steps and never quit his side." Galileo was, however, no match in this style of writing for Kepler, who disapproved his friend's metaphor, and, in his usual fanciful and amusing strain,-"I will not," said he, "make an old man of Saturn, nor slaves of his attendant globes, but rather let this tricorporate form be Geryon, so shall Galileo be Hercules, and the telescope his club; armed with which, he has conquered that distant planet, and dragged him from the remotest depths of nature, and exposed him to the view of all." Galileo's glass was not of sufficient power to shew him the real constitution of this extraordinary planet; it was reserved for Huyghens, about the year 1656, to declare to the world that these supposed attendant stars are in fact part of a ring which surrounds, and yet is completely distinct from the body of Saturn;* and the still more accurate observations of Herschel have ascertained that it consists of two concentric rings revolving round the planet, and separated from each other by a space which our most powerful telescopes scarcely enable

us to measure.

seeing the enlightened portion in each position assume the form appropriate to that hypothesis. It was with reason, therefore, that he laid stress on the im. portance of this observation, which also established another doctrine scarcely less obnoxious to the Anti- Copernicans, namely, that a new point of resemblance was here found between the earth and one of the principal planets; and as the reflection from the earth upon the moon had shewn it to be luminous like the planets when subjected to the rays of the sun, so this change of apparent figure demonstrated that one of the planets not near the earth, and therefore probably all, were in their own nature not luminous, and only reflected the sun's light which fell upon them; an inference, of which the probability was still farther increased a few years later by the observation of the transit of Mercury over the sun's disc.

It is curious that only twenty-five years before this discovery of the phases (or appearances) of Venus, a commentator of Aristotle, under the name of Lucillus Philalthæus, had advanced the doctrine that all the planets except the moon are luminous of themselves, and in proof of his assertion had urged, "that if the other planets and fixed stars received their light from the sun, they would, as they approached and receded from him, or as he approached and receded from them, assume the same phases as the moon, which, he adds, we have never yet observed."-He further remarks, "that Mercury and Venus would, in the supposed case of their being nearer the earth than the sun, eclipse it occasionally, just as eclipses are occasioned by the moon." Perhaps it is still more remarkable, that these very passages, in which the reasoning is so correct, though the facts are too hastily taken for granted, (the common error of that school,) are quoted by Benedetti, expressly to shew the ignorance and preCopernicus, sumption of the author. whose want of instruments had prevented him from observing the horned appearance of Venus when between the earth and sun, had perceived how formidable an obstacle the non-appearance of this phenomenon presented to his system; he endeavoured, though unsatisfactorily, to account for it by supposing that the rays of the sun passed freely through the body of the planet, and Galileo takes occasion to praise him for not being deterred from

D 2

adopting the system, which, on the whole, appeared to agree best with the phenomena, by meeting with some which it did not enable him to explain. Milton, whose poem is filled with allusions to Galileo and his astronomy, has not suffered this beautiful phenomenon to pass unnoticed. After describing the creation of the Sun, he adds:

Hither, as to their fountain, other stars Repairing, in their golden urns draw light, And hence the morning planet gilds her horns." Galileo also assured himself, at the same time, that the fixed stars did not receive their light from the sun. This he ascertained by comparing the vividness of their light, in all positions, with the feebleness of that of the distant planets, and by observing the different degrees of brightness with which all the planets shone at different distances from the sun. The more remote planets did not, of course, afford equal facilities with Venus for so decisive an observation; but Galileo thought he observed, that when Mars was in quadratures, (or in the quarters, the middle points of his path on either side,) his figure varied slightly from a perfect circle. Galileo concludes the letter, in which he announces these last observations to his pupil Castelli, with the following expressions, shewing how justly he estimated the opposition they encountered:-" You almost make me laugh by saying that these clear observations are sufficient to convince the most obstinate: it seems you have yet to learn that long ago the observations were enough to convince those who are capable of reasoning, and those who wish to learn the truth; but that to convince the obstinate, and those who care for nothing beyond the vain applause of the stupid and senseless vulgar, not even the testimony of the stars would suffice, were they to descend on earth to speak for themselves. Let us then endeavour to procure some knowledge for ourselves, and rest contented with this sole satisfaction; but of advancing in popular opinion, or gaining the assent of the book-philosophers, let us abandon both the hope and the desire."

CHAPTER IX.

Account of the Academia Lincea-Del

Cimento- Royal Society. GALILEO's resignation of the mathematical professorship at Padua occasioned

B. vii. v. 364. Other passages may be examined in B. i. 286; in. 565--500, 722-733; ir, 589; v. 261, 414; vii. 577; viii. I-178.

much dissatisfaction to all those who were connected with that university. Perhaps not fully appreciating his desire of returning to his native country, and the importance to him and to the scientific world in general, of the complete leisure which Cosmo secured to him at Florenee, (for by the terms of his diploma he was not even required to reside at Pisa, nor to give any lectures, except on extraordinary occasions, to sovereign princes and other strangers of distinction,) the Venetians remembered only that they had offered him an honourable asylum when almost driven from Pisa; that they had increased his salary to four times the sum which any previous professor had enjoyed; and, finally, by an almost unprecedented decree, that they had but just secured him in his post during the remainder of his life. Many took such offence as to refuse to have any further communication with him; and Sagredo, a constant friend of Galileo, wrote him word that he had been threatened with a similar desertion unless he should concur in the same peremptory resolution, which threats, however, Sagredo, at the same time, intimates his intention of braving.

Early in the year 1611, Galileo made his first appearance in Rome, where he was received with marks of distinguished consideration, and where all ranks were eager to share the pleasure of contemplating the new discoveries. "Whether we consider cardinal, prince, or prelate, he found an honourable reception from them all, and had their palaces as open and free to him as the houses of his private friends." Among other distinctions he was solicited to become a member of the newly-formed philosophical society, the once celebrated Academia Lincea, to which he readily assented. The founder of this society was Federigo Cesi, the Marchese di Monticelli, a young Roman nobleman, the devotion of whose time and fortune to the interests of science has not been by any means rewarded with a reputation commensurate with his deserts. If the energy of his mind had been less worthily employed than in fostering the cause of science and truth, and in extending the advantages of his birth and fortune to as many as were willing to co-operate with him, the name of Federigo Cesi might have appeared more prominently on the page of history. Cesi had scarcely completed

Salasbary, Math. Coll.

his 18th year, when, in 1603, he formed the plan of a philosophical society, which in the first instance consisted only of himself and three of his most intimate friends, Hecke, a Flemish physician, Stelluti, and Anastasio de Filiis. Cesi's father, the Duca d'Acquasparta, who was of an arbitrary and extravagant temper, considered such pursuits and associates as derogatory to his son's rank; he endeavoured to thwart the design by the most violent and unjustifiable proceedings, in consequence of which, Cesi in the beginning of 1605 privately quitted Rome, Hecke was obliged to leave Italy altogether from fear of the Inquisition, which was excited against him, and the academy was for a time virtually dissolved. The details of these transactions are foreign to the present narrative: it will be enough to mention that, in 1609, Cesi, who had never altogether abandoned his scheme, found the opposition decaying which he at first experienced, and with better success he renewed the plan which he had sketched six years before. A few extracts from the Regulations will serve to shew the spirit in which this distinguished society was conceived:

"The Lyncean Society desires for its academicians, philosophers eager for real knowledge, who will give themselves to the study of nature, and especially to mathematics; at the same time it will not neglect the ornaments of elegant literature and philology, which like a graceful garment adorn the whole body of science.-In the pious love of wisdom, and to the praise of the most good and most high God, let the Lynceans give their minds, first to observation and reflection, and afterwards to writing and publishing.-It is not within the Lyncean plan to find leisure for recitations and declamatory assemblies; the meetings will neither be frequent nor full, and chiefly for transacting the necessary business of the society: but those who wish to enjoy such exercises will in no respect be hindered, provided they attend them as accessory studies, decently and quietly, and without making promises and professions of how much they are about to do. For there is ample philosophical employment for every one by himself, particularly if pains are taken in travelling and in the observation of natural phenomena, and in the book of nature which every one has at home, that is to say, the heavens and the earth; and enough may

be learned from the habits of constant correspondence with each other, and alternate offices of counsel and assistance.-Let the first fruits of wisdom be love; and so let the Lynceans love each other as if united by the strictest ties, nor suffer any interruption of this sincere bond of love and faith, emanating from the source of virtue and philosophy.

Let them add to their names the title of Lyncean, which has been advisedly chosen as a warning and constant stímulus, especially when they write on any literary subject, also in their private letters to their associates, and in general when any work comes from them wisely and well performed.-The Lynceans will pass over in silence all poli tical controversies and quarrels of every kind, and wordy disputes, especially gratuitous ones, which give occasion to deceit, unfriendliness, and hatred; like men who desire peace, and seek to preserve their studies free from molestation, and to avoid every sort of disturbance. And if any one by command of his superiors, or from some other necessity, is reduced to handle such matters, since they are foreign to physical and mathematical science, and conse quently alien to the object of the Academy, let them be printed without the Lyncean name."*

The society which was eventually organized formed but a very trifling part of the comprehensive scheme which Cesi originally proposed to himself; it had been his wish to establish a scientific Order which should have corresponding lodges in the principal towns of Europe, and in other parts of the globe, each consisting of not more than five nor less than three members, besides an unlimited number of Academicians not restricted to any particular residence or regulations. The mortifications and difficulties to which he was subjected from his father's unprincipled behaviour, render it most extraordinary and admirable that he should have ventured to undertake even so much as he actually carried into execution. He promised to furnish to the members of his society such assistance as they might require in the prosecution of their respective researches, and also to defray the charges

Perhaps it was to deprecate the hostility of the Jesuits that, at the close of these Regulations, the

Lynceans are directed to address their prayers, among other Saints, especially, to Ignatius Loyola, as to one who greatly favoured the interests of learning. Odescalchi, Memorie dell' Acad. de' Lincei, Roma. 1806.

of publishing such of their works as should be thought worthy of appearing with the common sanction. Such liberal offers were not likely to meet with an unfavourable reception: they were thankfully accepted by many well quali fied to carry his design into execution, and Cesi was soon enabled formally to open his academy, the distinctive title of which he borrowed from the Lynx, with reference to the piercing sight which that animal has been supposed to possess. This quality seemed to him an appropriate emblem of those which he desired to find in his academicians, for the purpose of investigating the secrets of nature; and although, at the present day, the name may appear to border on the grotesque, it was conceived in the spirit of the age, and the fantastic names of the numberless societies which were rapidly formed in various parts of Italy far exceed whatever degree of quaintness may be thought to belong to the Lyncean name. The Inflamed-the Transformed-the Uneasy-the Humorists-the Fantastic-the Intricate the Indolent-the Senseless-the Undeceived the Valiant-the Ætherial Societies are selected from a vast number of similar institutions, the names of which, now almost their sole remains, are collected by the industry of Morhof and Tiraboschi*. The Humorists are named by Morhof as the only Italian philosophical society anterior to the Lynceans; their founder was Paolo Mancino, and the distinctive symbol which they adopted was rain dropping from a cloud, with the motto Redit agmine dulci ;—their title is derived from the same metaphor. The object of their union appears to have been similar to that of the Lynceans, but they at no time attained to the celebrity to which Cesi's society rose from the moment of its incorporation. Cesi took the presideney for his life, and the celebrated Baptista Porta was appointed vice president at Naples. Stelluti acted as the legal representative of the society, with the title of procuratore. Of the other two original members Anastasio de Filiis was dead, and although Hecke returned to Italy in 1614, and rejoined the Academy, yet he was soon afterwards struck off the list in consequence of his lapsing into insanity. Among the academicians we find the names of Galileo, Fabio Co

Polyhistor Literarius, &c.-Storia della Letterat. Ital. The still existing society of Chaff, more generally known by its Italian title, Della Crusca, belongs to the same period.

lonna, Lucas Valerio, Guiducci, Welser, Giovanni Fabro, Terrentio, Virginio Cesarini, Ciampoli, Molitor, Cardinal Barberino, (nephew of Pope Urban VIII.) Stelliola, Salviati, &c.

The principal monument still remaining of the zeal and industry to which Cesi incited his academicians is the Phytobasanos, a compendium of the natural history of Mexico, which must be considered a surprising performance for the times in which it appeared. It was written by a Spaniard named Hernandez; and Reccho, who often has the credit of the whole work, made great additions to it. During fifty years the manuscript had been neglected, when Cesi discovered it, and employed Terrentio, Fabro, and Colonna, all Lynceans, to publish it enriched with their notes and emendations. Cesi himself published several treatises, two of which are extant; his Tabula Phytosophica, and a Dissertation on Bees entitled Apiarium, the only known copy of which last is in the library of the Vatican. His great work, Theatrum Naturæ, was never printed; a circumstance which tends to shew that he did not assemble the society round him for the purpose of ministering to his own vanity, but postponed the publication of his own productions to the labours of his coadjutors. This, and many other valuable works belonging to the academy existed in manuscript till lately in the Albani Library at Rome. Cesi collected, not a large, but an useful library for the use of the academy, (which was afterwards augmented on the premature death of Cesarini by the donation of his books); he filled a botanical garden with the rarer specimens of plants, and arranged a museum of natural curiosities; his palace at Rome was constantly open to the academicians; his purse and his influence were employed with equal liberality in their service.

Cesi's death, in 1632, put a sudden stop to the prosperity of the society, a consequence which may be attributed to the munificence with which he had from the first sustained it: no one could be found to fill his place in the princely manner to which the academicians were accustomed, and the society, after lingering some years under the nominal patronage of Urban VIII., gradually decayed, till, by the death of its principal members, and dispersion of the rest, it became entirely extinct. Bianchi,

F. Colonna Phytobasanus Jano Planco Auctore.

Florent, 1744.

whose sketch of the academy was almost the only one till the appearance of Odescalchi's history, made an attempt to revive it in the succeeding century, but without any permanent effect. A society under the same name has been formed since 1784, and is still flourishing in Rome. Before leaving the subject it may be mentioned, that one of the earliest notices that Bacon's works were known in Italy is to be found in a letter to Cesi, dated 1625; in which Pozzo, who had gone to Paris with Cardinal Barberino, mentions having seen them there with great admiration, and suggests that Bacon would be a fit person to be proposed as a member of their society. After Galileo's death, three of his principal followers, Viviani, Torricelli, and Aggiunti formed the plan of establishing a similar philosophical society, and though Aggiunti and Torricelli died before the scheme could be realized, Viviani pressed it forward, and, under the auspices of Ferdinand II., formed a society, which, in 1657, merged in the famous Academia del Cimento, or Experimental Academy. This latter held its occasional meetings at the palace of Ferdinand's brother, Leopold de' Medici: it was composed chiefly, if not entirely, of Galileo's pupils and friends. During the few years that this society lasted, one of the principal objects of which was declared to be the repetition and developement of Galileo's experiments, it kept up a correspondence with the prin cipal philosophers in every part of Europe, but when Leopold was, in 1666, created a cardinal, it appears to have been dissolved, scarcely ten years after its institution. This digression may be excused in favour of so interesting an establishment as the Academia Lincea, which preceded by half a century the formation of the Koyal Society of London, and Académie Françoise of Paris.

These latter two are mentioned together, probably for the first time, by Salusbury. The passage is curious in an historical point of view, and worth extracting:"In imitation of these societies, Paris and London have erected theirs of Les Beaux Esprits, and of the Virtuosi: the one by the countenance of the most eminent Cardinal Richelieu, the other by the royal encouragement of his sacred Majesty that now is. The Beaux Esprits have published sundry volumes of their moral and physiological conferences,

Nelli Saggio di Storia Literaria Fiorentina, Lacca, 1759.

with the laws and history of their fellowship; and I hope the like in due time from our Royal Society; that so such as envie their fame and felicity, and such as suspect their ability and candor, may be silenced and disappointed in their detractions and expectations."

CHAPTER X.

Spots on the Sun-Essay on Floating Bodies-Scheiner-Change in Sa

turn.

GALILEO did not indulge the curiosity of his Roman friends by exhibiting only the wonders already mentioned, which now began to lose the gloss of novelty, but disclosed a new discovery, which appeared still more extraordinary, and, to the opposite faction, more hateful than anything of which he had yet spoken. This was the discovery, which he first made in the month of March, 1611, of dark spots on the body of the sun. A curious fact, and one which well serves to illustrate Galileo's superiority in seeing things simply as they are, is, that these spots had been observed and recorded centuries before he existed, but, for want of careful observation, their true nature had been constantly misapprehended. One of the most celebrated occasions was in the year 807 of our era, in which a dark spot is mentioned as visible on the face of the sun during seven or eight days. It was then supposed to be Mercury. Kepler, whose astronomical knowledge would not suffer him to overlook that it was impossible that Mercury could remain so long in conjunction with the sun, preferred to solve the difficulty by supposing that, in Aimoin's original account, the expression was not octo dies (eight days), but octoties—a barbarous word, which he supposed to have been written for octies (eight times); and that the other accounts (in which the number of days mentioned is different) copying loosely from the first, had both mistaken the word, and misquoted the time which they thought they found mentioned there. It is impossible to look on this explanation as satisfactory, but Kepler, who at that time did not dream of spots on the sun, was perfectly contented with it. In 1609, he himself ob served upon the sun a black spot, which he in like manner mistook for Mercury, and unluckily the day, being cloudy, did

Salusbury's Math. Coll. vol. ii. London, 1664.
Aimoini Hist. Francorum. Parisiis. 1567.