy into a sphere, and kept from warping by interior bars of
wood supported at its centre.
After receiving a visit from the celebrated Peter Ramus, who
subsequently fell a victim at the massacre of St Bartholomew, Tycho left
Augsburg, having received a promise from his friend Hainzel that he
would communicate to him the observations made with his large quadrant,
and with the sextant which he had given him in a present. He paid a
visit to Philip Appian in passing through Ingolstadt, and returned to
his native country about the end of 1571.
The fame which he had acquired as an astronomer procured for him a
warmer reception than that which he had formerly experienced. The King
invited him to court, and his friends and admirers loaded him with
kindness. His uncle, Steno Bille, who now lived at the ancient convent
of Herritzvold, and who had always taken a deep interest in the
scientific character of his nephew, not only invited him to his house,
but assigned to him for an observatory the part of it which was best
adapted for that purpose. Tycho cheerfully accepted of this liberal
offer. The immediate proximity of Herritzvold to Knudstorp, rendered
this arrangement peculiarly convenient, and in the house of his uncle he
experienced all that kindness and consideration which natural affection
and a love of science combined to cherish. When Steno learned that the
study of chemistry was one of the pursuits of his nephew, he granted him
a spacious house, a few yards distant from the convent, for his
laboratory. Tycho lost no time in fitting up his observatory, and in
providing his furnaces; and regarding gold and silver and the other
metals as the stars of the earth, he used to represent his two opposite
pursuits as forming only one science, namely, celestial and terrestrial
astronomy.
In the hopes of enriching himself by the pursuits of alchemy, Tycho
devoted most of his attention to those satellites of gold and silver
which now constituted his own system, and which disturbed by their
powerful action the hitherto uniform movements of their primary. His
affections were ever turning to Germany, where astronomers of kindred
views, and artists of surpassing talent were to be found in almost every
city. The want of money alone prevented him from realizing his wishes;
and it was in the hope of attaining the means of travelling, that he in
a great measure forsook his sextants for his crucibles. In order,
however, that he might have one good instrument in his observatory, he
constructed a sextant similar to, but somewhat larger than, that which
he had presented to Hainzel. Its limb was made of solid brass, and was
exquisitely divided into single minutes of a degree. Its radii were
strengthened with plates of brass, and the apparatus for opening and
shutting them was made with great accuracy.
The possession of this instrument was peculiarly fortunate for Tycho,
for an event now occurred which roused him from his golden visions, and
directed all his faculties into their earlier and purer current. On the
11th November 1572, when he was returning to supper from his laboratory,
the clearness of the sky inspired him with the desire of completing some
particular observations. On looking up to the starry firmament he was
surprised to see an extraordinary light in the constellation of
Cassiopeia, which was then above his head. He felt confident that he had
never before observed such a star in that constellation, and
distrusting the evidence of his own senses, he called out the servants
and the peasants, and having received their testimony that it was a huge
star such as they had never seen before, he was satisfied of the
correctness of his own vision. Regarding it as a new and unusual
phenomenon, he hastened to his observatory, adjusted his sextant, and
measured its distances from the nearest stars in Cassiopeia. He noted
also its form, its magnitude, its light, and its colour, and he waited
with great anxiety for the next night that he might determine the
important point whether it was a fixed star, or a body within, or near
to, our own system.
For several years Tycho had been in the practice of calculating, at the
beginning of each year, a sort of almanac for his own use, and in this
he inserted all the observations which he had made on the new star, and
the conclusions which he had drawn from them. Having gone to Copenhagen
in the course of the ensuing spring, he shewed this manuscript to John
Pratensis, a Professor, in whose house he was always hospitably
received. Charles Danzeus, the French ambassador, and a person of great
learning, having heard of Tycho's arrival, invited himself to dine with
him at the house of Pratensis. The conversation soon turned upon the new
star, and Tycho found his companion very sceptical about its existence.
Danzeus was particularly jocular on the subject, and attacked the Danes
for their inattention to so important a science as astronomy. Tycho
received this lecture in good temper, and with the anxious expectation
that a clear sky would enable him to give a practical refutation of the
attack which was made upon his country. The night turned out serene, and
the whole party saw with astonishment the new star under the most
favourable circumstances. Pratensis conceived that it was similar to the
one observed by Hipparchus, and urged Tycho to publish the observations
which he had made upon it. Tycho refused to accede to this request, on
the pretext that his work was not sufficiently perfect; but the true
reason, as he afterwards acknowledged, was, that he considered it would
be a disgrace for a nobleman, either to study such subjects, or to
communicate them to the public. This absurd notion was with some
difficulty overcome, and through the earnest entreaties and assistance
of Pratensis, his work on the new star was published in 1573.
This remarkable body presents to us one of the most interesting
phenomena in astronomy. The date of its first appearance has not been
exactly ascertained. Tycho saw it on the 11th November, but Cornelius
Gemma had seen it on the 9th, Paul Hainzel saw it on the 7th of August
at Augsburg, and Wolfgangus Schulerus observed it at Wittenberg on the
6th. Tycho conjectures that it was first seen on the 5th, and Hieronymus
Munosius asserts that at Valentia, in Spain, it was not seen on the 2d,
when he was shewing that part of the heavens to his pupils. This
singular body continued to be seen during 16 months, and did not
disappear till March 1574. In its appearance it was exactly like a star,
having none of the distinctive marks of a comet. It twinkled strongly,
and grew larger than _Lyra_ or _Sirius_, or any other fixed star. It
seemed to be somewhat larger than _Jupiter_, when he is nearest the
earth, and rivalled _Venus_ in her greatest brightness. In the _first_
month of its appearance it was less than Jupiter; in the _second_ it
equalled him; in the _third_ it surpassed him in splendour; in the
_fourth_ it was equal to _Sirius_; in the _fifth_ to _Lyra_; in the
_sixth_ and _seventh_ to stars of the _second_ magnitude; in the
_eighth_, _ninth_, and _tenth_, to stars of the _third_ magnitude; in
the _eleventh_, _twelfth_, and _thirteenth_, to stars of the _fourth_
magnitude; in the _fourteenth_ and _fifteenth_ to stars of the _fifth_
magnitude; and in the _sixteenth_ month to stars of the _sixth_
magnitude. After this it became so small that it at last disappeared.
Its colour changed also with its size. At first it was white and bright;
in the third month it began to become yellowish; in the fifth it became
reddish like Aldebaran; and in the seventh and eighth it became bluish
like Saturn; growing afterwards duller and duller. Its place in the
heavens was invariable. Its longitude was in the 6th degree and 54th
minute of Taurus; and its latitude 53 deg. 45' north. Its right ascension
was 0 deg. 26-2/5' and its declination 61 deg. 46-3/4'. It had no parallax, and
was unquestionably situated in the region of the fixed stars.
After Tycho had published his book, he proposed to travel into Germany
and Italy, but he was seized with a fever, and he had no sooner
recovered from it, than he became involved in a love affair, which
frustrated all his schemes. Although Tycho was afraid of casting a
stain upon his nobility by publishing his observations on the new star,
yet he did not scruple to debase his lineage by marrying a peasant girl
of the village of Knudstorp. This event took place in 1573, and in 1574
his wife gave birth to his daughter Magdalene. Tycho's noble relations
were deeply offended at this imprudent step; and so far did the mutual
animosity of the parties extend, that the King himself was obliged to
effect a reconciliation.
The fame of our author as an astronomer and mathematician was now so
high, that several young Danish nobles requested him to deliver a course
of lectures upon these interesting subjects. This application was
seconded by Pratensis, Danzeus, and all his best friends; but their
solicitations were vain. The King at last made the request in a way
which ensured its being granted, and Tycho delivered a course of
lectures, in which he not only gave a full view of the science of
astronomy, but defended and explained all the reveries of astrology.
Having finished his lectures, and arranged his domestic affairs, he set
out on his projected journey about the beginning of the spring of 1575,
leaving behind him his wife and daughter, till he should fix upon a
place of permanent residence. The first town which he visited was
Hesse-Cassel, the residence of William, Landgrave of Hesse, whose
patronage of astronomy, and whose skill in making celestial
observations, have immortalized his name. Here Tycho spent eight or ten
delightful days, during which the two astronomers were occupied one half
of the day in scientific conversation, and the other half in
astronomical observations; and he would have prolonged a visit which
gave him so much pleasure, had not the death of one of the Landgrave's
daughters interrupted their labours. Passing through Frankfort, Tycho
went into Switzerland; and, after visiting many cities on his way, he
fixed upon Basle as a place of residence, not only from its centrical
position, but from the salubrity of the air, and the cheapness of
living. From Switzerland he went to Venice, and, in returning through
Germany, he came to Ratisbon, at the time of the congress, which had
been called together on the 1st of November, for the coronation of the
Emperor Rudolph. On this occasion he met with several distinguished
individuals, who were not only skilled in astronomy, but who were among
its warmest patrons. From Ratisbon he passed to Saalfeld, and thence to
Wittemburg, where he saw the parallactic instruments and the wooden
quadrant which had been used by John Pratensis in determining the
latitude of the city, and in measuring the altitudes of the new star.
Tycho was now impatient for home, and he lost no time in returning to
Denmark, where events were awaiting him which frustrated all his
schemes, by placing him in the most favourable situation for promoting
his own happiness, and advancing the interests of astronomy.
CHAPTER II.
_Frederick II. patronises Tycho--And resolves to establish him in
Denmark--Grants him the Island of Huen for Life--And Builds the
splendid Observatory of Uraniburg--Description of the Island, and
of the Observatory--Account of its Astronomical Instruments--Tycho
begins his Observations--His Pupils--Tycho is made Canon of
Rothschild, and receives a large Pension--His Hospitality to his
Visitors--Ingratitude of Witichius--Tycho sends an Assistant to
take the Latitude of Frauenburg and Konigsberg--Is visited by
Ulric, Duke of Mecklenburg--Change in Tycho's fortunes._
The patronage which had been extended to astronomers by several of the
reigning princes of Germany, especially by the Landgrave of Hesse, and
Augustus, Elector of Saxony, had begun to excite a love of science in
the minds of other sovereigns. The King of Denmark seems to have felt it
as a stain upon his character, that the only astronomer in his dominions
should carry on his observations in distant kingdoms and adorn by his
discoveries other courts than his own. With this feeling he sent
ambassadors to Hesse-Cassel to inquire after Tycho, and to intimate to
him his wish that he should return to Denmark, and his anxiety to
promote the advancement of astronomy in his own dominions. Tycho had
left Cassel when these messengers arrived, and had heard nothing of the
King's intentions till he was about to quit Knudstorp with his family
for Basle. At this time he was surprised at the arrival of a noble
messenger, who brought a letter requesting him to meet the King as soon
as possible at Copenhagen. Tycho lost no time in obeying the royal
summons. The King received him with the most flattering kindness. He
offered to give him a grant for life of the island of Huen, between
Denmark and Sweden, and to construct and furnish with instruments, at
his own expense, an observatory, as well as a house for the
accommodation of his family, together with a laboratory for carrying on
his chemical inquiries. Tycho, who truly loved his country, was deeply
affected with the munificence of the royal offer. He accepted of it with
that warmth of gratitude which it was calculated to inspire; and he
particularly rejoiced in the thought that if any success should attend
his future labours, the glory of it would belong to his native land.
The island of Huen is about sxix miles from the coast of Zealand, three
from that of Sweden, and fourteen from Copenhagen. It is six miles in
circumference, and rises into the form of a mountain, which, though very
high, terminates in a plain. It is nowhere rocky, and even in the time
of Tycho it produced the best kinds of grain, afforded excellent
pasturage for horses, cattle, and sheep, and possessed deer, hares,
rabbits, and partridges in abundance. It contained at that time only one
village, with about forty inhabitants.
Having surveyed his new territory, Tycho resolved to build a magnificent
tower in the centre of the elevated plain, which he resolved to call
Uraniburg, or _The City of the Heavens_. Having made the necessary
arrangements, he repaired to the island on the 8th of August, and his
friend Charles Danzeus laid the foundation stone of the new observatory,
which consisted of a slab of porphyry, with the following
inscription:--
REGNANTE IN DANIA FREDERICO II., CAROLUS DANZAEUS AQUITANUS R. G. I.
D. L.,[37] DOMUI HUIC PHILOSOPHIAE, IMPRIMISQUE ASTRORUM
CONTEMPLATIONI, REGIS DECRETO A NOBILI VIRO TYCHONE BRAHE DE
KNUDSTRUP EXTRUCTAE VOTIVUM HUNC LAPIDEM MEMORIAE ET FELICIS AUSPICII
ERGO P. ANNO CIC.IC.LXXVI.[38] VI ID. AUGUSTI.
[37] Regis Gallorum in Dania Legatus.
[38] Transcriber's footnote: The second Cs in CIC and IC are
printed reversed in the original.
This ceremony was performed early in the morning of a splendid day, in
which the rising sun threw its blessing upon Frederick, and upon the
party of noblemen and philosophers who had assembled to testify their
love of science. An entertainment was provided for the occasion, and
copious libations of a variety of wines were offered for the success of
the undertaking.
The observatory was surrounded by a rampart, each face of which was
three hundred feet long. About the middle of each face the rampart
became a semicircle, the inner diameter of which was ninety feet. The
height of the rampart was twenty-two feet, and its thickness at the base
twenty. Its four angles corresponded exactly with the four cardinal
points, and at the north and south angles were erected turrets, of
which one was a printing-house, and the other the residence of the
servants. Gates were erected at the east and west angles, and above them
were apartments for the reception of strangers. Within the rampart was a
shrubbery with about three hundred varieties of trees; and at the centre
of each semicircular part of the rampart was a bower or summer-house.
This shrubbery surrounded the flower-garden, which was terminated within
by a circular wall about forty-five feet high, which enclosed a more
elevated area, in the centre of which stood the principal building in
the observatory, and from which four paths led to the above-mentioned
angles, with as many doors for entering the garden.
The principal building was about sixty feet square. The doors were
placed on the east and west sides; and to the north and south fronts
were attached two round towers, whose inner diameter was about
thirty-two feet, and which formed the observatories which had windows in
their roof, that could be opened towards any part of the heavens. The
accommodations for the family were numerous and splendid. Under the
observatory, in the south tower, was the museum and library, and below
this again was the laboratory in a subterraneous crypt, containing
sixteen furnaces of various kinds. Beneath this was a well forty feet
deep, from which water was distributed by syphons to every part of the
building.
Besides the principal building there were other two situated without the
rampart, one to the north, containing a workshop for the construction of
astronomical and other instruments, and the other to the south, which
was occupied as a sort of farm-house. These buildings cost the King of
Denmark 100,000 rix-dollars (L20,000), and Tycho is said to have
expended upon them a similar sum.
As the two towers could not accommodate the instruments which Tycho
required for his observations, he found it necessary to erect, on the
hill about sixty paces to the south of Uraniburg, a subterranean
observatory, in which he might place his larger instruments, which
required to be firmly fixed, and to be protected from the wind and the
weather. This observatory, which he called Stiern-berg, or the mountain,
of the stars, consisted of several crypts, separated by solid walls,
and to these there was a subterranean passage from the laboratory in
Uraniburg. The various buildings which Tycho erected were built in a
regular style of architecture, and were highly ornamented, not only with
external decorations, but with the statues and pictures of the most
distinguished astronomers, from Hipparchus and Ptolemy down to
Copernicus, and with inscriptions and poems in honour of astronomers.
While these buildings were erecting, and after their completion, Tycho
was busily occupied in preparing instruments for observation. These were
of the most splendid description, and the reader will form some notion
of their grandeur and their expense from the following list:--
_In the south and greater Observatory._
1. A semicircle of solid iron, covered with brass, four cubits
radius.
2. A sextant of the same materials and size.
3. A quadrant of one and a half cubits radius, and an azimuth
circle of three cubits.
4. Ptolemy's parallactic rules, covered with brass, four cubits in
the side.
5. The sextant already described in page 134.
6. Another quadrant, like No. 3.
7. Zodiacal armillaries of melted brass, and turned out of the
solid, of three cubits in diameter.
Near this observatory was a large clock, with one wheel two cubits
in diameter, and two smaller ones, which, like it, indicated hours,
minutes, and seconds.
_In the south and lesser Observatory._
8. An armillary sphere of brass, with a steel meridian, whose
diameter was about 4 cubits.
_In the north Observatory._
9. Brass parallactic rules, which revolved in azimuth above a brass
horizon, twelve feet in diameter.
10. A half sextant, of four cubits radius.
11. A steel sextant.
12. Another half sextant, with steel limb, four cubits radius.
13. The parallactic rules of Copernicus.
14. Equatorial armillaries.
15. A quadrant of a solid plate of brass, five cubits in radius,
shewing every ten seconds.
16. In the museum was the large globe made at Augsburg, see p. 134.
_In the Stiern-berg Observatory._
17. In the central part, a large semicircle, with a brass limb, and
three clocks, shewing hours, minutes, and seconds.
18. Equatorial armillaries of seven cubits, with semi-armillaries
of nine cubits.
19. A sextant of four cubits radius.
20. A geometrical square of iron, with an intercepted quadrant of
five cubits, and divided into fifteen seconds.
21. A quadrant of four cubits radius, shewing ten seconds, with an
azimuth circle.
22. Zodiacal armillaries of brass, with steel meridians, three
cubits in diameter.
23. A sextant of brass, kept together by screws, and capable of
being taken to pieces for travelling with. Its radius was four
cubits.
24. A moveable armillary sphere, three cubits in diameter.
25. A quadrant of solid brass, one cubit radius, and divided into
minutes by Nonian circles.
26. An astronomical radius of solid brass, three cubits long.
27. An astronomical ring of brass, a cubit in diameter.
28. A small brass astrolabe.
In almost all the instruments now enumerated, the limb was subdivided by
diagonal lines, a method which Tycho first brought into use, but which,
in modern times, has been superseded by the inventions of Nonius and
Vernier.
When Tycho had thus furnished his observatory, he devoted himself to the
examination of the stars; and during the twenty-one years which he spent
in this delightful occupation, he made vast additions to astronomical
science. In order to instruct the young in the art of observation, and
educate assistants for his observatory, he had sometimes under his roof
from six to twelve pupils, whom he boarded and educated. Some of these
were named by the King, and educated at his expense. Others were sent
by different academies and cities; and several, who had presented
themselves of their own accord, were liberally admitted by the generous
astronomer.
As Tycho had spent nearly a ton of gold (about 100,000 dollars) in his
outlay at Uraniburg, his own income was reduced to very narrow limits.
To supply this defect, Frederick gave him an annual pension of 2000
dollars, beside an estate in Norway, and made him Canon of the Episcopal
Church of Rothschild, or Prebend of St Laurence,[39] which had an annual
income of 1000 dollars, and which was burdened only with the expense of
keeping up the chapel containing the Mausolea of the Kings of the family
of Oldenburg.
[39] This office had been usually conferred on the King's
Chancellor.
It would be an unprofitable task, and one by no means interesting to the
general reader, to give a detailed history of the various astronomical
observations and discoveries which were made by Tycho during the twenty
years that he spent at Uraniburg. Every phenomenon that appeared in the
heavens, he observed with the greatest care; while he at the same time
carried on regular series of observations for determining the places of
the fixed stars, and for improving the tables of the sun, moon, and
planets. Though almost wholly devoted to these noble pursuits, yet he
kept an open house, and received, with unbounded hospitality, the crowds
of philosophers, nobles, and princes who came to be introduced to the
first astronomer of the age, and to admire the splendid temple which the
Danish Sovereign had consecrated to science.
Among the strangers whom he received under his roof, there were some who
returned his kindness with ingratitude. Among these was Paul Witichius,
a mathematician; who, under the pretence of devoting his whole life to
astronomy, insinuated himself into the utmost familiarity with Tycho.
The unsuspecting astronomer explained to his guest all his inventions,
described all his methods, and even made him acquainted with those views
which he had not realised, and with instruments which he had not yet
executed. When Witichius had thus obtained possession of the methods,
and inventions, and views of Tycho, and had enjoyed his hospitality for
three months, he pretended that he was obliged to return to Germany to
receive an inheritance to which he had succeeded. After quitting
Uraniburg, this ungrateful mathematician neither returned to see Tycho,
nor kept up any correspondence with him; and it was not till five years
after his departure that Tycho learned, from the letters of the Prince
of Hesse to Ranzau, that Witichius had passed through Hesse, and had
described, as his own, the various inventions and methods which had been
shewn to him in Huen.
Being unable to reconcile his own observations with those of Copernicus,
and with the Prutenic Tables, Tycho resolved to obtain new
determinations of the latitude of Frauenburg, in Prussia, where
Copernicus made his observations, and of Konigsberg, to the meridian of
which Rheinhold had adapted his Prutenic Tables. For these purposes he
sent one of his assistants, Elias Morsianus, with a proper instrument,
under the protection of Bylovius, Ambassador of the Margrave of Anspach,
to the King of Denmark, who was returning by sea to Germany; and after
receiving the greatest attention and assistance from the noble Canons
of Ermeland, he determined, from nearly a month's observations on the
sun and stars, that the latitude of Frauenburg was 54 deg. 22-1/2', in place of
54 deg. 19-1/2', as given by Copernicus. In like manner he determined that the
latitude of Konigsberg was 54 deg. 43', in place of 54 deg. 17', as adopted by
Rheinhold. When Morsianus returned to Huen in July, he brought with him,
as a present to Tycho, from John Hannovius, one of the Canons of
Ermeland, the Ptolemaic Rules, or the Parallactic Instrument which
Copernicus had used and made with his own hands. It consisted of two
equal wooden rules, five cubits long, and divided into 1414 parts. Tycho
preserved this gift as one peculiarly dear to him, and, on the day of
his receiving it, he composed a set of verses in honour of the great
astronomer to whom it belonged.
Among the distinguished visits which were paid to Tycho, we must
enumerate that of Ulric, Duke of Mecklenburg, in 1586. Although his
daughter, Sophia, Queen of Denmark, had already paid two visits to
Uraniburg in the same year, yet such was her love of astronomy, that she
accompanied her father and his wife Elizabeth on this occasion. Ulric
was not only fond of science in general, but had for many years devoted
himself to chemical pursuits, and he was therefore peculiarly gratified
in examining the splendid laboratory and extensive apparatus which Tycho
possessed. It has been said by some of the biographers of Tycho, that
the Landgrave of Hesse visited Uraniburg about this period; but this
opinion is not correct, as it was only his astronomer and optician,
Rothman, who made a journey to Huen in 1591 for the recovery of his
health. Tycho had long carried on a correspondence with this able
astronomer respecting the observations made at the observatory of
Hesse-Cassel, and, during the few months which they now spent together,
they discussed in the amplest manner all the questions which had
previously been agitated. Rothman was astonished at the wonderful
apparatus which he saw at Uraniburg, and returned to his native country
charmed with the hospitality of the Danish astronomer.
Hitherto we have followed Tycho through a career of almost unexampled
prosperity. When he had scarcely reached his thirtieth year he was
established, by the kindness and liberality of his sovereign, in the
most splendid observatory that had ever been erected in Europe; and a
thriving family, an ample income, and a widely extended reputation were
added to his blessings. Of the value of these gifts he was deeply
sensible, and he enjoyed them the more that he received them with a
grateful heart. Tycho was a christian as well as a philosopher. The
powers of his gifted mind have been amply displayed in his astronomical
labours; but we shall now have occasion to witness his piety and
resignation in submitting to an unexpected and an adverse destiny.
CHAPTER III.
_Tycho's Labours do honour to his Country--Death of Frederick
II.--James VI. of Scotland visits Tycho at Uraniburg--Christian IV.
visits Tycho--The Duke of Brunswick's visit to Tycho--The Danish
Nobility, jealous of his fame, conspire against him--He is
compelled to quit Uraniburg--And to abandon his Studies--Cruelty of
the Minister Walchendorp--Tycho quits Denmark with his Family and
Instruments--Is hospitably received by Count Rantzau--Who
introduces him to the Emperor Rudolph--The Emperor invites him to
Prague--He gives him a Pension of 3000 Crowns--And the Castle of
Benach as a Residence and an Observatory--Kepler visits Tycho--Who
obtains for him the Appointment of Mathematician to Rudolph._
The love of astronomy which had been so unequivocally exhibited by
Frederick II. and his Royal Consort, inspired their courtiers with at
least an outward respect for science; and among the ministers and
advisers of the King, Tycho reckoned many ardent friends. It was every
where felt that Denmark had elevated herself among the nations of
Europe by her liberality to Tycho; and the peaceful glory which he had
in return conferred upon his country was not of a kind to dissatisfy
even rival nations. In the conquests of science no widow's or orphan's
tears are shed, no captives are dragged from their homes, and no devoted
victims are yoked to the chariot wheels of the triumphant philosopher.
The newly acquired domains of knowledge belong, in right of conquest, to
all nations, and Denmark had now earned the gratitude of Europe by the
magnitude as well as the success of her contingent.
An event, however, now occurred which threatened with destruction the
interests of Danish science. In the beginning of April 1588, Frederick
II. died in the 54th year of his age, and the 29th of his reign. His
remains were conveyed to Rothschild, and deposited in the chapel under
Tycho's care, where a finely executed bust of him was afterwards placed.
His son and successor, Christian IV., was only in the 11th year of his
age, and though his temper and disposition were good, yet Tycho had
reason to be alarmed at the possibility of his discontinuing the
patronage of astronomy. The taste for science, however, which had
sprung up in the Danish Court had extended itself no wider than the
influence of the reigning sovereign. The parasites of royalty saw
themselves eclipsed in the bright renown which Tycho had acquired, and
every new visit to Uraniburg by a foreign prince supplied fresh fuel to
the rancour which had long been smothering in their breasts. The
accession of a youthful king held out to his enemies an opportunity of
destroying the influence of Tycho; and though no adverse step was taken,
yet he had the sagacity to foresee, in "trifles light as air," the
approaching confirmation of his fears. Hope, however, still cheered him
amid his labours, but that hope was founded chiefly on the learning and
character of Nicolas Caasius, the Chancellor of the Kingdom, from whom
he had experienced the warmest attentions.
Among the princes who visited Uraniburg, there were none who conducted
themselves with more condescension and generosity than our own
sovereign, James VI. In the year 1590, when the Scottish King repaired
to Denmark to celebrate his marriage with the Princess Anne, the King's
sister, he paid a visit to Tycho, attended by his councillors and a
large suite of nobility. During the eight days which he spent at
Uraniburg, James carried on long discussions with Tycho on various
subjects, but chiefly on the motion which Copernicus had ascribed to the
earth. He examined narrowly all the astronomical instruments, and made
himself acquainted with the principles of their construction and the
method of using them. He inspected the busts and pictures in the museum,
and when he perceived the portrait of George Buchanan, his own
preceptor, he could not refrain from the strongest expressions of
delight. Upon quitting the hospitable roof of Tycho, James not only
presented him with a magnificent donation, but afterwards gave him his
royal license to publish his works in England during seventy years. This
license was accompanied with the following high eulogium on his
abilities and learning:--"Nor have I become acquainted with these things
only from the relation of others, or from a bare inspection of your
works, but I have seen then before my own eyes, and have heard them with
my own ears, in your residence at Uraniburg, and have drawn them from
the various learned and agreeable conversations which I there held with
you, and which even now affect my mind to such a degree, that it is
difficult to determine whether I recollect them with greater pleasure or
admiration; as I now willingly testify, by this license, to present and
to future generations," &c.
At the request of Tycho, the King also composed and wrote in his own
hand some Latin verses, which were more complimentary than classical.
His Chancellor had also composed some verses of a similar character
during his visit to Tycho. A short specimen of these will be deemed
sufficient by the classical reader:--
"Vidit et obstupuit Rex Huennum Scoticus almam;
Miratus clari tot monumenta viri."
In the year 1591, when Christian IV. had reached his 14th year, he
expressed a desire to pay a visit to Uraniburg. He accordingly set out
with a large party, consisting of his three principal senators, and
other councillors and noblemen; and having examined the various
instruments in the observatories and laboratory, he proposed to Tycho
various questions on mechanics and mathematics, but particularly on the
principles of fortification and ship building. Having observed that he
particularly admired a brass globe, which, by means of internal
wheelwork, imitated the diurnal motion of the heavens, the rising and
setting of the sun, and the phases of the moon, Tycho made him a present
of it, and received in return an elegant gold chain, with his Majesty's
picture, with an assurance of his unalterable attachment and protection.
Notwithstanding this assurance, Tycho had already, as we have stated,
begun to suspect the designs of his enemies; and in a letter addressed
to the Landgrave of Hesse, early in 1591, he throws out some hints which
indicated the anxieties that agitated his mind. The Landgrave of Hesse,
as if he had heard some rumours unfavourable to the prospects of Tycho,
requested him to write him respecting the state of the Kingdom, and
concerning his own private affairs. To this letter, which was dated
early in February, Tycho replied about the beginning of April. He
informed the Landgrave that he led a private life in his own island,
exempt from all official functions, and never willingly taking a part in
public affairs. He was desirous of leaving the ambition of public
honours to others, and of devoting himself wholly to the study of
philosophy and astronomy; and he expressed a hope that if he should be
involved in the tumults and troubles of life, either by his own destiny
or by evil counsels, he might be able, by the blessing of God, to
extricate himself by the force of his mind and the integrity of his
life. He comforted himself with the idea that every soil was the country
of a great man, and that wherever he went the blue sky would still be
over his head;[40] and he distinctly states at the close of his letter,
that he had thought of transferring his residence to some other place,
as there were some of the King's councillors who had already begun to
calumniate his studies, and to grudge him his pension from the treasury.
[40] Omne solum forti patria, et coelum undique supra est.
The causes which led to this change of feeling on the part of Christian
IV.'s advisers have not been explained by the biographers of Tycho. It
has been stated, in general terms, that he had made many enemies, by the
keenness of his temper and the severity of his satire; but I have not
been able to discover any distinct examples of these peculiarities of
his mind. In an event, indeed, which occurred about this time, he
slightly resented a piece of marked incivility on the part of Henry
Julius, Duke of Brunswick, who had married the Princess Eliza of
Denmark; but it is not likely that so trivial an affair, if it were
known at court, could have called down upon him the hostility of the
King's advisers.
The Duke of Brunswick had, in 1590, paid a visit to Uraniburg, and had
particularly admired an antique brass statue of Mercury, about a cubit
long, which Tycho had pl
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