Spots Are On The Surface Of The

The Grand Duke [of Tuscany] ...after Observing The Medicaean Plants Several Times With Me ... Has Now Invited Me To Attach Myself To Him With The Annual Salary Of One Thousand Florins, And With The Title Of Philosopher And Principal Mathematicial To His Highness; Without The Duties Of Office To Perform, But With The Most Complete Leisure; So That I Can Complete My Treatises.

Vision, I Say, Is Related To Light Itself. But Of This Sensation And The Things Pertaining To It, I Pretend To Understand But Little; And Since Even A Long Time Would Not Suffice To Explain That Trifle, Or Even To Hint At An Explanation, I Pass Over This In Silence.

I Do Not Think It Is Necessary To Believe That The Same God Who Has Given Us Our Senses, Reason, And Intelligence Wished Us To Abandon Their Use, Giving Us By Some Other Means The Information That We Could Gain Through Them.

Their Vain Presumption Of Knowing All Can Take Beginning Solely From Their Never Having Known Anything; For If One Has But Once Experienced The Perfect Knowledge Of One Thing, And Truly Tasted What It Is To Know, He Shall Perceive That Of Infinite Other Conclusions He Understands Not So Much As One.

The Surface Of The Moon Is Not Smooth, Uniform, And Precisely Spherical As A Great Number Of Philosophers Believe It To Be, But Is Uneven, Rough, And Full Of Cavities And Prominences, Being Not Unlike The Face Of The Earth, Relieved By Chains Of Mountains And Deep Valleys.