mentioned, it was
proposed that Sienna should be the place of Galileo's confinement, and
that his residence should be in one of the convents of that city.
Niccolini, however, recommended the palace of the Archbishop Piccolomoni
as a more suitable residence; and though the Archbishop was one of
Galileo's best friends, the Pope agreed to the arrangement, and in the
beginning of July Galileo quitted Rome for Sienna.

After having spent nearly six months under the hospitable roof of his
friend, with no other restraint than that of being confined to the
limits of the palace, Galileo was permitted to return to his villa near
Florence under the same restrictions; and as the contagious disease had
disappeared in Tuscany, he was able in the month of December to re-enter
his own house at Arcetri, where he spent the remainder of his days.

CHAPTER VI.

_Galileo loses his favourite Daughter--He falls into a state of
melancholy and ill health--Is allowed to go to Florence for its
recovery in 1638--But is prevented from leaving his House or
receiving his Friends--His friend Castelli permitted to visit him
in the presence of an Officer of the Inquisition--He composes his
celebrated Dialogues on Local Motion--Discovers the Moon's
Libration--Loses the sight of one Eye--The other Eye attacked by
the same Disease--Is struck blind--Negociates with the Dutch
Government respecting his Method of finding the Longitude--He is
allowed free intercourse with his Friends--His Illness and Death in
1642--His Epitaph--His Social, Moral, and Scientific Character._

Although Galileo had now the happiness of rejoining his family under
their paternal roof, yet, like all sublunary blessings, it was but of
short duration. His favourite daughter Maria, who along with her sister
had joined the convent of St Matthew in the neighbourhood of Arcetri,
had looked forward to the arrival of her father with the most
affectionate anticipations. She hoped that her filial devotion might
form some compensation for the malignity of his enemies, and she eagerly
assumed the labour of reciting weekly the seven penitentiary psalms
which formed part of her father's sentence. These sacred duties,
however, were destined to terminate almost at the moment they were
begun. She was seized with a fatal illness in the same month in which
she rejoined her parent, and before the month of April she was no more.
This heav