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306 attendance was in vain; while, on the other hand, the musicians were nonplussed for a very different reason,—for Seraphina soon excelled, in this art, all her instructors. More especially, her voice was so exquisite, that not one of our opera-singers could compare with her.

“My, father perceived, therefore, that his plans for this extraordinary child’s education were at one time too confined, at another too excursive—in short, that, for the future, he must allow her to follow the bent of her own disposition. Consequently, Seraphina took an opportunity of requesting, that she might be allowed to take instructions in a science, which, probably, no one would ever have thought of recommending to her, namely, that of astronomy. It is impossible to, conceive with what impassioned eagerness she seized upon, and studied every work that treated of the stars, or with what rapture she received the telescopes of which my father made her a present at Christmas, when she was in her thirteenth year. But, in a short time, astronomy was not sufficient to satisfy her imagination. She revived the old and forgotten study of astrology; and, many times, to the great vexation of her