Hudibras was certainly written before 1663: ten years later Huyghens speaks of the idea of so employing the pendulum as a common one.
Chapter XIX.
Character of Galileo—Miscellaneous details—his Death—Conclusion.
The remaining years of Galileo's life were spent at Arcetri, where indeed, even if the Inquisition had granted his liberty, his increasing age and infirmities would probably have detained him. The rigid caution with which he had been watched in Florence was in great measure relaxed, and he was permitted to see the friends who crowded round him to express their respect and sympathy. The Grand Duke visited him frequently, and many distinguished strangers, such as Gassendi and Deodati, came into Italy solely for the purpose of testifying their admiration of his character. Among other visitors the name of Milton will be read with interest: we may probably refer to the effects of this interview the allusions to Galileo's discoveries, so frequently introduced into his poem. Milton mentions in his 'Areopagitica,' that he saw Galileo whilst in Italy, but enters into no details of his visit.
Galileo was fond of society, and his cheerful and popular manners rendered him an universal favourite among those who were admitted to his intimacy. Among these, Viviani, who formed one of his family during the three last years of his life, deserves particular notice, on account of the strong attachment and almost filial veneration with which he ever regarded his master and benefactor. His long life, which was prolonged to the completion of his 81st year in 1703, enabled him to see the triumphant establishment of the truths on account of which Galileo had endured so many insults; and even in his old age, when in his turn he had acquired a claim to the reverence of a younger generation, our Royal Society, who invited him among them in 1696, felt that the complimentary language in which they addressed him as the first mathematician of the age would have been incomplete and unsatisfactory without an allusion to the friendship that gained him the cherished title of "The last pupil of Galileo."[170]
Torricelli, another of Galileo's most celebrated followers, became a member of his family in October, 1641: he first learned mathematics from Castelli, and occasionally lectured for him at Rome, in which manner he was employed when Galileo, who had seen his book 'On Motion,' and augured the greatest success from such a beginning, invited him to his house—an offer which Torricelli eagerly embraced, although he enjoyed the advantages of it but for a short time. He afterwards succeeded Galileo in his situation at the court of Florence,[171] but survived him only a few years.
It is from the accounts of Viviani and Gherardini that we principally draw the following particulars of Galileo's person and character:—Signor Galileo was of a cheerful and pleasant countenance, especially in his old age, square built, and well proportioned in stature, and rather above the middle size. His complexion was fair and sanguine, his eyes brilliant, and his hair of a reddish cast. His constitution was naturally strong, but worn out by fatigue of mind and body, so as frequently to be reduced to a state of the utmost weakness. He was subject to attacks of hypochondria, and often molested by severe and dangerous illnesses, occasioned in great measure by his sleepless nights, the whole of which he frequently spent in astronomical observations. During upwards of forty-eight years of his life, he was tormented with acute rheumatic pains, suffering particularly on any change of weather. He found himself most free from these pains whilst residing in the country, of which consequently he became very fond: besides, he used to say that in the country he had greater freedom to read the book of Nature, which lay there open before him. His library was very small, but well chosen, and open to the use of the friends whom he loved to see assembled round him, and whom he was accustomed to receive in the most hospitable manner. He ate sparingly himself; but was particularly choice in the selection of his wines, which in the latter part of his life were regularly supplied out of the Grand Duke's cellars. This taste gave an additional stimulus to his agricultural pursuits, and many of his leisure hours were spent in the cultivation and superintendence of his vineyards. It should seem that he was considered a good judge of wine; for Viviani has preserved one of his receipts in a collection of miscellaneous experiments. In it he strongly recommends that for wine of the first quality, that juice only should be employed, which is pressed out by the mere weight of the heaped grapes, which would probably be that of the ripest fruit. The following letter, written in his 74th year, is dated, "From my prison at Arcetri.—I am forced to avail myself of your assistance and favour, agreeably to your obliging offers, in consequence of the excessive chill of the weather, and of old age, and from having drained out my grand stock of a hundred bottles, which I laid in two years ago; not to mention some minor particulars during the last two months, which I received from my Serene Master, the Most Eminent Lord Cardinal, their Highnesses the Princes, and the Most Excellent Duke of Guise, besides cleaning out two barrels of the wine of this country. Now, I beg that with all due diligence and industry, and with consideration, and taking counsel with the most refined palates, you will provide me with two cases, that is to say, with forty flasks of different wines, the most exquisite that you can find: take no thought of the expense, because I stint myself so much in all other pleasures that I can afford to lay out something at the request of Bacchus, without giving offence to his two companions Ceres and Venus. You must be careful to leave out neither Scillo nor Carino (I believe they meant to call them Scylla and Charybdis), nor the country of my master, Archimedes of Syracuse, nor Greek wines, nor clarets, &c. &c. The expense I shall easily be able to satisfy, but not the infinite obligation."
In his expenditure Galileo observed a just mean between avarice and profusion: he spared no cost necessary for the success of his many and various experiments, and spent large sums in charity and hospitality, and in assisting those in whom he discovered excellence in any art or profession, many of whom he maintained in his own house. His temper was easily ruffled, but still more easily pacified. He seldom conversed on mathematical or philosophical topics except among his intimate friends; and when such subjects were abruptly brought before him, as was often the case by the numberless visitors he was in the habit of receiving, he showed great readiness in turning the conversation into more popular channels, in such manner however that he often contrived to introduce something to satisfy the curiosity of the inquirers. His memory was uncommonly tenacious, and stored with a vast variety of old songs and stories, which he was in the constant habit of quoting and alluding to. His favourite Italian authors were Ariosto, Petrarca, and Berni, great part of whose poems he was able to repeat. His excessive admiration of Ariosto determined the side which he took against Tasso in the virulent and unnecessary controversy which has divided Italy so long on the respective merits of these two great poets; and he was accustomed to say that reading Tasso after Ariosto was like tasting cucumbers after melons. When quite a youth, he wrote a great number of critical remarks on Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata, which one of his friends borrowed, and forgot to return. For a long time it was thought that the manuscript had perished, till the Abbé Serassi discovered it, whilst collecting materials for his Life of Tasso, published at Rome in 1785. Serassi being a violent partizan of Tasso, but also unwilling to lose the credit of the discovery, copied the manuscript, but without any intention of publishing it, "till he could find leisure for replying properly to the sophistical and unfounded attacks of a critic so celebrated on other accounts." He announced his discovery as having been made "in one of the famous libraries at Rome," which vague indication he with some reason considered insufficient to lead to a second discovery. On Serassi's death his copy was found, containing a reference to the situation of the original; the criticisms were published, and form the greatest part of the last volume of the Milan edition of Galileo's works. The manuscript was imperfect at the time of this second discovery, several leaves having been torn out, it is not known by whom.
The opinion of the most judicious Italian critics appears to be, that it would have been more for Galileo's credit if these remarks had never been made public: they are written in a spirit of flippant violence, such as might not be extraordinary in a common juvenile critic, but which it is painful to notice from the pen of Galileo. Two or three sonnets are extant written by Galileo himself, and in two instances he has not scrupled to appropriate the conceits of the poet he affected to undervalue.[172] It should be mentioned that Galileo's matured taste rather receded from the violence of his early prejudices, for at a later period of his life he used to shun comparing the two; and when forced to give an opinion he said, "that Tasso's appeared the finer poem, but that Ariosto gave him the greater pleasure." Besides these sonnets, there is extant a short burlesque poem written by him, "In abuse of Gowns," when, on his first becoming Professor at Pisa, he found himself obliged by custom to wear his professional habit in every company. It is written not without humour, but does not bear comparison with Berni, whom he imitated.