they went back muttering and
discontented to their musty old volumes and their garrets, there to
invent occult reasons for denying the validity of the observation, and
for referring it to some unknown disturbing cause.

They saw that if they gave way on this one point they would be letting
go their anchorage, and henceforward would be liable to drift along with
the tide, not knowing whither. They dared not do this. No; they _must_
cling to the old traditions; they could not cast away their rotting
ropes and sail out on to the free ocean of God's truth in a spirit of
fearless faith.

Yet they had received a shock: as by a breath of fresh salt breeze and a
dash of spray in their faces, they had been awakened out of their
comfortable lethargy. They felt the approach of a new era. Yes, it was a
shock, and they hated the young Galileo for giving it them--hated him
with the sullen hatred of men who fight for a lost and dying cause.

We need scarcely blame these men; at least we need not blame them
overmuch. To say that they acted as they did is to say that they were
human, were narrow-minded, and were the apostles of a lost cause. But
_they_ could not know this; _they_ had no experience of the past to
guide them; the conditions under which they found themselves were novel,
and had to be met for the first time. Conduct which was excusable then
would be unpardonable now, in the light of all this experience to guide
us. Are there any now who practically repeat their error, and resist new
truth? who cling to any old anchorage of dogma, and refuse to rise with
the tide of advancing knowledge? There may be some even now.

Well, the unpopularity of Galileo smouldered for a time, until, by
another noble imprudence, he managed to offend a semiroyal personage,
Giovanni de' Medici, by giving his real opinion, when consulted, about a
machine which De' Medici had invented for cleaning out the harbor of
Leghorn. He said it was as useless as it in fact turned out to be.
Through the influence of the mortified inventor he lost favor at court;
and his enemies took advantage of the fact to render his chair
untenable. He resigned before his three years were up, and retired to
Florence.

His father at this time died, and the family were left in narrow
circumstances. He had a brother and three sisters to provide for. He was
offered a professorship at Padua for six years by the Senate of Venice,
and willingly accepted it. Now began a very suc