plunder of them. The Hottentots assert, also, that to obtain access to the hives in hollow trees, the honeybird often calls to its aid the woodpecker -a bird which finds in the larvae, or young bees, a treat as enticing to its taste as the honey is to that of its ingenious associate. Though I cannot vouch, on my own knowledge, for the truth of the latter statement, it yet seems quite in conformity with the general habits of this singular bird, and, at all events, may be admitted as sufficient poetical authority for a foundation to the following little fable.-T. P.] THE Honey-bird sat on the yellow-wood tree, And aye he was singing" Cherr-cherr-a, cu- A-watching the hive of the blithe Honey-bee- The bee-hive was built in the hollow-tree bole, The Bees they flew in, and the Bees they flew out, "Boom-a-boo, foom-a-boo, boom-a-buzz-zoola !” And they seemed to buzz round with a jeer and a flout Boom-a-boo, foom-a-boo, boom-bom-a-boo-la!" But the Honey-bird swore by the Aasvogel's bill, "Cherr-a-cherr, cherr-a-cherr, gobble-a-goolu !” So he flew to the Woodpecker-" Cousin," quoth he, Come, help me to harry the sly Honey-bee, hoola !" Says the Woodpecker, gravely, "To rob is a crime, Quoth the Honey-bird, "Cousin, reflect, if you please, Cherr-a-cherr, cherr-a-cherr, cherr-a cu-coo-la! The honey-comb's half-full of juicy young bees, Cherr-a-cherr, cherr-a-cherr, gobble-a-goola!" " The Moral. Now think, little dear, as you sit at your tea, THE WRONGS OF AMAKOSA. were ravaged or cut down for forage; and the wretched and famished inhabitants were, in many instances, mercilessly destroyed, being bombarded in the thickets to which they had fled with grape-shot and Congreve rockets. An officer (Captain Stockenstrom), who had the unhappiness to be employed by the Cape government in this deplorable warfare, furnished me with some notes which he had preserved of a speech, delivered in his presence to the British commandant, in a noble and manly strain of eloquence, by a Caffer envoy-one of the followers of the Chief Makanna, who had, in the extremity of his country's distress, voluntarily surrendered himself as a hostage. The following is a brief specimen : Ulin guba inkulu siambata tina, In the wars between the European colonists and the native tribes of South Africa, many mutual injuries, as in most similar cases, have been inflicted; but, if the balance were fairly adjusted, an enormous preponderance of wrong must, I fear, be placed to the account of the less excusable party-the enlightened and the powerful. In support of this opinion, I shall state a few facts from the recent history of the Caffer frontier, which I had opportunities of investigating upon the spot, during a residence of several years in the colony, and which, though not altogether novel, are not, perhaps, so well known as they ought to be. In the year 1818 an internal war broke out among the Caffer or Amakosa tribes, who inhabit the beautiful country on the eastern frontier of the Cape colony; and, one of the parties being worsted, their chief, Gaika, applied to the colonial authorities for aid against his opponents. The Cape government of the day thought fit to interfere, and immediately became the principal in a quarrel with which it had properly no concern. A strong military force was sent over the Great Fish River (then the colonial boundary), which ravaged the territories of the confederate chiefs opposed to Gaika, Llhambi, Jaluhsa, Habanna, Congo, Enno, and their followers, and carried off into the colony twenty-three thousand head of cattle, comprising nearly half the live stock of the clans attacked, and their chief means of subsistence; their gardens and fields of millet being also, to a great extent, destroyed in the "Ha! ha!" cries the Woodpecker, "that's a strong expedition. The exasperated tribes, incited at plea, Tic-a-tac, tic-a-tac, tac-at-a-foola! I now see the justice of robbing the Bee- They're a polypode race, and have poisonous stings Tic-a-tac, tic-a-tac, chop-at-a-hoola! "This war, British Chiefs, is an unjust war; for you are striving to extirpate a people whom and the white men first met in the Zuurveld (Albany), they dwelt together in peace. Their flocks grazed on the same hill; their husbandmen smoked together out of the same pipes; they were as brethren; until the colonists (the Dutch Boors) became too covetous, and, when they could not obtain all our cattle for beads and old buttons, began to take them by force. Our fathers were men: they loved their cattle; their wives and children lived upon milk. They fought for their property; then there was war. Our fathers drove the Boors out of the Zuurveld, and dwelt there, for they had justly conquered it. There we were circumcised; there we married wives; and there our children were born. The Boors hated us, but could not drive us away. But you (the British) came into the land; and you took into your friendship our enemies. You called the treacherous Ĝaika your brother; and you wished to possess the Zuurveld. You came at last like locusts. We stood: we could do no more. You said to us, 'Go over the Fish-River; that is all we want.' We yielded, and came hither to the land of our fathers. "We lived in peace with you. Some bad people stole, perhaps; but the nation was quiet. Gaika, your friend, stole-his chiefs stole-his people stole. You sent him copper; you sent him beads; you sent him horses-on which he rode to steal more. To us you sent only commandoes (plundering expeditions). dered, and we fought for our lives. We found you weak; we destroyed your soldiers. We saw that we were strong; we attacked your head-quarters: and, if we had succeeded, our right was good, for you began the war. We failed, and you are here. "We quarrelled with Gaika about grassno business of yours. You sent a commando ; you took our last cow; you only left a few calves-which died for want, along with our children. You gave half the spoil to Gaika; once by famine and revenge, and encouraged half you kept yourselves. Without milk,— by the favourable predictions of their prophet- our corn destroyed,-we saw our wives and counsellor, Makanna, turned their whole force children perish-we saw that we must ouragainst the colony; and, after cutting off se- selves perish; we followed, therefore, on the veral inferior posts, attacked the British head-track of our cattle into the colony. We plunquarters at Graham's Town, with an army of nearly ten thousand men. A very intelligent officer, the late Captain Harding, who was present, assured me that the Caffers would infallibly have succeeded in capturing the place, and Colonel Willshire, the commandant, with it, had they not, according to their chivalrous custom, sent notice before day-break that they were coming "to breakfast with the British chief." Thus prepared, the colonial troops, after a brief but perilous conflict, repulsed the Caffer army with great slaughter; the latter being armed only with their national weapon, the assagai, or African javelin. A second, and still more destructive invasion by the British troops succeeded. The kraals or villages of the confederate clans were burnt; their principal chiefs were declared outlaws, and high Aasvogel, the South African name of the Percnop- rewards offered for their apprehension, dead or alive; their cultured plots of maise and millet So the bee-hive was harried; and, after their toil, la!" The jolly birds jeered, while parting the spoil"Cherr-a-cherr," "tic-a-tac," " gobble-agoola!" mur-roo-ra!" "Poor Pigeons may prate about Natural Rights," Quoth the Honey-bird-" Coorr-a-moo, coorr-a"But the merry Owl mocks such Poetical Flights," Quoth the Woodpecker-"Hu-hu-hoo! tu-whit! tu-whoor-r-a!" terus, the Sacred Vulture of the Egyptians. "We wish for peace; we wish to rest in our huts; we wish to get milk for our children; we wish to hunt for game, and to let our wives till the land. But your troops cover the plains, and swarm in the thickets, where they cannot distinguish the man from the woman, and shoot all. "You order us to submit to Gaika. That man's face is fair to you, but his heart is black. Leave him to himself. Make peace with us. Let him fight for himself and we shall not call on you for help. Set Makanna at liberty; and Llhambi, Congo, and the rest will come to make peace with you, and keep it faith fully. But, if you will still have war, you may indeed kill the last man of us-but Gaika shall never rule over the followers of those who think him a woman." This manly appeal was in vain. The expedition continued to ravage the country; until, having unavailingly employed every stratagem to get possession of the other chiefs whom the Cape Gazette had proclaimed "outlaws," the British commander at length retired into the colony, with an additional spoil of twenty or thirty thousand cattle,-which were partly divided among the colonists who had suffered in the war, and partly sold, and the proceeds appropriated to the erection of a Christian church at Uitenhage! Meanwhile, what became of Makanna ?Makanna, of all the Amakosa chiefs the most obnoxious to the colonial authorities, and who, with a heroic self-devotion, had surrendered himself as a hostage, in the hope, as he avowed to Captain Stockenstrom, in whose hands he had placed himself, of thereby obtaining peace and mercy for his country. His fate was briefly as follows:-By order of the Colonial Government, he was forwarded by sea from Algoa Bay to Cape Town; there confined as a prisoner in the common jail; and finally, with others of his countrymen, guilty of no other offence than fighting for their native land against its Christian and civilized invaders, he was condemned to be imprisoned for life on Robben Island-the Botany Bay of the Capea spot appropriated for the custody of convicted felons, rebellious slaves, and other malefactors, doomed to work in irons in the slate quarries. After remaining about a year in this wretched place, Makanna, with a few followers, Caffers and slaves, whom he had attached to himself from among the inmates of that house of bondage, rose upon the guard, overpowered and disarmed them; then, seizing a boat, embarked his adherents in it; and would, in all probability, have effected his escape with them, but, as he leapt on board-the last man from the shore-the overloaded pinnace was accidentally upset, and the unfortunate African Chief was engulphed by the raging surf and drowned. Makanna, though the most eminent, was by no means the only individual of his nation who was subjected to this disgraceful and iniquitous treatment. Many other cases became known to me during my residence in South Africa, and not a few fell under my personal observation, equally or even more discreditable to the colonial authorities and to the British name. Hostages and prisoners of war were treated as common felons; women and children, innocent of offence, were separated from husbands and fathers, and consigned to bitter and degrading servitude. So late as 1827, Major-General Bourke, into whose humane and enlightened charge the administation of the Cape Colony had devolved, found several of these unhappy exiles, Caffers and Ghonaquas, still prisoners in Robben Island, and benevolently released and sent them back to their own country. Not the least remarkable (and I may add not the least iniquitous) result of the Caffer war of 1819-20, was the annexation to the Colony of a large track of the Amakosa country, extending to about two millions of acres. This was effected by a compulsory convention with the native chiefs (our ally Gaica included), who, with their followers, were then dislodged and expelled beyond the Keisi and Chumi rivers. The whole of the evacuated territory, under the appellation of the Neutral Ground, remained unoccupied for several years, and a THE TOURIST. large portion remains so still. I made an ex- Before the Caffers were expelled from this "He who is our mantle in the storm, the Giver of Life, ancient, on high, is the Creator of the heavens and the ever-burning stars; even UHLANGA (the SUPREME), high in heaven, almighty, who whirls the stars around the sky. We call on him in his dwelling-place to be our chieftain-guide; for he maketh the blind to see. We adore him as the only Good, the only rock of defence, the only trusty shield, the only bush of refuge. We adore UTIKA (the BEAUTIFUL), the Holy Lamb, whose blood for man was shed, whose feet and hands were pierced; for He, even He, is the Giver of Life, on high, the Creator of the heavens." Since the time of Sicana (who died in 1819), The latest intelligence, however, from the hearts of the friends of Africa. We learn from the "South African Advertiser " (a journal distinguished for eminent ability and steady devotion to the cause of Christian humanity), that on the 21st of March, 1832, a public meeting of a most interesting character was held in the country of the Amakosa Caffers, at the missionary station called Wesleyville. The chiefs residing in that quarter assembled with their followers to meet by appointment the commandant of the frontier, who was attended by a number of officers and many of the most respectable colonists of the district of Albany. The principal object was to afford the natives an opportunity of expressing their opinions respecting the advantages of Christian missions, which, during the last ten years, have progressively extended themselves throughout the whole of Cafferland. The proceedings commenced by singing a hymn and offering up prayer in the Amakosa language; after which the natives were addressed by the comAddresses were then successively delivered mandant and by other English gentlemen. by the principal chiefs present, viz. by Kai the son of Llhambi, Fundis the son of Dusani, Pato, Enno, Congo, Kami, Numpethla, and Habanna. Several of the speakers displayed considerable powers of eloquence; and all spoke with feeling and effect in favour of the Christian religion, and expressed their full conviction that the labours of the missionaries tended greatly to the improvement and tranquillity of their country. Two or three of the chiefs made some striking remarks on the sinnow met :-that it was not, as in former times, gular circumstances under which they were to consult about a warlike expedition against the colony, or to encounter the calamities of a threatened invasion; but that they were now assembled with the Christians in brotherly confidence-that the commandant, whose hostile attacks had often occasioned such alarm come with the English chiefs of Albany, unand distress throughout their country, had them; and that they themselves had ventured armed and without soldiers, into the midst of to meet them without a single assagai in their hands. This pleasing state of affairs they ascribed chiefly to the influence of the gospel, which had truly turned their spears into pruning hooks; for, at the moment they were speaking, the women and children were busy in their fields over the face of the land, reaping The chief Kama, amongst many other obthe harvest with the assagai and battle-axe. servations, remarked that he rejoiced in the opportunity this meeting afforded of testifying, in the presence of so large an assembly of his that he was baptized, and was resolved to live countrymen, that he had embraced the Gospel; and die a Christian; and he conjured those who heard him, of whatever race or colour they might be, who might be disposed to think or talk lightly of such matters, to reflect that they were beings formed for immortality, and to prepare themselves to meet their Maker and their Judge. The assembly was also addressed in appropriate speeches by the Chaplain of Graham's Town and by four Wesleyan missionaries present; and the interest of the meeting was fully sustained to the end, notwithstanding the inwas closed by an impressive prayer, offered up convenience of using interpreters. The whole in the beautiful and flowing Amakosa language, by the Chief Kama. TO THE EDITOR OF THE TOURIST. SIR,-Allow me to solicit your insertion of the following case of barbarity to a slave, which is taken from The Jamaica Watchman of Sept. 5, 1832. Let the colonists disprove such cases before they venture to tell us of the happiness of the negro, and of the prompt redress which is afforded them when injured. Were the records of the Inquisition compared with those of the colonies, I verily believe the latter would be found most dark and revolting. Surely the law-officers of Jamaica will not fail to institute an inquiry into this case. Yours, T. "TO THE EDITOR OF THE WATCHMAN.Sir,-Seeing, in your paper of the 11th inst., a letter, signed'Q. IN A CORNER,' relating some particulars of the death of a slave, named Alexander Kelly, at Wey-hill, in St. Mary's, after a flogging, I beg to furnish you with a full statement of that affair. "Alexander Kelly, the slave of a poor blind man of colour, in St. Thomas's in the Vale, had, with the permission of Mr. Alexander Gilzean, his manager, and also attorney for Wey-hill, married a woman of the last mentioned place, named Elizabeth. Elizabeth possessed a horse, which was kept on the property with the attorney's permission. On a Friday afternoon, about a month ago, Alexander Kelly rode the horse from Highgate, where he was employed, to Wey-hill. An application was immediately made to him for the horse by the muleman, under the overseer's order, to carry coffee down to Kingston. He declined giving it, but led it up to the overseer, Mr. John West, and showed the sore back of the animal as the reason for his refusal. The overseer, however, tried to force the rope out of his hand, and insisted on his giving up the animal. Alexander still refusing, the overseer called for some persons to put him into the stocks, at the same time striking him. On the persuasion of one of the slaves (William King), he went quietly to the stocks, into which both his feet were put. The next night his hands were tied, and on Sunday night handcuffs were put on. At twelve o'clock on Monday he was laid down on the barbicue, in a roasting sun, the handcuffs being still on. He was flogged with the driver's long whip, and then a bundle of guava switches was flogged out, by one or two at a time, on the same place! On the flogging being discontinued, Alexander cried out for water to be thrown over his head; he could not rise; and the driver and another were obliged to lift DYDINAMIA, ANGIOSPERMIA: LINNEUS. THERE is not, perhaps, in all tropical vegetation, a plant which combines the two-fold incidents of commonness and utility so much as this species of the bignonia. In those countries where slavery prevails, the small pittance of time which the avarice of the master spares for the domestic necessities of his bondman, would scarcely suffice to supply the things indispensably necessary in home economy, which human ingenuity fabricates in other countries, had not nature bestowed them every where at hand. She gives the calabash, in lieu of the beechen bowl, which requires the art of the turner in Europe; the Bamboo, sawed in two between joint and joint, is a bucket tighter, neater, and him and support him back again to the stocks, more compact, than any which the into which he was again put, with the handcuffs still on! The overseer superintended the er makes; the close-woven integument, whole. In a short time-about half an hour-forming the footstalk of a magnificent the man died in the stocks, in handcuffs! An and gigantic species of the areca palm, inquest was held on the Tuesday afternoon, supplies all the purposes of that matting Mr. John Blake acting as coroner, and several and thick pasteboard which patient toil overseers and book-keepers in the neighbour- prepares elsewhere; while the spatha that hood, the friends and associates of Mr. West, envelopes the ear of the maize corn in the composing the jury. A Doctor (Roberts) opened same countries is little less useful than the head and body, and declared there was no violence nor disease. Whether the verdict was paper or cloth to the house wife; and the as stated by 'Q. in a Corner,' I know not; but, liane or withe of the bignonia, quite as if a flogging under a burning sun, and confine- efficient as twisted cord for the woodman's ment in stocks and handcuffs, be the visitation bundle, the marketer's pack, and the of God,' then all will concur in the verdict; gardener's trellis work. but, if these things cannot come forward under that expression, the Attorney-General ought to inquire into the matter. I have only to add that, if there be need, I can furnish the names of all the witnesses to the whole affair, and the names of the jury. It is said that Mr. West coop It is not unusual in our West India colonies, at those hours assigned to the negro for rest or for food, to see him, with his children, seated at his "door mouth," a phrase with him equivalent to the family hearth of European homes, engaged twisting the supple cordage of the bignonia into close-woven baskets, with which he carries the fruits of his garden to market, or into open ones, in which he conveys his poultry thither. In the construction of his cottage it is of indispensable utility. He laces with it the rafters of his roof, and supplies, by this means, the lateral rests for his thatch, or he ties with it the leaves of the fanpalm to the lathing of the reed-cane, and thus covers in his hut. He weaves with it, too, the temporary sacking on which he sometimes stretches his bed-mats. As it is of very considerable length, its pliant cordage being frequently found twined into the middlemost branches of the forest-tree, it is used, on occasions, as the most continuous and effectual plait for weirs, constructed across mountain streams, and for pots for taking fish. In fact, there is scarcely a purpose to which the rope or twine of hemp may be applied for which this is not just as conveniently useful; and, pressed for almost every moment of his time, from sun-rise to sunset, and through half the night during six months in the year, for his master's service, the house of the negro would be a costly work upon his hands, his garden an expensive enclosure, and his everyday duties in the forest, the field, or the market, affairs of much time and labour, if the prodigality of nature did not bestow on him, in every hedge and thicket, this handy cordage of the liana. The blossom is very bright; it is rosecoloured, and is about three times that of the engraving. There are varieties that are white and yellow also. It is seen generally garlanding its twin flowers and twin leaves in festoons. This twin state of all the binding bignonias, but not of of the leaves and flowers is a peculiarity the herbaceous or the arborescent kind. Its effect, when in blossom, is always beautiful, but more particularly so when it is interlaced with some pendant branched tree, that delights in the freshness of streams and waterfalls. The bark yields a red, and the young pods a yellow, tincture. An infusion of the flowers is frequently used remedially in Haiti, in affections of the liver and spleen; it is The negroes of the English islands call bitter, detersive, and slightly astringent. it the wiby and the titye; and those of the French colonies, the liane à corde, the liane à panier, and the liane nubi; the Spaniards give it the name of la liana simply. ANIMAL LIFE. THE following is the scale of animal life from the most celebrated writers on natural history:-A hare will live 10 years, a cat 10, a goat 8, an ass 30, a sheep 10, a ram 15, a dog 14 to 20, a bull 15, an ox 20, a swine 25, a pigeon 8, a turtledove 25, a partridge 25, a raven 100, an eagle 100, a goose 100. "But let my due feet never fail To walk the studious cloisters pale, And bring all heaven before my eyes." CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL. and admiration. The whole perspective | ther towards the east, and forming the CANTERBURY was very early the seat of Christianity, and to that circumstance, together with the gross superstition and ignorance which, in the early history of this country, clouded the popular religious notions, we owe the venerable edifice represented above. It would be difficult to relate with precision the earliest history of this establishment, and perhaps we shall go as far back as is Between the nave and the choir is a necessary, in stating that, after having beautiful stone screen, finely sculptured, been several times destroyed by fire, and and in excellent preservation. The choir rebuilt with great splendour, as we have displays the English style of architecture reason to believe, the present building in its earliest stage, and nearly before it was commenced about the year 1174, was methodized into a consistent order. and augmented and embellished by suc- The arches are pointed, but irregular and cessive archbishops, till it was completed graceless. This part of the church is in the reign of Henry V. It is a mag-fitted up with much grandeur, but with nificent Gothic pile, and, before the Reformation, contained thirty-seven altars. Many kings, princes, cardinals, and archbishops, lie buried in it, and contribute to the interest of the place a host of legends and historical recollections. It suffered in common with many other ecclesiastical edifices during the civil wars, having been, on one occasion, made a stable by Cromwell for his dragoons; it was, however, repaired at the Restora tion. The cathedral is usually entered through the south porch, which is a spacious fabric, embattled and richly adorned. first view of the interior, the simple beauty On a of the nave, and the elegance of its vaulted roof, excite emotions of reverence little attention to the ancient style that To the east of the choir is the chapel The sepulchral monuments in this superb cathedral are equally numerous and interesting. Those erected to the memory of various archbishops are magnificent architectural objects, and are also instructive specimens of the fashions which prevailed in the ages of their construction. Two monuments to royal personages demand the attentive notice of the investigator. These are situated beneath the arches which surround the chapel of the Holy Trinity, and contain the ashes of Henry the Fourth, his queen, Joan of Navarre, and Edward, usually styled the Black Prince. The effigies of Henry and his consort, habited in robes of royalty, are placed on a large tomb enriched with towered niches, pinnacled buttresses, and other ornaments. Beneath the opposite arch is the tomb of the renowed Black Prince. On this monument lies a whole length figure of Prince Edward, in armour. The hands are raised in the attitude of prayer, the head is supported by a helmet, and the feet rest on a lion. The statue, which is of brass, and very finely worked, represents a handsome but not an athletic man. Above the tomb is an embattled canopy, and over it hangs the prince's tabard (or coat) of arms, his gauntlet, and some other relics. WONDERS OF NATURE. THERE is a very curious plant, termed dionæa muscipula, or fly-trap, that secretes a being touched, the leaf contracts, and being of sweetish fluid in its leaves, not unlike honey, by which flies are attracted; immediately on to death, as if for its temerity. a thorny, prickly nature, the animal is crushed ANCIENT ASTRONOMERS. NO. IV. GALILEO. THIS distinguished philosopher was born at Pisa in 1564. He was the son of a Florentine nobleman, and was educated for the medical profession; but a passion for geometry took possession of his mind, and called forth all his powers. Without the aid of a master he studied the writings of Euclid and of Archimedes, and such were his acquirements that he was appointed by the Grand Duke of Tuscany to the mathematical chair of Pisa, in the twentyfifth year of his age. His opposition to the Aristotelian philosophy gained him many enemies, and at the end of three years he quitted Pisa, and accepted of an invitation to the professorship of mathematics at Padua. Here he continued for eighteen years, adorning the university by his name, and diffusing around him a taste for the physical sciences. With the exception of some contrivances of inferior importance, Galileo had distinguished himself by no discovery till he had reached the forty-fifth year of his age. In the year 1609, the same year in which Kepler published his celebrated commentary on Mars, Galileo paid a visit to Venice, where he heard, in the course of conversation, that a Dutchman of the name of Jansens had constructed, and presented to Prince Maurice, an instrument through which he saw distant objects magnified and rendered more distinct, as if they had been brought nearer to the observer. This report was credited by some and disbelieved by others; but, in the course of a few days, Galileo received a letter from James Badovere, at Paris, which placed beyond a doubt the existence of such an instrument. The idea instantly filled his mind as one of the utmost importance to science; and so thoroughly was he acquainted with the properties of lenses, that he not only discovered the principle of its construction, but was able to complete a telescope for his own use. Into one end of a leaden tube he fitted a spectacle-glass, plane on one side and convex on the other, and in the other end he placed another spectacle-glass concave on one side and plane on the other. He then applied his eye to the concave glass, and saw objects "pretty large and pretty near him." They appeared three times nearer, and nine times larger in surface, than to the naked eye. He soon after made another, which represented objects above sixty times larger; and, sparing neither labour or expense, he finally constructed an instrument so excellent as "to show things almost a thousand times larger, and above thirty times nearer to the naked eye." There is, perhaps, no invention that science has presented to man so extraordinary in its nature, and so boundless in its influence, as that of the telescope. To the uninstructed mind, the power of seeing an object a thousand miles distant, as large, and nearly as distinct, as if it were brought within a mile of the observer, must seem almost miraculous; and to the philosopher, even, who thoroughly comprehends the principles upon which it acts, it must ever appear one of the most elegant applications of science. To have been the first astronomer in whose hands such a gift was placed, was a preference to which Galileo owed much of his future reputation. No sooner had he completed his telescope than he applied it to the heavens, and on the 7th of January, 1618, the first day of its use, he saw round Jupiter three bright little stars lying in a line parallel to the ecliptic, two to the east, and one to the west of the planet. Regarding them as ordinary stars, he never in 1611, his generous patron, Cosmo II., Grand Duke of Tuscany, invited him to Florence, that he might pursue, with uninterrupted leisure, his astronomical observations, and carry on his correspondence with the German astronomers. His fame had now resounded through all Europe; the strongholds of prejudice and ignorance were unbarred, and the most obstinate adherents of ancient systems acknowledged the meridian power of the day star of science. Galileo was ambitious of propagating the great truths which he contributed so powerfully to establish. He never doubted that they would be received with gratitude by all-by the philosopher as the consummation of the greatest efforts of human genius-and by the Christian as the most transcendent displays of Almighty power. But he had mistaken the disposition of his species, and the character of the age. That same system of the heavens which had This discovery, though of the utmost im- been discovered by the humble ecclesiastic of portance in itself, derived an additional value Frauenberg, which had been patronised by the from the light which it threw on the true sys- kindness of a Bishop, and published at the tem of the universe. While the earth was the expense of a Cardinal, and which the Pope only planet enlightened by a moon, it might himself had sanctioned by the warmest recepnaturally be supposed that it alone was habit- tion, was, after the lapse of a hundred years, able, and was, therefore, entitled to the pre- doomed to the most violent opposition, as subeminence of occupying the centre of the sys-versive of the doctrines of the Christian faith. tem; but the discovery of four moons round a On no former occasion had the human mind much larger planet deprived this argument of exhibited such a fatal relapse into intolerance. its force, and created a new analogy between The age itself had improved in liberality; the the earth and the other planets. When Kepler persecuted doctrines themselves had become received the "Sidereal Messenger," the work more deserving of reception; the light of the in which Galileo announced his discovery in reformed faith had driven the Catholics from 1610, he perused it with the deepest interest; some of their most obnoxious positions; and and while it confirmed and extended his sub- yet, under all these circumstances, the Church stantial discoveries, it dispelled, at the same of Rome unfurled her banner of persecution time, some of those harmonic dreams which against the pride of Italy, against the ornastill hovered among his thoughts. In the ment of his species, and against truths im "Dissertation" which he published on the mutable and eternal. discovery of Galileo, he expresses his hope that satellites will be discovered round Saturn and Mars; he conjectures that Jupiter has a motion of rotation about his axis, and states his surprise that, after what had been written on the subject of telescopes by Baptista Porta, they had not been earlier introduced into observatories. In consequence of complaints laid before the Holy Inquisition, Galileo was summoned to appear at Rome in 1615, to answer for the heretical opinions which he had promulgated. He was charged with “maintaining as true the false doctrine held by many, that the sun was immoveable in the centre of the world, and that the earth revolved with a diurnal In continuing his observations, Galileo ap-motion—with having certain disciples to whom plied his telescope to Venus, and in 1610 he he taught the same doctrine-with keeping up discovered the phases of that planet, which a correspondence on the subject with several exhibited to him the various forms of the German mathematicians with having pubwaxing and the waning moon. This fact es- lished letters on the solar spots, in which he tablished beyond a doubt that the planet re-explained the same doctrine as true—and with volved round the sun, and thus gave an addi- having glossed over, with a false interpretational blow to the Ptolemaic system. In his tion, the passages of Scripture which were observations on the sun, Galileo discovered his urged against it." The consideration of these spots, and deduced from them the rotation of charges came before a meeting of the Inquithe central luminary. He observed that the sition, which assembled on the 25th of Febody of Saturn had handles attached to it; bruary, 1616, and the court, declaring their but he was unable to detect the form of its disposition to deal gently with the prisoner, ring, or render visible its minute satellites. On pronouneed the following decree :-" That the surface of the moon he discovered her Cardinal Bellarmine should enjoin Galileo to mountains and valleys, and determined the renounce entirely the above-recited false opicurious fact of her libration, in virtue of which nions; that, on his refusal to do so, he should parts of the margin of her disk occasionally be commanded by the commissary of the Inappear and disappear. In the Milky Way he quisition to abandon the said doctrine, and to descried numerous minute stars which the un- cease to teach and defend it; and that, if he assisted eye was unable to perceive; and as did not obey this command, he should be the largest fixed stars, in place of being mag-thrown into prison." On the 26th of February nified by the telescope, became actually minute brilliant points, lie inferred their immense distance as rendered necessary by the Copernican hypothesis. All his discoveries, indeed, furnished fresh arguments in favour of the new system; and the order of the planets, and their relation to a central sun, may now be considered as established by incontrovertible evidence. While Galileo was occupied with these noble pursuits at Pisa, to which he had been recalled Galileo appeared before Cardinal Bellarmine, and, after receiving from him a gentle adinonition, he was commanded by the commissary, in the presence of a notary and witnesses, to desist altogether from his erroneous opinions; and it was declared to be unlawful for him in future to teach them in any way whatever, either orally or in his writings. To these commands Galileo promised obedience, and was dismissed from the Inquisition. The mildness of this sentence was, no doubt, |