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18 giving his name to the next striking discovery in the heavens. Many savants, however, refused to accept Galileo's discoveries, some even declining to look through a telescope, rather than risk seeing something in whose existence they would not believe. Galileo did not at this time state openly in the "Sidereus Nuncius" the conclusion to which his discoveries had driven him, namely, that the earth moves round the sun, and not the sun round the earth. He spoke of it and lectured about it, not realising how he would be affected by the furious outcry against it. Kepler, the greatest astronomer of the time, accepted everything in full confidence, though the mystic numbers in which he delighted were liable to be upset by such new discoveries. Simon Marius (Mayer) claimed priority in the discovery of Jupiter's moons, as he had previously claimed it in the case of the proportional compass, but there is no doubt that both claims were fraudulent. In the endeavour to increase his list of discoveries and comply with the earnest wish of the Italian Queen of France, Galileo next turned his attention to Saturn. He found no satellite, but under the imperfect definition of his telescope he noted that the planet appeared triple, the appearance being caused, as was discovered later, by the ring projecting on both sides of the ball. To avoid the chance of being again accused of adopting other people's discoveries, he published this one in the form of a jumble of letters, which when sorted out, would spell the words:—

"Altissimuni Planetam Tergeminum Observavi," meaning, "I have found the furthermost planet (Saturn at that time, as Uranus and Neptune were not yet discovered) to be triple," the fact of the matter being that the imperfect definition of his telescope caused the ring of Saturn, which was then open as viewed from the earth, to resemble companion stars, one each side of the central