84 



DISCOVERY 



CH. 



chief assistant in J. H. Schroter's observatory at 

 Lilienthal. 



It was not without a struggle, that Bessel resolved to exchange 

 the desk for the telescope. His reputation with his employers 

 was of the highest ; he had thoroughly mastered the details of 

 the business, which his keen practical intelligence followed with 

 lively interest ; his years of apprenticeship were on the point 

 of expiring, and an immediate and not unwelcome prospect of 

 comparative affluence lay before him. The love of science, 

 however, prevailed ; he chose poverty and the stars, and went 

 to Lilienthal with a salary of a hundred thalers yearly. Looking 

 back over his life's work, Olbers long afterwards declared that 

 the greatest service he had rendered to astronomy was that of 

 having discerned, directed and promoted the genius 4 of Bessel. 

 Miss A. M. Clerke. 



Many men have made immense fortunes, but few 

 have had the ambition to devote their riches to the 

 advancement of knowledge. Dr. Heinrich Schliemann 

 was one of the few. Before he was ten years old, he 

 had made up his mind that the mighty walls of 

 Troy could not have disappeared, but must have been 

 buried by the dust of ages ; and that he would himself 

 some day bring them to light. This object was before 

 him in all his early struggles with poverty. Even when 

 working in an office in Amsterdam for a salary of 32 

 a year, he spent half that sum on living and the other 

 half on self-education, his dinner costing him two-pence, 

 and a fire being an unknown luxury. Under these 

 conditions, and with the Homeric story in his mind, he 

 began the study of modern languages, and became 

 master of seven or eight tongues besides his own, 

 including ancient and modern Greek. By sheer business 

 talent he rose from poverty to great wealth, and he used 

 his fortune to carry out the purpose of his life. 



In 1871 Schliemann began his career as an explorer by 

 an attack on the hill of Hissarlik, near the mouth of 



