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ART. IV.-1. Le Opere di Galileo Galilei. Prima Edizione completa, condotta sugli Autentici Manoscritti Palatini, &c. Firenze. Tom. 1-3. 1842-3. (The Works of Galileo Galilei. The first complete edition, based on the Authentic Manuscripts in the Palatine Library, &c. Florence.)

2. De Galilei Galilei circa Jovis Satellites Lucubrationibus, &c. &c. &c., Eugenii Alberii brevis Disquisitio. Firenze. 1843. (A Short Disquisition on the Labours of Galileo, respecting the Satellites of Jupiter. By Eugenio Albèri. Florence. 1843. pp. 13, roy. 8vo.)

3. Lettera al chiarissimo Commendatore Giovanni Plana, Regio Astronomo a Torino. (A Letter to Signor Giovanni Plana, &c. Royal Astronomer at Turin, signed, Vincenzio Antinori. Florence. May 29, 1843. pp. 2, 4to.) 4. Lettera al molto Illustre e Reverendo Padre Giovanni Inghirami, &c. &c. (A Letter to the Padre Inghirami, &c. &c., signed, Eugenio Albèri. Florence. June 10, 1843. pp. 2, 4to.)

5. Dichiarazione del Cav. Vincenzo Antinori. (Declaration by Cav. Vincenzo Antinori, &c. Florence. pp. 12, 8vo.) 6. Dichiarazione del Professore G. B. Amici. (Declaration by Professor G. B. Amici, &c. Florence. pp. 12, 8vo.) 7. Ultime Parole de Eugenio Albèri a' suoi Avversarj in Materia dei Lavori Galileiani sui Satelliti di Giove. (Last Words of Eugenio Albèri to his Opponents in the Matter of Galileo's Labours respecting the Satellites of Jupiter. Bologna. 8vo. pp. 18.)

8. Lettera dell' Abate Pietro Pillori di Firenze al Dottor Giulio Bedetti di Bologna sul Preteso Ritrovamento delle Effemeridi Galileiane dei Satelliti di Giove. (A Letter from the Abate Pietro Pillori of Florence to Dr. Giulio Bedetti of Bologna, on the pretended Discovery of Galileo's Labours on the Satellites of Jupiter. Bologna. 8vo. Dec. 1843. pp. 38.)

9. Risposta di Eugenio Albèri ad un Scritto publicato in Bologna, intitolato, &c. &c. (Answer of Eugenio Albèri to a Publication printed at Bologna, entitled, &c. &c. Marseilles. 8vo. Jan. 15, 1844. pp. 22.)

GALILEO died at the age of seventy-eight, in the year 1642: and the prospectus of the first complete edition of his works, which now lies before us, is dated 1841. Our world and its denizens

have been moving onwards in the path marked out for them by Providence during these two hundred years; and Italy, despite her resistance, has been dragged forward in the great march at the heels of her more active neighbours: for none can be left entirely behind in the mighty movement. This has been effectually cared for by that providential wisdom, whose universal government of human destinies is as irresistible, as individual freedom of action is unconstrained. Thus much at least of the great design which rules our world may be clearly deciphered from the deeply confused pages of history,-that its fundamental law is progress. Some, indeed, are of opinion, that this onward movement is ever from bad to worse; while others deem that all progress is amelioration. But all must perceive, that it is in either case inevitable. Could the most inveterate unwillingness to proceed-could a slothful folding of the hands to slumber,-could the most pertinacious endeavour after immobility-have availed to reverse this law of human destiny, Italy would not have traversed the space she has travelled in the last two hundred years. For many generations, her post had been in the van of the human army; and it was but a short period before she produced the mighty mind, which was to undertake so large a share in the perilous pioneering of the advancing host, that she had resigned this place to others.

Galileo, therefore, is said to have fallen on an evil age,-to have been unfortunate in the circumstances of time and country, in which he had to do his appointed work. How far the task apportioned to such minds can ever, in any country or in any age, be pleasant and easy-or their path, a path of peace, -may be a question worth considering. To lead,-to be "a leading mind," to advance first into the pathless as yet, and unknown void, and fashion a route practicable for those who are to follow amid the hostile clamour of the multitude, whose eye is to the flesh-pots, and who continually demand, with the unreasoning anger of fear, wherefore, they are led forth to perish in what appears to them a wilderness ;-this, alas! has never been, will never be, found easy or pleasant. When the narrow path has become a broad high road,-when all have passed, and mankind look back thereon,-it then seems strange, pitiable, that men should have been so swinish as to rend those good and wise leaders, who were bringing us into that fair and goodly land in which we now dwell. While we forget, alas! that the conquered territory around and behind us, which we regard with so much complacency, is no abiding place for us; that man has no resting place here below;

that we must still on, through new and untried ways; and that now also in these, as in all, days, we have our leaders among us, whom we recognise not, believe not, but revile and persecute. Which be they? Ay! truly, could one but know this, it were all well. But it must needs be ever, that those who are in advance of their age will not be understood by their age. And all that can be hoped for in this matter is, that men should at length learn, by so many past warning examples, to respect opinion, and persecute none. He may be a Galileo, this strange declarer of new things; or a Copernicus, whom we are for treating as if he were a Cagliostro. Be assured, that if he should be the appointed leader, he would have no visible glory around his brows-no mark, no sign. Our inability to recognise him, is so far from being an argument against him, that could we recognise him as one of our great ones, know him, understand him, measure him, walk side by side with him, then, indeed, it were clear that this man, great and strong captain in the host as he may be, was not the chiefest amid ten thousand.

It would seem a hard lot, then, that of the master spirits, the heaven-sent guides, earth's genuine kings, whose royalty is doomed to be ever posthumously acknowledged by their tardily repentant subjects. But let us pause awhile before we presume to pity the mighty ones, who have firmly walked their appointed course alone. To stand in solitude, uncheered by comrade's sympathies and companionship, a lonely sentinel on the first advanced outposts of the human army,-to exist habitually on those watch-tower "heights, as chill as they are clear," to fight on bravely, undespairingly, amid injuries, calumnies, taunts, persecutions, despite thwartings, obstructions, and even temporary defeat,-" to scorn delights, and live laborious days," may indeed constitute, in the eyes of most men, no enviable lot. The head encircled by that halo, which will, alas, become visible only when it shall have receded far into the darkness of the past, will, to the full, as surely "lie uneasily," as that which wears a visible crown. Uneasily! Truly, for such there is no "ease" in this world. But what then? There is work ;-work to do, and-true element of happiness -work done, work realized, which shall not perish; KTйμα és deì. There is truth to gladden with glorious beams, though fitful, the dark path. There is victory, long battled for, won at last over error, doubt, fear, and all the powers of darkness. Which of us shall estimate the proud triumph, the conscious exaltation of such a mind as Galileo's, at the moment, when, despite the forced recantation of the truths he had spent a life in attaining, he added to the idle words he was compelled to

utter:- "And for all that the earth moves on?" Should not our pity be rather for the unfortunates, whom we leave there fighting the hopeless battle against truth?

Again, where is the imagination that can fitly conceive the raptures, which must have filled the breast of the lonely philosopher on that memorable night, when, from his solitary Paduan watch-tower, he, first of mortal men, saw those satellites of Jupiter, which, in gratitude for somewhat scant kindnesses from the Medici, he wished to name after them. It was one of the first conquests of the new instrument just perfected by him, the now so common, then so wondrous, so miraculous, -the telescope? The Medicean stars, or satellites of Jupiter, as improved science has fitly named them, were discovered by Galileo on the night of the 7th of January, in the year 1610. The telescope had been invented by him in the previous year. The glory of this invention was contested. As, indeed, every step in the philosopher's upward path towards the truths which he established, was accompanied by battling and detraction. It is true that the construction of a machine, having the powers of the telescope, had been previously stumbled on by a Flemish artisan in eye-glasses. And it was contended on this ground, that Galileo could lay no claim to the invention. The circumstances of the case, however, are related in a letter of Galileo's to his opponent, the Jesuit Orazio Grassi, which we shall proceed to lay in part before our readers, as it not only may serve for a specimen of the philosopher's singularly clear, simple, and elegantly modest manner of writing, but is in itself remarkably interesting from its subject.

He writes as follows:

"What part I had in the discovery of this instrument, and whether I could with reason call it my production, I have long since declared, in my Avviso Sidereo.' I have there written, how in Venice, where I then chanced to be, there came news that an eye-glass had been presented to Count Maurice, by a Hollander, by means of which distant objects were seen as perfectly as if they had been quite near; nor was anything further added on the subject. On hearing this account, I returned to Padua, where I then resided, and set myself to think on this problem. And the first night after my return I discovered it, and on the following day constructed the instrument, and gave an account of it to those friends at Venice, with whom I had been discoursing on the subject the day before. . But, perhaps,

some one may tell me, that it is no small assistance towards the discovery and resolution of any problem, to know beforehand that the conclusion aimed at is true, and that one is not seeking what is impossible; and that, on this ground, the certainty I had, that such a glass had been constructed, was of such assistance to me, as that without it I had never attained the discovery. To which I answer, by making

this distinction :-I admit that the assistance derived to me from the information received, awakened in me the desire to apply my thoughts to the subject, and that it is possible that otherwise I might never have thought of it. But that beyond this, the information received could have rendered easier the invention, I do not believe. And I assert moreover, that to discover the solution of a given problem, is a work requiring greater powers of mind, than the discovery of that, which has not yet been thought of or defined. Since, in the latter case, a great part may be due to chance; but in the former, it is entirely a matter of reasoning. And we are now certain, that the Hollander who first invented the telescope, was a mere maker of ordinary spectacles; who, handling, casually, glasses of different kinds, chanced to look through two at the same moment, one convex and the other concave, placed at different distances from the eye, and that he thus observed the effect produced, and so discovered the instrument. Whereas I, incited by the news of the discovery, found out the same thing by reasoning. And inasmuch as this process of reasoning was easy enough, I will lay it before you, in order that by recounting it when you may have an opportunity, you may, by its facility, render those more inclined to believe, who, with Sarsi, wish to diminish my merit, such as it may be, in this matter. I reasoned then thus :-This piece of art either consists of one glass only, or of more. But one only-it cannot be; since its form must be either convex,-that is thicker in the middle than towards the extremities; or concave,-that is thinner in the middle; or it must lie between parallel superficies. But this last form in no wise alters objects seen through it, either to magnify or diminish them. The concave form diminishes them. The convex magnifies them indeed, but altogether confused and dim. One sole glass, therefore, cannot produce the effect required. Passing therefore to two glasses, I concluded in the first place, that inasmuch as a glass with parallel superficies changes nothing, as has been said, the required effect could not be produced by any combination of this form with either of the two others. Hence, I confined myself to trying the result that might be produced by the combination of the other two forms,-that is to say, the concave and the convex. And you see how this gave me the desired result. Such was the progress of my discovery, in which the preconceived opinion of the certainty of the result was of little aid to me. But if Signor Sarsi, or others, think that the foreknowledge of the possibility of the result, is of so great assistance in discovering the means of attaining that result, let them read history; and they will find that a dove, which flew, was constructed by Architas; and by Archimedes, a glass, which burned at immense distance, and other wonderful machines; that by others, perpetually burning lights, and a hundred more stupendous inventions, were discovered. By reasoning, then, respecting these things, they will be able, with very little trouble, and to their own great honour and benefit, to discover their construction. Or at all events, if by chance they should not succeed in this, they will reap another advantage from their endeavours, which will be a clearer perception, that the aid to be expected in discovering anything from a

VOL. III.-NO. II.

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