tics, and
enjoying the paternally dreaded stipend of seven and a half pence a day.

Now it was that he pondered over the laws of falling bodies. He
verified, by experiment, the fact that the velocity acquired by falling
down any slope of given height was independent of the angle of slope.
Also, that the height fallen through was proportional to the square of
the time.

Another thing he found experimentally was that all bodies, heavy and
light, fell at the same rate, striking the ground at the same time. Now
this was clean contrary to what he had been taught. The physics of those
days were a simple reproduction of statements in old books. Aristotle
had asserted certain things to be true, and these were universally
believed. No one thought of trying the thing to see if it really were
so. The idea of making an experiment would have savored of impiety,
because it seemed to tend toward scepticism, and cast a doubt on a
reverend authority.

Young Galileo, with all the energy and imprudence of youth--what a
blessing that youth has a little imprudence and disregard of
consequences in pursuing a high ideal!--as soon as he perceived that his
instructors were wrong on the subject of falling bodies, instantly
informed them of the fact. Whether he expected them to be pleased or not
is a question. Anyhow, they were not pleased, but were much annoyed by
his impertinent arrogance.

It is, perhaps, difficult for us now to appreciate precisely their
position. These doctrines of antiquity, which had come down hoary with
age, and the discovery of which had reawakened learning and quickened
intellectual life, were accepted less as a science or a philosophy than
as a religion. Had they regarded Aristotle as a verbally inspired
writer, they could not have received his statements with more
unhesitating conviction. In any dispute as to a question of fact, such
as the one before us concerning the laws of falling bodies, their method
was not to make an experiment, but to turn over the pages of Aristotle;
and he who could quote chapter and verse of this great writer was held
to settle the question and raise it above the reach of controversy.

It is very necessary for us to realize this state of things clearly,
because otherwise the attitude of the learned of those days toward every
new discovery seems stupid and almost insane. They had a crystallized
system of truth, perfect, symmetrical; it wanted no novelty, no
additions; every addition or