GALILEO GALILEI. H 



musical talent and elegant manners, with the not 

 unusual gift of being able to spend much and earn 

 little. Galileo obtained a situation for him with 

 a Polish prince, and spent two hundred crowns 

 in getting him ready for the new position. He 

 went thither, but soon returned, and another place 

 had to be procured for him, at the court of the 

 Duke of Bavaria. 



While there, instead of helping to pay his sis- 

 ter's dowry, as he had promised, he married; had 

 an extravagant wedding feast, and then wrote his 

 hard-working brother : " I know that you will say 

 that I should have waited, and thought of our 

 sisters before taking a wife. But, good heavens ! 

 the idea of toiling all one's life just to put by a few 

 farthings to give one's sisters ! This yoke would 

 be indeed too heavy and bitter; for I am more 

 than certain that in thirty years I should not have 

 , saved enough to cover this debt." 

 j^ With all the pressure upon him for money, 

 Galileo kept steadily on in his absorbing studies. 

 In the year 1609, he constructed a telescope. It is 

 true that Hans Lipperhey, of Germany, had in- 

 vented a spy-glass, and presented it to Prince 

 Maurice, so that the principle was understood ; but 

 nobody gave it practical illustration till Galileo, 

 having heard of the glass, began to reflect how an 

 instrument could be made to bring distant objects 

 near. In a leaden tube, he fixed two glasses, both 

 having one side flat, and the other side of the one 

 concave, and the other convex. By this, objects 



