50 ASTRONOMYANDTHEBIBLEnearlythe same weightof air that itcontained. A
similarexperimentwouldjustaswellprovewater,or
evenmercury, tobe without weight. Sothis great
factwashidden frommen. Copernicus,Galileo, died
withoutthesight."
Though God had said, ages before, thatHe had
giventotheairweight(Job28:25),mentrustedthe
resultoftheirownblindguessinsteadoftheinfallible
WordofGod. Sotheywerestillinerror.
"Inendeavoringtoraisewaterfromadeepwellin
Florence, itwas found possibleto liftitonly about
thirty-two feet, which led Galileo to observe that
nature,evidently,didnotabhoravacuumabovethirty-
twofeet. Dying,Galileocommendedtheinvestigation
ofthis subjectto hispupiland successor, Torricelli.
ThereflectionsofTorricelHledhimtotheconviction
thattheatmospheremusthaveweight [hehadfound
thetruetheory,theonegivenintheBible],andthat
itmustbe byits pressurethatthewaterwascaused
to riseinthepumpbarrel. Inconsideringhow this
questionmightbetested,he atlast thoughtofmer-
cury. This substance,betweenthirteen and fourteen
timesheavierthanwater,wouldbecausedbythesame
pressure,ifitexisted,toriseonlyaboutthirtyinches.
Sohereasoned that,bytheemploymentofmercury,
theexistence ornonexistence ofthis pressure might
beshowninaglasstube.
"It is interesting to imagine the feelings of this
philosopherwhenpreparingforthisexperiment,which
wassoremarkableatonceforitssimplicity, itscon-
clusiveness, and its importance. It was almost as