e in solving a
problem, that he was even ignorant that the enemy were in possession of
the city, and when a soldier entered his apartment, and commanded him to
follow him, he exclaimed, according to some, "Disturb not my circle!"
and to others, he begged the soldier not to "kill him till he had solved
his problem"; but the rough warrior, ignorant of the august person
before him, little heeded his request, and struck him down. This
happened B.C. 212, so that Archimedes, at his death, must have been
about 75 years old. Marcellus raised a monument over him, and placed
upon it a cylinder and a sphere, thereby to immortalize his discovery of
their mutual relations, on which he set a particular value; but it
remained long neglected and unknown, till Cicero, during his questorship
of Sicily, found it near one of the gates of Syracuse, and had it
repaired. The story of his burning glasses had always appeared fabulous
to some of the moderns, till the experiments of Buffon demonstrated its
truth and practicability. These celebrated glasses are supposed to have
been reflectors made of metal, and capable of producing their effect at
the distance of a bow-shot.

THE TRIALS OF GENIUS.

FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI.

This eminent architect was one of those illustrious men, who, having
conceived and matured a grand design, proceed, cool, calm, and
indefatigable, to put it in execution, undismayed by obstacles that seem
insuperable, by poverty, want, and what is worse, the jeers of men whose
capacities are too limited to comprehend their sublime conceptions. The
world is apt to term such men enthusiasts, madmen, or fools, till their
glorious achievements stamp them almost divinely inspired.

Brunelleschi was nobly descended on his mother's side, she being a
member of the Spini family, which, according to Bottari, became extinct
towards the middle of the last century. His ancestors on his father's
side were also learned and distinguished men--his father was a notary,
his grandfather "a very learned man," and his great-grandfather "a
famous physician in those times." Filippo's father, though poor,
educated him for the legal or medical profession; but such was his
passion for art and mechanics, that his father, greatly against his
will, was compelled to allow him to follow the bent of his genius: he
accordingly placed him, at a proper age, in the Guild of the Goldsmiths,
that he might acquire the art of design. Filippo soon became a