PHYSICS Susterman’s portrait of the ageing Galileo accompanied by an impoverishment of philosophy Though Aristotle’s scientiWc physics was shown to be very largely mistaken, his conceptual scheme retained much of its value All too often, both bad and good were thrown overboard together The establishment which persecuted Galileo has long been denounced by historians as hidebound, protectionist, and obscurantist In particular, the scholastic professors have been blamed for preferring a priori speculation to observation and experiment Not only were they reluctant to conduct research themselves, the charge goes, but they were unwilling to take account of the research of others They rejected observation, even when it was handed to them, as when a Paduan professor refused to look through Galileo’s telescope 166