mony. It was not, however,
until his father took him on a visit to see an elder brother, who was
in the family of the Prince of Saxe-Weisenfels, that he became
acquainted with the progress he had made in his loved art. While there
he happened to go into the royal chapel just as the service was
closing, when he glided up to the organ, unperceived, and commenced
playing. The Prince was on the point of retiring; but he stopped, and
inquired who was playing. He was told that it was young Handel, only
seven years old; whereupon the Prince ordered the boy and his father
to be summoned into his presence. The result of the interview was,
that the Prince arranged for Handel to be placed for tuition under the
organist of Halle Cathedral, where he soon became renowned. Posterity
has not failed to condemn the unwise discipline of his father, in
disregarding his inclination for a given pursuit.

When Sir Joshua Reynolds was a boy, he was inclined to embrace every
opportunity to gratify his taste for drawing. His father had no
sympathy with him in thus spending his time, and he sought to repress
his aspirations of this kind. One day he discovered that Joshua had
disfigured his exercise-book with a number of well-executed drawings;
but, instead of encouraging his talents in this line, he sharply
rebuked him, and wrote underneath the sketches, "_Done by Joshua out
of pure idleness._" His father was anxious that he should become a
physician, and therefore he looked with no favour upon his propensity
for drawing. But for the irrepressible power of genius, his unwise
father would have deprived the world of one of its most gifted
painters.

The father of John Smeaton pursued a like censurable course in the
discipline of his son. He frowned upon those early developments of
genius that foreshadowed the renowned engineer that he became. When
only four or five years of age, he was often seen dividing circles and
squares. He rejected the toys that other children used, preferring
tools with which he could construct machines. When only six or seven
years of age, he was discovered on the roof of the barn, much to the
consternation of his father and mother, fixing up a windmill of his
own construction. Soon afterwards having seen some men repairing a
pump, he procured from them a piece of bored pipe, he made one of his
own, with which he could raise water. At fourteen years of age he made
an engine to turn rose-work, and many were his presents of