LITTLE 

 JOURNEYS 



actors do on the stage, only this man died sure enough. 

 Alfred Tennyson at thirteen wrote a poem addressed 

 to his grandfather ; the old gentleman gave him a 

 guinea for it, and then wrote these words : " This is 

 the first and last penny you will ever receive for wri- 

 ting poetry." The father of Shelley misquoted Job, and 

 said, "Oh, to be brought down to the grave in grief 

 through the follies of an ungrateful child ! ' ' And La- 

 bouchere says that one of the four brothers of Shake- 

 speare used to explain that he was n't the play-actor 

 who wrote " Hamlet " and " Othello " lest, mayhap, his 

 name should be smirched. 



Galileo's mother had that beautiful dream which I be- 

 lieve all good mothers have that her son might be 

 the Savior of the world. As he grew to manhood, her 

 faith in him did not relax. 



Even in childhood Galileo showed great skill in in- 

 vention. He made curious toys with cogs and wheels 

 and eccentrics ; whittled out violins, and transformed 

 simple reeds into lutes, upon which he played music 

 of his own composition. In fact, so great was his skill 

 in music that at twenty they wished to make him of- 

 ficial organist and choir-master of the Cathedral. His 

 personal taste, however, ran more to painting, and for 

 some months he worked at his canvases with an ardor 

 too great to last long. If ever a man was touched by 

 the Spirit of the Renaissance, it was young Galileo. 

 " Upon him has fallen the mantle of Michael Angelo," 

 the Archbishop of Pisa said. He gave lectures on Art, 

 and taught Painting by actual example. One of his 

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