“ The severity of the inquisition was somewhat relaxed in his affliction; he was visited by eminent men of his own and foreign countries, among whom were Milton, Gassendi, and Diodati, and in the last years of his life his pupils Viviani and Torricelli formed part of his household. Almost complete deafness afterward came upon him, and at last, while preparing for a continuation of his “Dialogues on Motion,” he died of fever and palpitation of the heart.—Galileo was of middle size, well formed, with fair complexion and penetrating eyes. ”

“ Vincenzo, the father of the philosopher, was a man of learning and the author of a number of treatises on music. He was unable to give his sons a thorough education, but Galileo acquired, amid various discouragements, a fair knowledge of the classics and the common branches of learning, and also of music, drawing, and painting. The last named art he seems to have resolved upon cultivating as a profession, but his father sent him to Pisa to study medicine, where he was matriculated at the university as a scholar in arts, Nov. 5, 1581, and became a pupil of the celebrated botanist Cæsalpinus. ”

“ With this period in his life the philosopher may be said to have reached the zenith of his prosperity, while at the same time the malice of his enemies began to acquire a dangerous intensity. The Copernican system, which he had long taught in public, afforded a good pretext for attacking him. The sun's revolution round the earth was thought to be a truth of Scripture. Certain Tuscan ecclesiastics began to preach against the wickedness of sending our world spinning through space, and a sarcastic Dominican hurled a sermon at Galileo from the text: Viri Galilæi, quid statis adspicientes in cœlum? ”