greatly augmented size and splendor. When in opposition to the sun, (at which time it comes nearest to Jupiter,) it would be a grand object, appearing larger than either Venus or Jupiter does to us. When, however, passing to the other side of the sun, through its superior conjunction, it would gradually diminish in size and brightness, and at length become much less than it ever appears to us, since it would then be four hundred millions of miles further from Jupiter than it ever is from us. Although Jupiter comes four hundred millions of miles nearer to Uranus than the earth does, yet it is still thirteen hundred millions of miles distant from that planet. Hence the augmentation of the magnitude and light of Uranus would be barely sufficient to render it distinguishable by the naked eye. It appears, therefore, that Saturn is the peculiar ornament of the firmament of Jupiter, and would present to the telescope most interesting and sublime phenomena. As we owe the revelation of the system of Jupiter and his attendant worlds wholly to the telescope, and as the discovery and observation of them constituted a large portion of the glory of Galileo, I am now forcibly reminded of his labors, and will recur to his history, and finish the sketch which I commenced in a previous Letter. LETTER XXII. COPERNICUS.-GALILEO. "They leave at length the nether gloom, and stand To happier plains they come, and fairer groves, A brighter day, a bluer ether, spreads Its lucid depths above their favored heads; And, purged from mists that veil our earthly skies, In order to appreciate the value of the contributions which Galileo made to astronomy, soon after the invention of the telescope, it is necessary to glance at the state of the science when he commenced his discoveries. For many centuries, during the middle ages, a dark night had hung over astronomy, through which hardly a ray of light penetrated, when, in the eastern part of civilized Europe, a luminary appeared, that proved the harbinger of a bright and glorious day. This was Copernicus, a native of Thorn, in Prussia. He was born in 1473. Though destined for the profession of medicine, from his earliest years he displayed a great fondness and genius for mathematical studies, and pursued them with distinguished success in the University of Cracow. At the age of twenty-five years, he resorted to Italy, for the purpose of studying astronomy, where he resided a number of years. Thus prepared, he returned to his native country, and, having acquired an ecclesiastical living that was adequate to his support in his frugal mode of life, he established himself at Frauenberg, a small town near the mouth of the Vistula, where he spent nearly forty years in observing the heavens, and meditating on the celestial motions. He occupied the upper part of a humble farm-house, through the roof of which he could find access to an unobstructed sky, and there he carried on his observations. His instruments, however, were few and imperfect, and it does not appear that he added any thing to the art of practical astronomy. This was reserved for Tycho Brahe, who came a half a century after him. Nor did Copernicus enrich the science with any important discoveries. It was not so much his genius or taste to search for new bodies, or new phenomena among the stars, as it was to explain the reasons of the most obvious and wellknown appearances and motions of the heavenly bodies. With this view, he gave his mind to long-continued and profound meditation. Copernicus tells us that he was first led to think that the apparent motions of the heavenly bodies, in their diurnal revolution, were owing to the real motion of the earth in the opposite direction, from observing instances of the same kind among terrestrial objects; as when the shore seems to the mariner to recede, as he rapidly sails from it; and as trees and other objects seem to glide by us, when, on riding swiftly past them, we lose the consciousness of our own motion. He was also smitten with the simplicity prevalent in all the works and operations of Nature, which is more and more conspicuous the more they are understood; and he hence concluded that the planets do not move in the complicated paths which most preceding astronomers assigned to them. I shall explain to you, hereafter, the details of his system. I need only at present remind you that the hypothesis which he espoused and defended, (being substantially the same as that proposed by Pythagoras, five hundred years before the Christian era,) supposes, first, that the apparent movements of the sun by day, and of the moon and stars by night, from east to west, result from the actual revolution of the earth on its own axis from west to east; and, secondly, that the earth and all the planets revolve about the sun in circular orbits. This hypothesis, when he first assumed it, was with him, as it had been with Pythagoras, little more than mere conjecture. The arguments by which its truth was to be finally established were not yet developed, and could not be, without the aid of the telescope, which was not yet invented. Upon this hypothesis, however, he set out to explain all the phenomena of the visible heavens,-as the diurnal revolutions of the sun, moon, and stars, the slow progress of the planets through the signs of the zodiac, and the numerous irregularities to which the planetary motions are subject. These last are apparently so capricious, being for some time forward, then stationary, then backward, then stationary again, and finally direct, a second time, in the order of the signs, and constantly varying in the velocity of their movements,—that nothing but long-continued and severe meditation could have solved all these appearances, in conformity with the idea that each planet is pursuing its simple way all the while in a circle around the sun. Although, therefore, Pythagoras fathomed the profound doctrine that the sun is the centre around which the earth and all the planets revolve, yet we have no evidence that he ever solved the irregular motions of the planets in conformity with his hypothesis, although the explanation of the diurnal revolution of the heavens, by that hypothesis, involved no difficulty. Ignorant as Copernicus was of the principle of gravitation, and of most of the laws of motion, he could go but little way in following out the consequences of his own hypothesis; and all that can be claimed for him is, that he solved, by means of it, most of the common phenomena of the celestial motions. He indeed got upon the road to truth, and advanced some way in its sure path; but he was able to adduce but few independent proofs, to show that it was the truth. It was only quite at the close of his life that he published his system to the world, and that only at the urgent request of his friends; anticipating, perhaps, the opposition of a bigoted priesthood, whose fury was afterwards poured upon the head of Galileo, for maintaining the same doctrines. Although, therefore, the system of Copernicus afforded an explanation of the celestial motions, far more simple and rational than the previous systems which made the earth the centre of those motions, yet this fact alone was not sufficient to compel the assent of astronomers; for the greater part, to say the least, of the same phenomena, could be explained on either hypothesis. With the old doctrine astronomers were already familiar, a circumstance which made it seem easier; while the new doctrines would seem more difficult, from their being imperfectly understood. Accordingly, for nearly a century after the publication of the system of Copernicus, he gained few disciples. Tycho Brahe rejected it, and proposed one of his own, of which I shall hereafter give you some account; and it would probably have fallen quite into oblivion, had not the observations of Galileo, with his newly-invented telescope, brought to light innumerable proofs of its truth, far more cogent than any which Copernicus himself had been able to devise. Galileo no sooner had completed his telescope, and directed it to the heavens, than a world of wonders suddenly burst upon his enraptured sight. Pointing it to the moon, he was presented with a sight of her mottled disk, and of her mountains and valleys. The sun exhibited his spots; Venus, her phases; and Jupiter, his expanded orb, and his retinue of moons. These last he named, in honor of his patron, Cosmo d'Medici, Medicean stars. So great was this honor deemed of associating one's name with the stars, that express application was made to Galileo, by the court of France, to award this distinction to the reigning Monarch, Henry the Fourth, with plain intimations, that by so doing he would render himself and his family rich and powerful for ever. Galileo published the result of his discoveries in a paper, denominated 'Nuncius Sidereus,' the 'Messenger of the Stars.' In that ignorant and marvellous age, this publication produced a wonderful excitement. "Many doubted, many positively refused to believe, so novel an announcement; all were struck with the greatest astonishment, according to their respective opinions, either at the new view of the universe thus offered to them, or at the high audacity of Galileo, in inventing such fables." Even Kepler, the great German astronomer, of whom I shall tell you more by and by, wrote to Galileo, and desired him to supply him with arguments, by which he might answer the objections to these pretended discoveries with which he was continually assailed. Galileo answered him as follows: "In the first place, I return you my thanks that you first, and almost alone, before the question had been sifted, (such is your candor, and the loftiness of your mind,) put faith in my assertions. You tell me you have some telescopes, but not sufficiently good to magnify distant objects with clearness, and that you anxiously expect a sight of mine, which magnifies images more than a thousand times. It is mine no longer, for the Grand Duke of Tuscany has asked it of me, and intends to lay it up in his museum, among |