12.27.2014

The metaphor of the wig

"Fancy to yourself some definite size for [a] wig, and in the center of this imagine a very tiny luminous body. The shape of this will be lost, being crowned by excessively long hair … the telescope, by enlarging the star but not the wig, makes the tiny disc which originally was imperceptible … so that its shape may be well distinguished."
-Galileo, Il Saggiatore (The Assayer), 1623

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