WOMEN AS INSPIRERS 365 



must remember," she adds in excuse, "that I must put 

 into this paper everything that I should chatter to you in 

 a week." 



No daughter was ever prouder of her father or loved 

 him with a more abounding love. "I pride myself," she 

 says, "that I love and revere my dearest father more, by 

 far, than others love their fathers, and I clearly perceive 

 that, in return, he far surpasses the greater part of other fa- 

 thers in the love which he has for me, his loved daughter. ' ' 



When he was ill she prepared dishes and confections 

 that she knew would tempt his appetite. But she was not 

 satisfied with looking after the welfare of his body, for 

 she took occasion to send with the cakes and preserved 

 fruits a sermonette for the benefit of his soul. 



An extract from one of her letters gives an insight into 

 the character of this devoted daughter, who, Galileo says 

 in a letter to his friend, Elia Diodati, "was a woman of 

 exquisite mind, singular goodness and most tenderly at- 

 tached to me." 



"Of the preserved citron you ordered," she writes him 

 on the nineteenth of December, 1625, "I have only been 

 able to do a small quantity. I feared the citrons were too 

 shriveled for preserving, and so they proved. I send two 

 baked pears for these days of vigil. But the greatest treat 

 of all I send you is a rose, which ought to please you ex- 

 tremely, seeing what a rarity it is at this season. And 

 with the rose you must accept its thorns, which represent 

 the bitter passion of Our Lord, while the green leaves rep- 

 resent the nope we may entertain that, through the same 

 sacred passion, we, having passed through the darkness of 

 this short winter of our mortal life, may attain to the 

 brightness and felicity of an eternal spring in heaven, 

 which may our gracious God grant us through His 

 mercy. ' n 



1 Galileo Galilei e Suor Celeste, by Antonio Favaro, p. 256 et seq., 

 Florence, 1891. 



