history.  Every branch of mathematics and natural science had been explored by him with the enthusiasm of a pioneer.  He made experiments in chemistry, mechanics, mineralogy, metallurgy, vegetable and animal physiology.  His practical studies in anatomy were carried on by the aid of vivisection.  Following independent paths, he worked out some of Gilbert’s discoveries in magnetism, and of Da Porta’s in optics, demonstrated the valves of the veins, and the function of the uvea in vision, divined the uses of the telescope and thermometer.  When he turned his attention to astronomy, he at once declared the futility of judicial astrology; and while recognizing the validity of Galileo’s system, predicted that this truth would involve its promulgator in serious difficulties with the Roman Inquisition.  In his treatises on psychology and metaphysics, he originated a theory of sensationalism akin to that of Locke.  There was, in fact, no field of knowledge which he had not traversed with the energy of a discoverer.  Only to poetry and belles lettres he paid but little heed, disdaining the puerilities of rhetoric then in vogue, and using language as the simplest vehicle of thought.  In conversation he was reticent, speaking little, but always to the purpose, and rather choosing to stimulate his collocutors than to make display of eloquence or erudition.  Yet his company was eagerly sought, and he delighted in the society, not only of learned men and students, but of travelers, politicians, merchants, and citizens of the world.  His favorite places of resort were the saloons of Andrea Morosini, and the shop of the Secchini at the sign of the Nave d’Oro.  Here, after days spent in religious exercises, sacerdotal duties, and prolonged studies, he relaxed his mind in converse with the miscellaneous crowd of eminent persons who visited Venice for business or pleasure.  A certain subacid humor, combining irony without bitterness, and proverbial pungency without sententiousness, added piquancy to his discourse.  We have, unfortunately, no record of the wit-encounters which may have taken place under Morosini’s or Secchini’s roof between this friar, so punctual in his religious observances, so scrupulously pure in conduct, so cold in temperament, so acute in intellect, so modest in self-esteem, so cautious, so impermeable, and his contemporary, Bruno, the unfrocked friar of genius more daring but less sure, who was mentally in all points, saving their common love of truth and freedom, the opposite to Sarpi.

Sarpi entered the Order of the Servi, or Servants of the Blessed Virgin, at the age of fourteen, renewed his vows at twenty, and was ordained priest at twenty-two.[129] His great worth brought him early into notice, and he filled posts of considerable importance in his Order.  Several years of his manhood were spent in Rome, transacting the business and conducting the legal causes of the Fathers.  At Mantua he gained the esteem of Guglielmo Gonzaga.  At Milan he was admitted to familiar