in a trial concerning the authenticity of a certain picture by Paul Bril, he can only declare that he is about forty-six.

Such is the evidence upon this fortunately not very important point, and it is small wonder that of the two great authorities, M. Michel and M. Vosmaer, the first accepts 1606 and the second 1607 as the true date. The question must still remain an open one, but when we consider that Rembrandt's mother did not die until 1640, only one year before Orlers published his book, and at a time when he had probably collected most of his material, and that nothing is more likely than that he should have applied to her for details, we may with safety conclude that the balance of probability is in favour of his date 1606.

Concerning the place of his birth there are no such doubts. If the visitor to Leyden, on his way from the station to the town, turns sharp to the right after crossing the second bridge, and on traversing a third keeps again to the right and continues with that branch of the Rhine known as the Galgewater on his right hand, he will before long find himself on the west side of the town, in a triangular open space, washed on two sides by the moat surrounding it, where once stood the White Gate guarding the entrance of the high-road from the Hague. On the left side of this, as one comes in from the country, and at right angles to it, close to where the buildings of the Zeemans-Kweekschool, or Naval School, now are, ran a short street called the Weddesteeg, in No. 3 of which Rembrandt was born.

It must have been a pleasant situation, facing the setting sun, with nothing but the town ramparts and the gleaming moat between it and the wide champaign. On the right hand the slow barges crept up and down the river, on the left the slow carts creaked to and from the town, while in front the broad sails of windmills swung round, and the whirr of the stones grinding malt for making beer hummed through the open doors. Up against the sky rose two, one almost opposite the windows of the house, the other a little to the left on the border of the Noordeinde, just inside the gate, of which Rembrandt's father owned half, while his stepfather Cornelis, the son of Clæs, with his son Clæs, shared the other half between them.

He was a prosperous and respected man was Hermann, or Harmen—the name occurs in both forms—the son of Gerrit, called after the fashion of the time Harmen Gerritsz, to which he himself added van Rijn, as his son did after him. Besides his own residence, and his share of the mill, he owned houses within the town and gardens without, with plate and jewellery and house-plenishings and all things proper about him, and had been appointed by his fellow-citizens to a municipal office of importance, representing the ward of the Pelican, in which he lived, where he did so well what was asked of him that he was selected again for it some years later. He was at the former date thirty-five or thirty-six, and at the time when this, his fifth and youngest child but one, was born, he had been married fifteen years, his wedding-day having been the 8th of October 1589.

[Bredius Collection, the Hague

PORTRAIT OF REMBRANDT'S MOTHER
(ABOUT 1628)]

Rembrandt's childhood, considering the condition of his father, was, we may be sure, at least a comfortable one, though of details we have none. We cannot even say where he learned to read and write, for neither of which exercises did he subsequently exhibit much affection. Probably at home, where maybe Coppenol, the great master of writing, at that time included among the fine-arts under the style of Caligraphy, taught him, and possibly gave him his first lessons in drawing also; for the art he professed, with its elaboration of curves and flourishes, and its, to our eyes, somewhat childish pictorial perversions, was a singular commingling of the two. One thing at least we may feel certain of, that it was at his mother's knee he began the study of the Bible, which she herself read so constantly, if we may judge by its frequent appearance in his portraits of her, and which he, following in her footsteps, knew so thoroughly and drew upon so often for inspiration.

The next fact we find chronicled is a passage in Orlers to the effect that his parents sent him to school to learn the Latin tongue, in preparation for the University of Leyden, that when he came of age he might by his knowledge serve the City and Republic; and in fulfilment of this laudable ambition we find that entry on May 25th, 1620, as a student in the Faculty of Letters, which has already been noted in another connection. But by this time, by what means we know not, the art craving was fully aroused, and his parents' ambitious scheme for his serving the City and Republic was as nothing beside his own irresistible desire to express himself in form and colour. He proved, we are told, but an unwilling scholar, the lines of Virgil and Ovid were lifeless to him, in comparison with those of Lucas van Leyden; and his elders, yielding with a fortunate wisdom to the inevitable, gave up the effort to make a statesman of him, and consented to apprentice him, according to his wish, to a painter to learn first principles from him.