ncipal persons in Venice; and our unfortunate astronomer was
surrounded by a crowd who kept him in durance for several hours, while
they passed his glass from one to another. He left Venice the next
morning, to pursue his inquiries in some less inquisitive place. But the
great bulk of the philosophers of the day were far from joining in the
general feeling. They raised an outcry against the impudent fictions of
Galileo, and one, a professor of Padua, refused repeatedly to look
through the telescope, lest he should be compelled to admit that which
he had pre-determined to deny.

It was not long before Galileo had new and equally important matter to
announce. He observed a remarkable appearance in Saturn, as if it were
composed of three stars touching each other; his telescope was not
sufficiently powerful to resolve them into Saturn and his ring. Within a
month he ascertained that Venus exhibits phases like those of the
moon--a discovery of great importance in confirming the Copernican
system. The same phenomenon he afterward detected in Mars. We close the
list with the discovery of the revolution of the sun round his axis, in
the space of about a lunar month, derived from careful observation of
the spots on his surface.

About this time (1610-1611) Galileo took up his abode in Tuscany, upon
the invitation of the grand duke, who offered to him his original
situation at Pisa, with a liberal salary, exemption from the necessity
of residence, and complete leisure to pursue his studies. In 1612 he
published a discourse on "Floating Bodies," in which he investigates the
theory of buoyancy, and refutes, by a series of beautiful and conclusive
experiments, the opinion that the floating or sinking of bodies depends
on their shape.

Neither Copernicus nor his immediate followers suffered inconvenience or
restraint on account of their astronomical doctrines; nor had Galileo,
until this period of his life, incurred ecclesiastical censure for
anything which he had said or written. But the Inquisition now took up
the matter as heretical and contrary to the express words of Scripture;
and in 1616, Copernicus's work, "De Revolutionibus," Kepler's "Epitome,"
and some of Galileo's own letters, were placed on the list of prohibited
books; and he himself, being then in Rome, received formal notice not to
teach that the earth revolves round the sun. He returned to Florence
full of indignation; and considering his hasty temper, love of tru