Growth of the Sciences. 87

now comparatively free from the ignis fatwus of alchemy,
and aided by the growth of institutions especially de-
voted to its service, anticipated the course prescribed by
the Baconian philosophy. Fracastorius (1483-1553)
had, before the middle of the century, made an alliance
between his art and literature ; later, VESALIUS (1514-
1564), the first great dissector, was followed by Ambrose
Par4 Eustaehius, and Fallopius. In the kindred de-
partment of botany, Duval, Bnmfels, Bock, Leonard
Fuchs, and Luca Ghini (custodian at Pisa of the first
Botanical garden) led up to Cesalpinus and Bauhin;
while Conrad Gesner (1561-1565) laid the foundations
of modern zoology. Mathematics were represented by
Maurolycns, the first geometrician and optician of Iris
age; and Vieta, successor of Cardan and predecessor
of Harriot, the foremost algebraist. In physics, J. B.
Benedetti was the earliest to recognise the tendency of
propelled bodies to move in straight lines, and to analyse
the composition of forces; while Simon Stevinus of
Bruges, as early as 1585, by giving the first correct
theory of the inclined plane, and of the vertical pressure
of fluids, opened a new era in statics and hydrostatics.

But the most important discoveries of tho age were
made by a cluster of astronomers,1 who, living almost in
the samo generation, seemed by destiny, if not design,
to draw out each other's qualities and to supplement

1 Of the romantic careers of those groat men, who arc, with Coper-
nicus, tho lathers of modern astronomy, it is only possible here to
note that the fact of their all being more or less victims to the pre-
judices of their age is, in some moaHure, an excuse for the habitually
cautious attitude maintained, despite, his parade of defiance, by
Francis Bacon, who had certainly no wish to be included with them
in any future volume on "The Martyrs of Science."