PHYSICAL AMI MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES. 159

then at the head of the Italian mathematicians, whodirected his attention to various points in hydrostaticsrequiring more full illustration, and was ultimately themeans of recommending him to the patronage ofFerdinand de’ Medici, grand duke of Tuscany , throughwhose influence he was appointed to the lectureship inmathematics at Pisa , in 1589.

Settled in his new office, he directed his attentionwith increased energy to a rigid examination of thefavourite dogmas of the Aristotelian physics by thetest of experiment. In such enquiries he was not un-supported by the concurrence of several of his enlight-ened countrymen. Benedetto had controverted someof the positions of Aristotle ’s mechanics; and thatuniversal genius Leonardo da Vinci employed much ofhis time in similar discussions. The views of Coper-nicus also were now making a silent, hut sure progressin the estimation of learned men. But we have amore striking instance in Giordano Bruno , who attackedthe scholastic doctrines with unsparing boldness, andexposed their absurdities to the most deserved ridicule.He was, of course, soon brought under the power ofthe Inquisition , condemned as a heretic, and ultimatelyburnt at Rome , in ifiOO.

Galileo was not backward in contributing to thesame great work of intellectual emancipation; and asfast as he succeeded in refuting the scholastic tenets byhis appeal to experiment, he denounced them from hisprofessorial chair with an energy and success whichirritated more and more against him the other mem-bers of the academic body.

One grand tenet of the schools was, that heavy bodiesfall to the earth more rapidly than lighter in proportionto their weight. Galileo , in the presence of the uni-versity, ascended the leaning tower of Pisa , and droppedfrom its summit bodies of different weights: withan inconsiderable difference, due to the resistance ofthe air, they reached the ground nearly at the samemoment. The learned quoted Aristotle in preference