An extract from a letter which Galileo received on this occasion from the court of France, will serve to show how highly the honour of giving a name to these new planets was at that time appreciated, and also how much was expected from Galileo's first success in examining the heavens. "The second request, but the most pressing one which I can make to you, is, that you should determine, if you discover any other fine star, to call it by the name of the great star of France, as well as the most brilliant of all the earth; and, if it seems fit to you, call it rather by his proper name of Henri, than by the family name of Bourbon: thus you will have an opportunity of doing a thing just and due and proper in itself, and at the same time will render yourself and your family rich and powerful for ever." The writer then proceeds to enumerate the different claims of Henri IV. to this honour, not forgetting that he married into the family of the Medici, &c.
The result of these observations was given to the world, in an Essay which Galileo entitled _Nuncius Sidereus_, or the Intelligencer of the Stars; and it is difficult to describe the extraordinary sensation which its publication produced. Many doubted, many positively refused to believe, so novel an announcement; all were struck with the greatest astonishment, according to their respective opinions, either at the new view of the universe thus offered to them, or at the daring audacity of Galileo in inventing such fables. We shall proceed to extract a few passages from contemporary writers relative to this book, and the discoveries announced in it.
Kepler deserves precedence, both from his own celebrity, and from the lively and characteristic account which he gives of his first receiving the intelligence:--"I was sitting idle at home, thinking of you, most excellent Galileo, and your letters, when the news was brought me of the discovery of four planets by the help of the double eye-glass. Wachenfels stopped his carriage at my door to tell me, when such a fit of wonder seized me at a report which seemed so very absurd, and I was thrown into such agitation at seeing an old dispute between us decided in this way, that between his joy, my colouring, and the laughter of both, confounded as we were by such a novelty, we were hardly capable, he of speaking, or I of listening. My amazement was increased by the assertion of Wachenfels, that those who sent this news from Galileo were celebrated men, far removed by their learning, weight, and character, above vulgar folly; that the book was actually in the press, and would be published immediately. On our separating, the authority of Galileo had the greatest influence on me, earned by the accuracy of his judgment, and excellence of his understanding; so I immediately fell to thinking how there could be any addition to the number of the planets without overturning my Mysterium Cosmographicum, published thirteen years ago, according to which Euclid's five regular solids do not allow more than six planets round the sun."