539 
NATURE 
[March 24, 1870 
undomestic, and the proofs of this are so common that 
we need not quote a single example ; the petty details of 
home weary them, and prevent the abstraction requisite 
for their labours : so the ancient Brahmans, who reasoned 
as profoundly as any light of Western civilisation, lived 
in the solitudes of the forests of Ancient India; so 
Descartes withdrew himself from the world, and remained 
GALILEO 
(From Ramsey's picture in Trinity College, Cambridge) 
buried in the quiet of his country house while he produced 
his “ Meditations.” 
Galileo also was by no means domestic. Of his three 
natural children, his son Vincenzio was a constant thorn 
in his side. Hewas a lazy fellow, who was always writing 
to his father for money, and who, Italian-like, preferred to 
idle away his life in singing and lute-playing, to adopting 
any profession or attempting to get his own livelihood. 
We cannot find one good quality in Vincenzio Galileo ; 
he was mean, selfish, inconsiderate and unnatural in his 
behaviour towards his father. One example of this is 
sufficient. He had quartered himself on his father, toge- 
ther with his wife and children, when the plague broke 
out in the neighbourhood ; whereupon Vincenzio deserted 
the old man, and went to a more healthy locality, leaving 
his father to take his chance with the other inhabitants of 
the district. Galileo’s daughters Polissena and Virginia 
were placed in the Convent of S. Matthew, at Arcetri, in 
1614, when the eldest was only thirteen years old ; hence- 
forth they became Sister Maria Celeste and Sister Arcan- 
gela. Of the latter we hear but little, but Sister Maria 
Celeste constantly corresponded with her father, and the 
greater number of her letters have been preserved, and 
are now in the Palatine Library at Florence. These letters 
contain some interesting details of convent life of the 
period, but of necessity they do not bear upon many of 
the doings of the outside world ; their general tenor is the 
same throughout ; they are full of her love for Heaven 
and for her “dear lord and father,” as she was wont to call 
Galileo, and they almost invariably pass to an opposite 
extreme of matters exceedingly of the earth, earthy—the 
baking of cakes, the mending of linen, the getting up of 
his collars and so on. She tells her father all the minute 
details of her work, as: “ I have been extremely busy at the 
dinner-napkins. They are nearly finished; but now I 
come to putting on the fringe, I find that of the sort I send 
as a pattern a piece is wanting for two dinner-napkins : 
that will be four dvaccia.” The last paragraph of this 
desultory letter begins, ““ These few cakes I send are some 
I made a few days ago, intending to give them to you 
when you come to bid us adieu ;” and ends, “I thank 
Him for everything, and pray that He will give you the 
highest and best felicity ;” and a postscript immediately 
follows this—“ You can send us any collars that want 
getting up.” 
Galileo’s villa was very near the convent, and a 
constant interchange of courtesy seems to have taken 
place; Galileo sent money and presents of meat and 
wine, while Sister Maria Celeste sent him plums, and 
baked pears, and candied fruits, and cakes, and mended 
his linen and kept his wardrobe in order. Her love for 
him amounted almost to worship, at least to veneration. 
When at length, worn out by watching in the convent 
infirmary, by ill health, and by the many privations in- 
separable froma convent life, she felt her end approaching, 
Galileo was in confinement at Siena, and she feared she 
should see him no more; but he was allowed to retire to 
his own house, and arrived at Arcetri in time to see his 
daughter before her death. Writing of this time (1634), 
Galileo says: “‘ Here I lived on very quietly, frequently 
paying visits to the neighbouring convent, where I had 
two daughters who were nuns, and whom I loved dearly;. 
but the eldest in particular, who was a woman of exquisite 
mind, singular goodness, and most heartily attached to 
me.” 
GALILEO’S TOWER 
There is much in this “Private Life of Galileo” of 
great interest in connection with his scientific work, his 
books, his persecutions and trial by the Sacred College, 
and his condemnation; but we have preferred to keep 
strictly to his more private life, as the theme is so large, 
that if we once touched upon his scientific work and. its 
results, we should require far more space than could be 
placed at our disposal here. 
Galileo continued actively employed to within a few 
years of his death, in January 1642. During his latter 
years he was a great sufferer. “I have been in my bed 
