Page:The sidereal messenger of Galileo Galilei.pdf/132

 Mercury. Kepler therefore and the rest of the school of Copernicus have good reason for boasting that they have shown themselves good philosophers, and that their belief was not devoid of foundation; however much it has been their lot, and may even hereafter be their lot, to be regarded by the philosophers of our times, who philosophise on paper, with an universal agreement, as men of no intellect, and little better than absolute fools.

"The words which I sent with their letters transposed, and which said,

when reduced to their proper order, read thus,

that is,

Three days ago I observed an eclipse of the moon, but not anything worthy of special notice occurred in it. Only the edge of the shadow appeared indistinct, blurred, and hazy; the cause of the phenomenon no doubt is that the shadow has its origin at the earth, at a great distance from the body of the moon.

"I have some other particulars, but I am prevented by time from writing about them, etc."

So writes Galileo.