Presently he
advanced to that famous 47th proposition which won his lively
admiration, and on he went until he had mastered the six books of
Euclid, which was a considerable achievement for those days.
The diligence and brilliance of the young student at Pisa did not,
however, bring him much credit with the University authorities. In
those days the doctrines of Aristotle were regarded as the embodiment
of all human wisdom in natural science as well as in everything
else. It was regarded as the duty of every student to learn
Aristotle off by heart, and any disposition to doubt or even to
question the doctrines of the venerated teacher was regarded as
intolerable presumption. But young Galileo had the audacity to think
for himself about the laws of nature. He would not take any
assertion of fact on the authority of Aristotle when he had the means
of questioning nature directly as to its truth or falsehood. His
teachers thus came to regard him as a somewhat misguided youth,
though they could not but respect the unflagging industry with which
he amassed all the knowledge he could acquire.
[PLATE: GALILEO'S PENDULUM.]
We are so accustomed to the use of pendulums in our clocks that
perhaps we do not often realise that the introduction of this method
of regulating time-pieces was really a notable invention worthy the
fame of the great astronomer to whom it was due.
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