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HISTORICAL VIEW 01' THE

A few years earlier than

Ga

'ebruary

'ebruary 15. 1564)

was born his illustrious friend and contemporary inpublic fame, Galileo de’ Galilei, the son of Vincenzode’ Galilei of Pisa. After the fashion of that age andcountry, he appears to have been more commonlydesignated by the name of Galileo , by which he hasbeen since known.

Vincenzo was a man of considerable learning andtalent, who early appreciated and properly cultivatedthe expanding genius of his son : at the university ofPisa he was very soon distinguished, not merely forgeneral proficiency in his studies, but for the singularboldness with which he maintained original opinionsoften at variance with the received scholastic dogmas.

In the cathedral of Pisa , one of the chandeliershanging from the lofty roof had accidentally been setswinging; this instantly struck the observant mind ofthe young philosopher, who noticed the fact that itsvibrations were performed in exactly equal times, bycomparing them with the beatings of his pulse. Thissubject afterwards occupied much of his attention ;but for the present he went no further than to applythe principle to the purposes of the medical profession,to which his views were directed, by contriving a pen-dulum with a variable length of string, by which itsbeats might be made to accord with those of the pulse,and thus give a measure of its rate.

From that profession, however, his thoughts weresoon withdrawn by the attractions of mathematicalstudies, upon which he was now entering; he madehimself master of the ancient geometers, particularlyArchimedes , and immediately proceeded to enlarge andimprove upon the last-mentioned philosopher, by com-posing a work on the “ hydrostatical balance.” Thisessay introduced him to the notice of Guido Ubaldi ,