pseudo-science, they were fruitful. His was not
"black magic," claiming the aid of Satan, but "white magic," bringing
into service the laws of nature--the precursor of applied science. His
book on meteorology was the first in which sound ideas were broached
on this subject; his researches in optics gave the world the camera
obscura, and possibly the telescope; in chemistry he seems to have been
the first to show how to reduce the metallic oxides, and thus to have
laid the foundation of several important industries. He did much to
change natural philosophy from a black art to a vigorous open science.
He encountered the old ecclesiastical policy. The society founded by him
for physical research, "I Secreti," was broken up, and he was summoned
to Rome by Pope Paul III and forbidden to continue his investigations.

So, too, in France. In 1624, some young chemists at Paris having taught
the experimental method and cut loose from Aristotle, the faculty of
theology beset the Parliament of Paris, and the Parliament prohibited
these new chemical researches under the severest penalties.

The same war continued in Italy. Even after the belief in magic had been
seriously weakened, the old theological fear and dislike of physical
science continued. In 1657 occurred the first sitting of the Accademia
del Cimento at Florence, under the presidency of Prince Leopold de'
Medici This academy promised great things for science; it was open
to all talent; its only fundamental law was "the repudiation of
any favourite system or sect of philosophy, and the obligation to
investigate Nature by the pure light of experiment"; it entered into
scientific investigations with energy. Borelli in mathematics, Redi in
natural history, and many others, enlarged the boundaries of knowledge.
Heat, light, magnetism, electricity, projectiles, digestion, and the
incompressibility of water were studied by the right method and with
results that enriched the world.

The academy was a fortress of science, and siege was soon laid to
it. The votaries of scholastic learning denounced it as irreligious,
quarrels were fomented, Leopold was bribed with a cardinal's hat and
drawn away to Rome, and, after ten years of beleaguering, the fortress
fell: Borelli was left a beggar; Oliva killed himself in despair.

So, too, the noted Academy of the Lincei at times incurred the ill
will of the papacy by the very fact that it included thoughtful
investigators. It was "patron