10 GALILEO GALILEI. 



During the first six years at Padua, his salary 

 rose from about one hundred dollars to five hundred 

 dollars, yearly. All this time, when his mind 

 should have been free from care for his great work, 

 he was beset with difficulties. His sister, Virginia, 

 had married before his father's death, but a prom- 

 ised dowry had never been paid, and now the 

 brother-in-law demanded the payment. The mother, 

 worried over the prospect, wrote to her son, Galileo, 

 " If you carry into effect your intention of coming 

 here next month, I shall be rejoiced, only you 

 must not come unprovided with funds, for I see 

 that Benedetto is determined to have his own, that 

 is to say, what you promised him ; and he threatens 

 loudly that he will have you arrested the instant 

 you arrive here. And as I hear you bound your- 

 self to pay, he would have the power to arrest you, 

 and he is just the man to do it. So I warn you, 

 for it would grieve me much if anything of the kind 

 were to happen." 



Livia, another sister, had become engaged to a 

 Pisan gentleman, with the promise of a dowry of 

 eighteen hundred ducats, eight hundred of which 

 must be paid down. The " Pisan gentleman " 

 could not burden himself with a wife, without 

 funds to help support her and himself. So Galileo 

 generously, if not wisely, borrowed six hundred 

 ducats, and paid the necessary eight hundred, giving 

 his sister beautiful clothes and house furnishings. 



Besides these sisters, Galileo had a lazy brother 

 to provide for, Michelangelo, a young man of some 



