SIN DAVID BREWSTER'S MARTYRS OF SCIENCE.

Tea title of this volume has been chosen rather with reference to the taking character of its sound, than with strict regard to the contents ; for neither TYCHO BRAHE nor KEPLER could be con- sidered martyrs of science ; and had not GALILEO been eminent in science, he would have died at the stake, or lingered out his life in the dungeons of the Inquisition, instead of being permitted to make a recantation, which was in reality a mockery, and allowed to pass his old age first in one retreat and then in another, according to his wishes or the state of his health. A glance at the facts of the case as stated by Sir DAVID BREWSTER will substantiate this view. In consequence of his astro- nomical celebrity, TYCHO BRAKE received from his sovereign, FREDERICK the Second, the grant of an island, an estate, and an income, with almost unlimited power of expenditure in fitting up an observatory ; and the regal patronage, together with his fame, drew upon him the attentions of foreign nobility, and even of sovereign princes, who visited him at his island seat. On the death of his patron, TYCHO was exposed to the enmity of courtiers and ministers ; his chemical studies were forbidden ; and he was exposed to the alights of a man whom a court looks down upon. But no per- sonal injury was offered : he was allowed to withdraw himself, and remove his instruments from Denmark, to obtain the patronage of an Emperor of Germany ; and with this potentate he re- mained till his death. The Emperor Runor,rli gave him a splendid funeral : "he was interred in the dress of a nobleman, and with the ceremonies of his order. The funeral oration was pronounced by Jessenius, before a distinguished assemblage, and many elegies were written on his death." That Trcno BRAISE was often dis- contented may be granted : he seems to have had an ill-balanced temperament, which induced him to run counter to the usages of society and the opinions of men, whilst he made his happiness dependent upon their good-will. But if Trcno was a martyr, we are all martyrs, for his distresses arose from not being able to have every thing he wanted.

The misfortunes of KEPLER were more real. Ill health, narrow circumstances, and the occasional contests in which an ardent temper, stimulated by such irritating causes, involved him, are positive evils. But these did not arise from his science : on the contrary, whatever advantages he possessed in life were owing to his acquirements ; his troubles sprung from his fortune. His father was a scamp, his mother a woman of low habits and excit- able temper, and both without means. In his infancy, young KEPLER was pretty much abandoned to chance and charity : when his parents reclaimed him from his grandfather, at seven years old, it was to make him a servant in an inn they had opened. After struggling till his fifteenth year with such external disadvan- tages, and violent sickness, he was admitted, in 1586, to the school at the Monastery of Maulbronn, which had been established at the Reformation, and was maintained at the expense of the Duke of WIRTEMBERG as a preparatory seminary for the University of Tu- bingen. In prosecuting his studies both at school and college, KEPLER was "sadly interrupted, not only by periodical returns of his former complaints, but by family quarrels of the most serious import." However, he weathered all his difficulties ; and in 1594 was appointed to the astronomical chair at Gratz. He soon began those speculations and discoveries which have immortalized his name ; but it cannot be said that his own times were neglectful of him. He was involved in difficulties through an imprudent mar- riage, and the violence of religious contention; but GALILEO and Tien° BRAKE, to say nothing of lesser names, acknowledged the excellence of his works : by the latter he was recommended to the Emperor RUDOLPH, and continued attached to his successors till a

short time before his death in 1630, honoured by his own sove- reigns, and by foreign states,—though often, it is true, distressed for money, because the treasury was so exhausted by the wars of the period that his salary frequently went unpaid, like many other salaries.

The opinion of GALILEO'S sufferings is more generally held • for he has furnished poets with an illustration. " The starry Galileo and his woes" have been noted by BYRON ; and JOHNSON has used " Galileo's end" * to point the Vanity of Human Wishes. Still, he has really no more claim to be ranked as a martyr of science than either of his contemporaries. His family was noble, but reduced; and his own fortunes would not of themselves have enabled him to emerge from that most painful of states a position without the means of supporting it. Now let us see what science did for its martyr. By the time he was five-and-twenty, " Ferdinand de Me- dici was made acquainted with the merits of our young philosopher, and in 1589 he was appointed lecturer on mathematics at Pisa." Three years afterwards, he was nominated by the republic of Venice to the chair of Mathematics in the University of Padua : and this was shortly afterwards his position.

GALILEO AT THIRTY.

Galileo's reputation was now widely extended over Europe. The Archduke Ferdinand, (afterwards Emperor of Germany,) the Landgrave of Hesse, and the Princes of Alsace and Mantua, honoured his lectures with their presence ; and Prince Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden also received instructions from him in mathematics during his sojourn in Italy.

When Galileo had completed the first period of his engagement at Padua, he was reelected for other six years, with an increased salary of 320 florins. This liberal addition to his income is ascribed by Fabbroni to the malice of one of his enemies, who informed the Senate that Galileo was living in illicit inter- course with Marina Gamba. Without inquiring into the truth of the accusa- tion, the Senate is said to have replied, that if "he had a family to support, he had the more need of an increased salary." It is more likely that the liberality of the republic had been called forth by the high reputation of their professor, and that the terms of their reply were intended only to rebuke the malignity of the informer.

GALILEO AT FORTY.TWO.

In the year 1606, Galileo was again appointed to the Professorship at Padua, with an augmented stipend of 520 forms. His popularity had now risen so high, that his audience could not be accommodated in his lecture-room ; and even when he had assembled them in the school of medicine, which contained 1,000 persons, he was frequently obliged to adjourn to the open air.

THE "MARTYR OF SCIENCE" NEGOTIATING WITH A SOVEREIGN PRINCE'.

Although he had quitted the service and the domains of his munificent patron the Grand Duke of Tuscany, yet he maintained his connexion with the family, by visiting Florence during his academic vacations, and giving mathe- matical instruction to the younger branches of that distinguished house. Cosmo, who had been one of his pupils, now succeeded his father Ferdinand ; and having his mind early imbued with a love of knowledge, which had become i hereditary n his family, he felt that the residence of Galileo within his domi-

nions, and still more his introduction into his household, would do honour to their common country, and reflect a lustre upon his own name. In the year 1609, accordingly, Cosmo made proposals to Galileo to return to his original situation at Pisa. These overtures were gratefully received; and in the ar- rangements which Galileo on this occasion suggested, as well as in the manner in which they were urged, we obtain some insight into his temper and charac- ter. He informs the correspondent through whom Cosmo's offer was con- veyed, that his salary of 520 florins at Padua would be increased to as many crowns at his reelection, and that he could enlarge his income to any extent he pleased, by giving private lectures and receiving pupils. His public duties, he stated, occupied him only sixty half-hours in the year ; but his studies suffered such interruptions from his domestic pupils and private lectures, that his most ardent wish was to be relieved from them, in order that he might have sufficient rest and leisure, before the close of his life, to finish and publish those great works which he had projected.

GALILEO AT ROME.

Galileo had long contemplated a visit to the metropolis of Italy, and he ac- cordingly carried his intentions into effect in the early part of the year 1611. Here.he was received with that distinction which was due to his great talents and his extended reputation. Princes, cardinals, and prelates hastened to do him. honour ; and even those who discredited his discoveries and dreaded their re- sults, vied with the true friends of science in their anxiety to see the intellec- tual wonder of the age.

That GaLti.so was persecuted by the Church, cited before the Inquisition, twice compelled to retract his theory, or rather that of COPERNICUS, respecting the motion of the earth, and at last com- mitted to a sort of surveillance, is true. But his bearing was by no meana' that of a martyr, for it is the essence of martyrdom to die rather than recant ; nor was there any thing of severity in the process itself. The Florentine Ambassador negotiated touching his citation: when the Pope was found immoveable, the philosopher travelled to Rome by easy stages, and was lodged there in the palaces of Ambassadors and Cardinals ; and this was his trial.

"During the whole of the trial which had now commenced, Galileo was treated with the most marked indulgence. Abhorring, as we must do, the principles and practice of this odious tribunal, and reprobating its interference with the cautious deductions of science, we must yet admit that on this occa- sion its deliberations were not dictated by passion, nor its power directed by vengeance. Though placed at their judgment-seat as a heretic, Galileo stood there with the recognized attributes of a sage ; and though an offender against the laws of which they were the guardians, yet the highest respect was yielded to his genius, and the kindest commiseration to his infirmities.

"In the beginning of April, when his examination in person was to commence, it became necessary that he should be removed to the Holy Office ; hut instead of committing him, as was the practice, to solitary confinement, he was pro- vided with apartments in the house of the Fiscal of the Inquisition. His table was provided by the Tuscan Ambassador, and his servant was allowed to attend him at his pleasure, and to sleep in an adjoining apartment. Even this nomi- nal confinement, however, Galileo's high spirit was unable to brook. An attack of the disease to which he was constitutionally subject contributed to fret and irri- tate him, and he became impatient for a release from his anxiety as well as from his bondage. Cardinal Barberino seems to have received notice of the state of Galileo's feelings, and, with a magnanimity which posterity will ever honour, he liberated the philosopher on his own responsibility ; and in ten days after * "Should dreams yet flatter, once again attend, Hear Lydiat's life and Giffileo's end." his first examination, and on the last day of April, he was restored to the hos- pitable roof of the Tuscan Ambassador.'

It is needless to say that we reprobate all forcible interference to control opinion, and suppose no one at the present time would venture to uphold a contrary doctrine in words: but this doctrine was not prevalent in that age ; and if opinion was to be controlled at all, it was impossible to do it more mildly. Strictly speaking, however, it was not so much for advancing his philosophical views that GALILEO was persecuted, as for attacks upon the Church. COPERNICUS had dedicated his work to the Pope ; clergymen bad advocated the system without censure ; and Sir DAVID BREWSTER admits that GALILEO, as the saying is, "flew in the face" of the authorities when they had let him off easily the first time ; and both his conduct and defence smacked of disingenuity. We state these things not to depreciate the philosopher or to extenuate the churchmen, but, according to our means, to disseminate the truth. The treatment of GALILEO in the seventeenth century, even by the Holy Office, was not a whit more severe than that of the two London Sheriffs by the House of Commons last year for obeying the law : it was courteous and respectful compared with what our Constitutional Government inflicts upon any friendless Radical who may happen to say something displeasing to the authorities ; and will not bear a comparison with the fate of the thousand victims who have worn out life in the dungeons of the Inquisition, or been immolated in an auto-da-fe. To call such a man a martyr, even had he suffered more, is a perversion of terms : he had none of the stuff in him of which martyrs are made.

The tendency to sacrifice truth to point extends no further than phrases in Sir DAVID BREWSTER'S volume : he fully admits the faults of his philosophers. His book, however, is pervaded by that unphilosophic spirit, the bane of modern times, which would degrade the sage into a courtier, and hankers after "titles and strings," * pensions and patronage. In other respects, the volume is a clear and readable account of the principal events in the lives of the three great founders of modern astronomy, combined with a just enough estimate of their personal characters, and a pleasant and popular sketch of their scientific discoveries. A fuller and profounder work, with a greater display of intellectual strength, might be produced; but it might be difficult to write one so trip- pingly on subjects connected with science.

DISCOVERY OF THE TELESCOPE.

Galileo placed at the ends of a leaden tube two spectacle-glasses, both of which were plain on one side, while one of them had its other side convex, and the other its second side concave, and having applied his eye to the concave glass, he saw objects pretty large and pretty near him. This little instrument, which magnified only three times, he carried in triumph to Venice, where it excited the most intense interest. Crowds of the principal citizens flocked to his house to see the magical toy ; and after nearly a month had been spent in gra- tifying this epidemical cariosity, Galileo was led to understand from Leonardo Deodati, the DOM. of yenice: that the Senate "wouia be highly icratibed by oh- taming possession ofso extraordinary an instrument. Galileo instantly com- plied with the wishes of his patrons, who acknowledged the present by a man- date conferring upon him for life his Professorship at Padua, and generously raising his salary from 520 to 1,000 florins.

RAGE FOR THE TELESCOPE.

The interest which the exhibition of the telescope excited at Venice did not soon subside : Sirturi describes it as amounting almost to phrensy. When he himself had succeeded in making one of these instruments, he ascended the tower of St. Mark, where he might use it without molestation. He was re- cognized, however, by a crowd in the street ; and such was the eagerness of their curiosity, that they took possession of the wondrous tube, and detained the impatient philosopher for several hours, till they had successively witnessed its effects. Desirous of obtaining the same gratification for their friends, they endeavoured to learn the name of the inn at which he lodged; but Sirturi for- tunately overheard their inquiries, and quitted Venice early next morning, in order to avoid a second visitation of this new school of philosophers. The op- ticians speedily availed themselves of the new instrument. Galileo's tube—or the double eye-glass, or the cylinder, or the trunk, as it was then called, for Demisiano had not yet given it the appellation of telescope—was manufactured in great quantities, and in a very superior manner. The instruments were purchased merely as philosophical toys, and were carried by travellers into every corner of Europe.

DEFENCE OF THE ALCHEMISTS.

The conduct of the scientific alchemists of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries presents a problem of very difficult solution. When we consider that a gas, a fluid, and a solid may consist of the very same ingre- dients in different proportions ; that a virulent poison may differ from the most wholesome food only in the difference of quantity of the very same elements ; that gold and silver, and lead and mercury, and indeed all the metals, may be extracted from transparent crystals, which scarcely differ in their appearance from a piece of common salt or a bit of sugar-candy ; and that diamond is no- thing more than charcoal, we need not greatly wonder at the extravagant ex- pectation that the precious metals and the noblest gems might be procured from the basest materials. These expectations, too, must have been often excited by the startliug results of their daily experiments. The most ignorant com- pounder of simples could not fail to witness the magical transformations of chemical action ; and every new product must have added to the probability that the tempting doublets of gold and silver might be thrown from the dice- box with which he was gambling.

But when the precious metals were found in lead and copper by the action of powerful reagents, it was natural to suppose that they had been actually formed daring the process ; and men of well-regulated minds even might have thus been led to embark in new adventures to procure a more copious supply, with- out any insult being offered to sober reason, or any injury inflicted on sound morality. When an ardent and ambitious mind is once dazzled with the fascination of some lofty pursuit, where gold is the object or fame the impulse, it is difficult to pause in a doubtful career, and to make a voluntary shipwreck of the repu- tation which has been staked. Hope still cheers the aspirant from failure to failure, till the loss of fortune.and the decay of credit disturb the serenity of his mind, and hurry bins on to the last resource of baffled ingenuity and dis- appointed ambition. The philosopher thus becomes an impostor; and by the pretended transmutation of the baser metals into gold, or the discovery of the * "Stuck o'er with titles, and hung round with strings, That thou may'st be by kings," &c. Essay on Aran. philosopher's stone, he attempts to sustain his sinking reputation and recover the fortune he has lost. The communication of the great secret is now the staple commodity with which he is to barter, and the grand talisman with which he is to conjure. It can be imparted only to a chosen few—to those among the opulent who merit it by their virtues, and can acquire it by their diligence; and the Divine vengeance is threatened against its disclosure.