nd.[36] The Dutch government received this
proposal with an anxious desire to have it carried into effect. At the
instigation of Constantine Huygens, the father of the illustrious
Huygens, and the secretary to the Prince of Orange, they appointed
commissioners to communicate with Galileo; and while they transmitted
him a gold chain as a mark of their esteem, they at the same time
assured him, that if his plan should prove successful it should not pass
unrewarded. The commissioners entered into an active correspondence with
Galileo, and had even appointed one of their number to communicate
personally with him in Italy. Lest this, however, should excite the
jealousy of the court of Rome, Galileo objected to the arrangement, so
that the negociation was carried on solely by correspondence.

[36] It is a curious fact that Morin had about this time proposed
to determine the longitude by the moon's distance from a fixed
star, and that the commissioners assembled in Paris to examine it
requested Galileo's opinion of its value and practicability.
Galileo's opinion was highly unfavourable. He saw clearly, and
explained distinctly, the objection to Morin's method, arising from
the imperfection of the lunar tables, and the inadequacy of
astronomical instruments; but he seemed not to be conscious that
the very same objections applied with even greater force to his own
method, which has since been supplanted by that of the French
savant. See Life of Galileo, Library of Useful Knowledge, p. 94.

It was at this time that Galileo was struck with blindness. His friend
and pupil, Renieri, undertook in this emergency to arrange and complete
his observations and calculations; but before he had made much progress
in the arduous task, each of the four commissioners died in succession,
and it was with great difficulty that Constantine Huygens succeeded in
renewing the scheme. It was again obstructed, however, by the death of
Galileo; and when Renieri was about to publish, by the order of the
Grand Duke, the "Ephemeris," and "Tables of the Jovian Planets," he was
attacked with a mortal disease, and the manuscripts of Galileo, which he
was on the eve of publishing, were never more heard of. By such a series
of misfortunes were the plans of Galileo and of the States-General
completely overthrown. It is some consolation, however, to know that
neither science nor navigation suffered any severe