The story of the sun, moon, and stars . him. Galileos was a sadder tale. A Florentine of noblebirth, he turned his attention early to science as theneedle turns to the north, and before the age of twenty-seven he already occupied a foremost position as math-ematical lecturer at Pisa. There it was that he dire-fully offended the philosophers of the day by provingAristotle to be in the wrong. For Aristotle was thegreat master of the schoolmen. His philosophy andtheories were accepted as final, and whatsoever couldnot be proved in accordance with them was regardedas untrue. Aristotle had declared
The story of the sun, moon, and stars . him. Galileos was a sadder tale. A Florentine of noblebirth, he turned his attention early to science as theneedle turns to the north, and before the age of twenty-seven he already occupied a foremost position as math-ematical lecturer at Pisa. There it was that he dire-fully offended the philosophers of the day by provingAristotle to be in the wrong. For Aristotle was thegreat master of the schoolmen. His philosophy andtheories were accepted as final, and whatsoever couldnot be proved in accordance with them was regardedas untrue. Aristotle had declared that if two weights—the one being ten times as heavy as the other—weredropped together from a height, the heavier weightwould reach the ground ten times as quickly as thelighter. Everybody believed this, and nobody had everthought of putting it to the test of actual trial. Aris-totle had said so, and Aristotle was indorsed as a wholeby all the schools of Europe; and what more couldpossibly be wanted by any reasonable human being?. j%uj Jiuller., Prominent Astronomers of the Nineteenth Century. 377 378 STORY OF run SUN, MOON, AND STARS. But Galileo was not so easily satisfied. He lookedinto the matter independently, bent upon finding out,not what Aristotle had thought or what the Churchmight support, but simply what actually was. Then, in view of many observers, called togetherfor the occasion, he dropped, at the same instant, fromthe top of the leaning tower of Pisa, a shot weighingone pound and another shot weighing a hundredpounds. And, behold! both reached the ground si-multaneously. There was not a fraction of differencebetween the two. To prove Aristotle wrong was toprove everybody wrong, the authorities of the Churchincluded. Men calmly declined to believe their owneyes, and Galileo was in very evil odor. From falling bodies he went on to subjects of yetwider interest to people in general. He read aboutand eagerly embraced the Copernican system. Notonly did he accept
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