the pupil of Van Zwaanenberg, and made rapid progress in
the elementary parts of his profession. Impatient to produce some finished
work, he did not give himself time to acquire purity of style, but
astonished his master by his precocious skill in grouping figures, and
producing marvelous effects of light and shade. The first lessons which he
took in perspective having wearied him, he thought of a shorter method,
and _invented_ perspective for himself.

One of his first rude sketches happened to fall into the hands of a
citizen of Leyden who understood painting. Despite of its evident defects,
the germs of rare talent which it evinced struck the burgomaster; and
sending for the young artist, he offered to give him a recommendation to a
celebrated painter living at Amsterdam, under whom he would have far more
opportunity of improvement than with his present instructor.

Rembrandt accepted the offer, and during the following year toiled
incessantly. Meantime his finances were dreadfully straitened; for his
father, finding that the expected profits were very tardy, refused to give
money to support his son, as he said, in idleness. Paul, however, was not
discouraged. Although far from possessing an amiable or estimable
disposition, he held a firm and just opinion of his own powers, and
resolved to make these subservient first to fortune and then to fame. Thus
while some of his companions, having finished their preliminary studies,
repaired to Florence, to Bologna, or to Rome, Paul, determined, as he
said, not to lose his own style by becoming an imitator of even the
mightiest masters, betook himself to his paternal mill. At first his
return resembled that of the Prodigal Son. His father believed that he had
come to resume his miller's work; and bitter was his disappointment at
finding his son resolved not to renounce painting.

With a very bad grace he allowed Paul to displace the flour-sacks in an
upper loft, in order to make a sort of studio, lighted by only one narrow
window in the roof. There Paul painted his first finished picture. It was
a _portrait_ of the mill. There, on the canvas, was seen the old miller,
lighted by a lantern which he carried in his hand, giving directions to
his men, occupied in ranging sacks in the dark recesses of the granary.
One ray falls on the fresh, comely countenance of his mother, who has her
foot on the last step of a wooden staircase.(3) Rembrandt took this
painting to the Hague, and