Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 3.djvu/237

 GALILEO-GALILEI 101 GALILEO-GALILEI (1564-1642) T

HE great Tuscan astronomer is best known as the first telescopic observ- er, the fortunate discoverer of the Medi- cean stars (so Jupiter's satellites were first named) ; and what discovery more fitted to immortalize its author than one which revealed new worlds and thus gave addi- tional force to the lesson, that the universe, of which we form so small a part, was not created only for our use or pleasure ? Those, however, who consider Galileo only as a fort- unate observer, form a very inadequate es- timate of one of the most meritorious and successful of those great men who have be- stowed their time for the advantage of mankind in tracing out the hidden things of nature. Galileo-Galilei was born at Pisa, February 15, 1564. In childhood he displayed considerable mechanical ingenuity, with a decided taste for the accom- plishments of music and painting. His father formed a just estimate of his tal- ents, and at some inconvenience entered him, when nineteen years old, at the university of his native town, intending that he should pursue the medical pro- fession Galileo was then entirely ignorant of mathematics; and he was led to the study of geometry by a desire thoroughly to understand the principles of his favorite arts. This new pursuit proved so congenial to his taste, that from thenceforward his medical books were entirely neglected. The elder Galilei, a man of liberal acquirements and enlarged mind, did not require the devotion of bis son's life to a distasteful pursuit. Fortunately the young man's talents at- tracted notice, and in 1589 he was appointed mathematical lecturer in the Uni- versity of Pisa. There is reason to believe that, at an early period of his stu- dentship, he embraced, upon inquiry and conviction, the doctrines of Copernicus, of which through life he was an ardent supporter. Galileo and his colleagues did not long remain on good terms. The latter were content with the superstructure which a priori reasoners had raised upon Aristotle, and were by no means desirous of the trouble of learning more. Galileo chose to investigate physical truths for himself ; he engaged in experi- ments to determine the truth of some of Aristotle's positions, and when he found him in the wrong, he said so, and so taught his pupils. This made the " paper philosophers," as he calls them, very angry. He repeated his experiments in their n