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HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE

Now that the telescopic appearance of the heavens isso familiarly known, it is hardly possible for us to con-ceive the intense interest with which the first glimpseof it must have been obtained. The multiplicity of thebrilliant objects calling for examination, the undefinedexpectation of what might be revealed in them by thepowers of an instrument yet untried, and the proba-bility of numerous additions to the list of those bodieswhich had as yet come under the cognisance of man,—these, and the host of kindred emotions which musthave been excited on such an occasion, are more readilyimagined than described; and they must have united togive an overwhelming impulse to the progress of ob-servation.

Galileo , having sufficiently improved upon his instru-ment, now began assiduously to direct it to the heavens.The moon naturally formed the first object of hisattention; and we cannot fail to recognise the originalof our great poet’s picture, since we know he had theopportunity of painting from the life : —

.the moon, whose orb

Through optic glass the Tuscan artist viewsAt evening, from the top of Fesolfe,

Or in Valdarno , to descry new lands,

Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe,

Par. Lost , i. 558.

Jupiter formed the next object of examination; andno sooner was the telescope pointed to that planet, thanthe existence of the satellites was detected, and theirnature soon ascertained (February, 1610). These andother observations were described by Galileo in a tract,entitled “ Nuncius Sidereus, ” which excited an extra-ordinary sensation the moment it appeared. Manypositively denied the possibility of such discoveries;others hesitated ; all were struck with astonishment.Kepler describes, in a letter to Galileo , the impressionmade on him by the announcement. He considered ittotally incredible; nevertheless, his respect for the au-thority of Galileo was so great, that it set his brainafloat on an ocean of conjectures to discover how such a