Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1874-08-14
MaiseeIIansous.
Last Days Of Galile0.

Last Days Of Galileo.
The trial and Imprisonment of Galileo
form the final scene in the death of the TIA
liam intellect. The most eminent genius
of his country, if not Of his age, almost the
founder of modern science, the peer and CO.
temporary of Shakespeare, Bacon, Milton,
the successor of Michael Angelo, had Ga.
lileo obtained an utterance in Italy for SCI
entifc truth, the spell that rested upon her
might have been broken. There might
have bloomed once more literature touch
ed by the free spirit of Dante, a political
progress that would have reflected the Pu-
ritapic revolutions of the north. But with
Galileo fell the independence of Italian
thought. His abjuration is the saddest
picture in modern intellectual history.
Conscious of the truth, he was condemned
to renounce ii and repeat faisehood. The
Newton, the Herschael of his age, be was
forced to abjure the favorite studies of his
life, and pause forever in that path of sci
entific discovery which had already made
Italy famous. All the world witnessed his
fall, and he whose eyes had first pierced
the mysterious vault above, who of all his
race had first brought back tidings of new
suns and planets in its sumlime abyss,
yielded to terrors of torture, the fear Of
death, and sacrificed the integrity of his
soul to the menaces of the church. With
malignant joy the Jesuits saw the last
great italian perish within their tolls, and
were perhaps satisfied with the humiliation
of Galileo.
When a: the close of his splendid career,
covered with rououn, JO" s'..S 49, -'-~
,iHa Of nrcetra, the prisoner of the lnqni- |
sition, watched by snvious eyes, threaten
ed, should he murmur or rebel, with the !
most dreadful punishment of the church,
Galileo, sick and worn with age ana sor-
row, lamented in letters to his friends that
he had ever ventured upon those fatal stu
dies which had served only to bring upon
him persecution and shame. A fair-hair
ed, blue-eyed poet of the north, who was
just entering with an equal ardor upon the
search for truth, visited the bright skies of
Florence, saw with astonishment the i'm
prisonmento ofits greatest genius, and heard.
perhaps, from his own lips the unmerited
SORROWS that had fallen upon his later
years. 1t was Milton lamepting for Cali |
leo. In the cultivated society of Florence
the young English scholar must often haYe
remembered sbe lonely prisoner who, shut |
out from all the pleasures Of intellectual
was confined in the dis |
tant villa. Milton at Florence wrote |
verses, wascomplimented in graceful STAN
zas, and was not slow to return the ele- |
CANT adulation. Yet with all the more in |
telligent Florentines he saw typified in the
fate of Calico the quick extinction of Ital- |
ian letters. In his defence of the freedom |
of the press, he relates to the English pub !
lie how severe Inquisition had checked |
at Florence all mental progress, how the
accomplished Florentines lamented that
they had not been born in land like
England, where learning was free, how
nothing was now written in Italy but !.
"fattery and fustian.n There, +" he adds, |
'it was that found and visited the famous
Galileo, grown old, a prisoner to the In
quisition.n The spectacle of the great
philosopher, silenced, terrified, contemned.
never passed from his mind. In his youth
he lamented over him tenderly. In man.
hood, when n mental tyranny like that
which hung over Italy seemed about to en-
velop all England ,and prosecuting church
and despotic king had nearly subdued its
virtue, Milton, instructed by the fate OF
Italian thought, led on the defenders of
freedom. And when, in his old age, blind
and forsaken like Galileo, he poured forth |
in sonorous strains the treasures of a life |
of study, one of his most splendid SMILES,
one of his most touching illusions, is when
he paints the Tuscan artist on the heights
of Fiesole, and makes the chief glory of
science lend aid to the immortal grandeur |
of his song.
GALILEo's TELESCOPE. In the year |
1909, Galileo relates. he first heard from a |
friend in Flanders that an instrument had
been invented by which distant objects
were brought near and the power of vision
extended. He resolved at once to initiate
and surpass it. BY his singular mechani-
cal dexterity, bis knowledge of optics and
his highly polished glasses, he was soon
able to produce telescope before which
the Dutch instrument sank into neglect,
and was forgotten. 1t was never more
heard of; but thrill of wonder passed
over Italy and Europe when it was known
that the famous Panduan professor had
prepared an optic glass that enlarged the
bounds of vision and endowed mankind
with rew powers. TIE charm of surpass-
ing novelty covered the wonderful revela-
ton with IN unprecedented renown. The
great and the learned contended for the
possession of the new instrument. Calico
carried his telescope to Venice, and from
the tallest be!l-towers, saw through the
magic glass great argosis sailing far out at
sea, and the distant shores brought near