Category: Biographies
THE knowledge which we at present possess of the phenomena of nature and of their connection has not by any means been regularly progressive, as we might have expected, from the time when they first drew the attention of mankind. Without entering into the question touching the...
WE may now proceed to examine Kepler's innovations, but it would be doing injustice to one of the brightest points of his character, not to preface them by his own animated exho...
18. CHAPTER XVII.DURING Galileo's residence at Sienna, when his recent persecution had rendered astronomy an ungrateful, and indeed an unsafe occupation for his ever active mind, he returned wit...
14. CHAPTER XIII.IN the year 1630, Galileo brought to its conclusion his great work, "The Dialogue on the Ptolemaic and Copernican Systems," and began to take the necessary steps for procuring p...
15. CHAPTER XIV.AFTER narrating the treatment to which Galileo was subject on account of his admirable Dialogues, it will not be irrelevant to endeavour, by a few extracts, to convey some idea...
28. CHAPTER VII.THE "Cosmographical Mystery" was written, as has been already mentioned, when Kepler was only twenty-six, and the wildness of its theories might be considered as due merely to t...
7. CHAPTER VII.AS soon as Galileo had provided himself with a second instrument, he began a careful examination of the heavenly bodies, and a series of splendid discoveries soon rewarded his d...
10. CHAPTER X.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 di...
29. CHAPTER VIII.KEPLER'S "Epitome," almost immediately on its appearance, enjoyed the honour of being placed by the side of the work of Copernicus, on the list of books prohibited by the congre...
20. CHAPTER XIX.THE remaining years of Galileo's life were spent at Arcetri, where indeed, even if the Inquisition had granted his liberty, his increasing age and infirmities would probably hav...
19. CHAPTER XVIII.IN the spring of 1636, having finished his Dialogues on Motion, Galileo resumed the plan of determining the longitude by means of Jupiter's satellites. Perhaps he suspected some...
6. CHAPTER VI.THE year 1609 was signalized by Galileo's discovery of the telescope, which, in the minds of many, is the principal, if not the sole invention associated with his name. It canno...
17. CHAPTER XVI.IT is generally difficult to trace any branch of human knowledge up to its origin, and more especially when, as in the case of mechanics, it is very closely connected with the i...
21. CHAPTER I.IN the account of the life and discoveries of Galileo, we have endeavoured to inculcate the safety and fruitfulness of the method followed by that great reformer in his search a...
24. CHAPTER III.DURING several years Kepler remained, as he himself forcibly expressed it, begging his bread from the emperor at Prague, and the splendour of his nominal income served only to i...
3. CHAPTER III.NO sooner was Galileo settled in his new office than he renewed his inquiries into the phenomena of nature with increased diligence. He instituted a course of experiments for th...
5. CHAPTER V.GALILEO'S reputation was now rapidly increasing: his lectures were attended by many persons of the highest rank; among whom were the Archduke Ferdinand, afterwards Emperor of Ge...
23. CHAPTER II.THE publication of this extraordinary book, early as it occurs in the history of Kepler's life, was yet preceded by his marriage. He had contemplated this step so early as 1592;...
4. CHAPTER IV.THIS period of Galileo's lectureship at Padua derives interest from its including the first notice which we find of his having embraced the doctrines of the Copernican astronomy...
25. CHAPTER IV.KEPLER had begun to labour upon these commentaries from the moment when he first made Tycho's acquaintance; and it is on this work that his reputation should be made mainly to r...
16. CHAPTER XV.WE have already alluded to the imperfect state of the knowledge possessed with regard to Galileo's domestic life and personal habits; there is reason however to think that unpub...
27. CHAPTER VI.WHEN presenting this celebrated book to the emperor, Kepler gave notice that he contemplated a farther attack upon Mars's relations, father Jupiter, brother Mercury, and the res...
13. CHAPTER XII.THE year 1618 was remarkable for the appearance of three comets, on which almost every astronomer in Europe found something to say and write. Galileo published some of his opini...
8. CHAPTER VIII.THERE were other discoveries announced in Galileo's book of great and unprecedented importance, and which scarcely excited less discussion than the controverted Medicæan planets...
2. CHAPTER II.GALILEO GALILEI was born at Pisa, on the 15th day of February, 1564, of a noble and ancient Florentine family, which, in the middle of the fourteenth century, adopted this surna...
9. CHAPTER IX.GALILEO'S resignation of the mathematical professorship at Padua occasioned much dissatisfaction to all those who were connected with that university. Perhaps not fully apprecia...
11. CHAPTER XI.THE uncompromising boldness with which Galileo published and supported his opinions, with little regard to the power and authority of those who advocated the contrary doctrines,...
12. book 4, dial. chap. 42, says, that he dare not decide rashly on thismatter, although he thinks more probable the opinion of those who say that it is under the earth. St. Thomas, in Opusc. 10, art. 31, says: Where hell is, whether in the centre o...
22. Book V.If the {Saturn } be taken {Jupiter = 577} {635 Ch. 9 inner {Jupiter} at 1000 {Mars = 333} According to {333—14 Surface {Mars } then the {Earth = 795} Copernicus {757—19 of the {...
1. CHAPTER I.THE knowledge which we at present possess of the phenomena of nature and of their connection has not by any means been regularly progressive, as we might have expected, from the...