STUDYING THE HEAVENS. 77 Artonay, a village of Champagne, in the year 1695. His parents were exceedingly poor, and his father died when he was ten years old. He was then taken by a farmer to keep his poultry, but being soon dismissed for some childish error, he resolved on leaving home, rather than becoming a burden to his mother. In the winter of 1709 he set out on his wanderings. After suffering hunger, fatigue, and bodily pain, he arrived at Morglut, where a compassionate shepherd engaged him to tend his flock. When the worst of the winter had passed, he again resumed his wanderings, and at length was received by the inhabitants of a hermitage at St. Anne's, near Luneville, who gave him the charge of their five or six cows, and taught him writing and arithmetic. Eagerly desirous of knowledge, he spent his nights in studying the heavens, constructing an observatory of osiers in the summit of a lofty oak. his scanty earnings he purchased a few books and instruments, and to increase his store he hunted and killed the wild animals of the forest for their skins, which he disposed of at a cheap rate, and with the produce added to his little library. He read all kinds of books with the utmost avidity, storing up the information he With 78 LEONARDO DA VINCI. acquired in a memory of singular retentive ness. While seated one day under the shade of a forest-tree, with his books and papers around him, he was accosted by some members of the royal family on their way to a hunting expedition, who were naturally surprised at the sight of this rural philosopher. The result of the interview was, that they became his patrons and placed him in the Jesuits' College at Pont â Mousson, where he made a rapid progress in geography, history, and the study of antiquities. In all his after life he displayed the same eminent qualities of fervent love of knowledge and dauntless perseverance, until he was universally recognised as one of the chief of European scholars. Who has not heard of Leonardo da Vinci, a man of almost universal learning as well as a painter of surpassing powers? Language has been taxed to the uttermost for his eulogiums. There was in him, we are told, a grace beyond expression, which was rendered manifest, without thought or effort, in every act and deed. Extraordinary power was, in his case, conjoined with extraordinary facility. To whatever subject he turned his attention, it mattered not 80 AN ASPIRING MIND. what might be its difficulties, he was able, by his rare capacity, to make himself absolute master of it. "He scanned the heavens, and mysteries there Grew patent to his eagle ken, While beauteous things from earth and air, He seized his pencil-all was grace; And ravishments to mortals give." He was the son of a Florentine notary, and born at the Castle of Vinci, in the Val d'Arno, not far from the old Tuscan capital, in the year 1452. Even as a child he manifested a great love of drawing and painting, of form and colour, and executed numerous little sketches, which displayed considerable promise. His father, convinced that they exceeded in talent the average productions of boys of his age, showed them to a painter, Andrea del Vervechio. He immediately offered to receive the young Leonardo as his pupil, and in Vervechio's studio the boy-artist's productions excited general admiration. At the same time his wonderful precocity was conspicuous in other branches; he acquired rapidly and retained firmly. An incident is recorded of his boyish life which seems worth relating. His master was |