Thus the first telescope was made--a very elementary affair, formed of two lenses, convex and concave, and capable of magnifying some three times--a mere child’s toy compared with telescopes of the present day, but of exceeding value and interest, because it was the very first; because in all the history of the world no telescope had ever been manufactured before. This earliest effort was speedily improved upon. The next trial produced a tube which could magnify seven or eight times; and in a little while, Galileo had a telescope magnifying as much as thirty-two times. Even thirty-two times does not sound very startling to us; but in those days the revelations of such an instrument came upon men like a thunderclap. Through it could be seen clearly the broken nature of the moon’s surface--the craters, the shadows, the mountains. Through it could be seen the phases of Venus, which no man had ever yet detected, but which Copernicus had declared must certainly exist, if indeed his system were a reality. Through it could be seen four of the moons of Jupiter, and their ceaseless journeyings. Through it could be seen spots upon the face of the sun, the movements of which showed the rotation of the sun upon his axis. Through it could be seen the very curious shape of Saturn, caused by his rings, though a much stronger power was needed to separate the rings from the body of the planet. Of all these discoveries, and many others also made by Galileo, none seemed worse to the bigoted schoolmen of his day than the preposterous notion of black spots upon the sun’s face. Rather curiously, no human being seems ever before then to have noticed such spots, though often they are quite large enough to be detected by the naked eye. A general belief had been held that the sun was and must be perfect--an absolutely spotless and unblemished being, the purest symbol of celestial incorruptibility--and the said discovery went right in the teeth of deductions drawn from, and lessons founded upon, this belief. Therefore the schoolmen held out and determinedly resisted, and would have nought to do with Galileo or his telescopes, shutting their eyes to marvels newly revealed. But Kepler was a true scientist, a man who earnestly pursued truth, and sought to discover it at any hazard. He and Galileo were contemporaries, and they held communication on these subjects. Some of Galileo’s discoveries went quite as much in the teeth of some of Kepler’s most dearly-loved theories as they did in the teeth of the schoolmen’s most dearly-loved doctrines. Yet, none the less, Kepler welcomed them with great delight and eagerness, showing thereby his true greatness of character.