Being a great admirer of the fair fex, he conceived a violent inclination for Chriftina, a beautiful coun. try girl, the daughter of a neighbouring peafant, and alienated his family by marrying a perfon of fuch low extraction. Love is ever ingenious in devifing excufes. Our philofopher juftified the choice of his heart, and gave many whimfical reafons for preferring a woman of low birth. He dreaded a wife who should be under the neceffity of living at court, a life to him the most deteftable; he therefore preferred one whofe fituation neceffarily precluded her from what he ftiles a painful honour, who, grateful to her benefactor, would be dependent on himfelf alone, would be happy to accompany him in his travels, would confider a fubferviency to his inclinations as a duty, and would not object to his continued application. Whatever effect these reasons might have in inducing our philofopher to marry, yet it may be imagined they had none on a proud family, who conceived themfelves difgraced by Tycho's mif-alliance, and refufed to hold any intercourse with him, until Frederic the Second commanded them to be reconciled. Tycho never seems to have repented of his choice; but ever found in his beloved Chriftina a grateful companion and an obedient wife.

"About this period of his life he first appeared as a public teacher, and read lectures on aftronomy at the express defire of the king. He explained the theory of the planets, and preceded his explanation by a very learned oration concerning the hiftory and excellency of aftronomy and its fifter-fciences, with fome remarks in favour of judicial aftrology, a ftudy as congenial to the times as to the inclinations of our philofopher.

"Offended with his rela ions' and difgufted with his countrymen' he had long determined to quit Denmark, and to fettle abroad; and after travelling through Germany and Italy, he at length fixed upon Bafil; to the choice of which place he was influenced by the wholefomenefs of the air, the cheapnefs of the living, and the celebrity of the univerfity; and from whence he might hold a regular and eafy correfpondence with the aftronomers of France, Germany, and Italy.

"On his return to Denmark he was preparing with the utmost fecrecy to tranfport his library and aftronomical apparatus, but was pre-, vented carrying his defign into execution by an unexpected fummons from the king. Frederic, being fecretly apprifed of his intentions, was unwilling that Denmark fhould be deprived of so great an ornament, kindly embraced him, offered his protection and encouragement, prefented him with the ifland of Huen as a proper retirement, and promifed to erect, at his expence, whatever buildings and apparatus fhould be found neceflary for his aftronomical purfuits. He fettled upon him a penfion of 1000 crowns a year, and gave him a canonry of Rofchild worth not lefs than 2000

and a fubterraneous laboratory; and although the king fupplied 100,000 rix-dollars, Tycho Brahe did not expend less than the fame fum. He afterwards conftructed a detached building, which he called Stiernberg, or the Mountain of the Stars.

"In this retreat Tycho Brahe paffed twenty years, and greatly improved the fcience of aftronomy by the diligence and exactnefs of his obfervations. He maintained feveral fcholars in his houfe for the purpose of inftructing them in geometry and aftronomy, fome of whom were fent and their expences defrayed by the king; others, who voluntarily offered themselves, he received and fupported at his own expence.

"He did not, however, pass the life of an anchorite or a reclufe; on the contrary, he lived in a most fumptuous manner, kept an open houfe with unbounded hofpitality, was always happy to entertain and receive all perfons, who flocked in crowds to vifit the ifland, and to pay their refpects to a perfon of his

renown.

66

During his refidence in the ifland of Huen, he received numerous vifits from perfons of the highest rank. Among these must be particularly mentioned Ulric duke of Mecklenburgh, in company with his daughter Sophia queen of Denmark; William, landgrave of Heffe Caffel, whofe correfpondence with Brahe on aftronomical fubjects has been given to the public, and who had fhewn himself a conftant patron to the Danish aftronomer.

"In 1590 Tycho was honoured with a visit from James the Firft, then king of Scotland, when that monarch repaired to the court of Copenhagen to conclude his mar

riage with the princefs Anne, and was fo delighted with Brahe's apparatus and converfation, that he remained eight days at Uranien burgh. On retiring he prefented Tycho with a magnificent prefent, and afterwards accompanied his royal licence for the publication of Tycho Brahe's works with the following flattering teftimony of his abilities and learning: "Nor "am 1 acquainted with thefe things

6.

from the relation of others, or "from a mere perufal of your "works, but I have feen them with

my own eyes, and heard them "with my own ears, in your re"fidence at Uranienburg, during "the various learned and agreeable "converfations which I there held "with you, which even now af "fect my mind to fuch a degree, "that it is difficult to decide, whe "ther I recollect them with greater "pleafure or admiration; which "I now willingly teftify by this "licence to prefent and future ge"nerations, &c,"

"His majesty alfo, at his particular requeft, compofed, in honour of the Danish aftronomer, fome Latin verfes, more expreffive indeed of his esteem and admiration than remarkable for claffic ele, gance.

"In 1592 he was honoured with a vifit from his own fovereign, Chriftian the Fourth, then in the fifteenth year of his age, who continued fome days at Uranienburgh. That promifing young prince fhewed great curiofity in examining the aftronomical and chymical apparatus, expreffed the higheft fatisfaction in receiving explanations and inftructions, propofed various queftions on feveral points of mathematics and mechanics, to which his majefty was attached, and particularly on the

principles of fortification, and the conftruction of fhips. He was alfo highly delighted with a gilt tin globe which reprefented the face of the heavens, and fo contrived, that, being turned on its own axis, it fhewed the rifing and fetting of the fun, the motions of the planets and heavenly bodies; a wonderful contrivance for that age. Tycho, obferving the delight which the young king fhewed in obferving thefe phænomena, prefented it to his majefty. The king gracioufly accepted it, gave him in return a gold chain, and affured him of his unalterable protection and at

tachment.

Notwithstanding however thefe affurances, the king's youth was worked upon by thofe courtiers who were envious of Tycho Brahe's merit, or who had been offended by the violence of his temper, and the feverity of his fatire, and under various pretences prevailed upon Chriftian to deprive him of his penfion, and the canonry of Rofkild.

"Tycho Brahe being thus deprived of the means to fupport the great expences of his eftablishment at Uranienburgh, quitted with chagrin his favourite refidence, and repaired to his houfe at Copenhagen, where he waited for an opportunity to retire from his native country. Having tranfported from Uranienburgh all the inftruments and apparatus which could be removed, he quitted Copenhagen, embarked with his wife and family, landed at Roftock, and remained a year at Wanfbeck with his learned friend Henry Rantzau,

ex

"Having dedicated a treatife on aftronomy to the emperor Rhodolph the Second, who was tremely addicted to aftronomy, chyiftry, and judicial aftrology, he

at length received a very flattering invitation from that monarch, which he accepted without hesitation, and repaired to Prague in 1599. The emperor received him in the kindest and moft honourable manner, built for him an obfervatory and elaboratory, fettled on him an ample'penfion, and treated him with the highest marks of deference and refpect.

"In the fervice of Rhodolph he paffed the remainder of his days, but did not live long to enjoy his protection. He had enjoyed a good ftate of health till the year previous to his death, when his conftitution, fomewhat weakened by the intensenefs of his application, was still farther fhattered by the chagrin occafioned by his removal from Uranienburgh. At that period he began to experience fymptoms of complaints which announced his approaching diffolution, but which he concealed as much as poffible from his friends. He was reduced however to fo low a state as to be affected with the moft trifling circumfances, which he confidered as prodigies, and would frequently interrupt his fallies of wit with fudden reflections on death.

"The immediate caufe of his deceafe was a ftrangury, which being attended with the moft excruciating torments, brought on a violent fever, and a temporary delirium; in the midft of which he was heard repeatedly to cry out,

Ne fruftra vixiffe videar." His delirium at length fubfiding he became calm and compofed, and perfectly fenfible. Being extremely debilitated by the violence of his diforder, he perceived that he had not many hours to live. Accordingly he gave orders with the utmost coolnefs and refignation; even amufed himself with compofing an extempore copy of verfes; fung various A 4

hymns;

hymns; offered up prayers and fup. plications to the Supreme Being; recommended to his family and friends piety and refignation to the divine will; exhorted his pupils to prefevere in their ftudies; and converfed with Kepler on the most abftrufe parts of aftronomy. Thus, amidst prayers, exhortations, and literary converfation, he expired fo peaceably, that he was neither heard nor feen, by any of those who were prefent, to breathe his laft. He died in October 1601, in the fiftyfifth year of his age.

"It is remarkable, that fo fenfible a man, and fo accurate an obferver as Tycho Brahe, fhould be fo infected with the rage of fyftemmaking as to reject the fimple and beautiful fyftem of Copernicus, eftablished by the most incontrovertible proofs, and to endeavour to reconcile the abfurdities of the Ptolemaic fynem. He was indeed, too well acquainted with the motions of the heavenly bodies, not to be fenfible that the fun was the centre of the fyftem; and though he was ftruck with the fimplicity and harmony of the Pythagorean fyftem, which Copernicus had lately revived, yet out of refpect, it is faid, for feveral paffages in fcripture, he abfurdly en deavoured to reconcile (what were never intended to be reconciled) his learning with his faith: he rejected the diurnal rotation of the earth on its own axis; fuppofed that the earth was quiefcent; that the fun, with all the planets, was carried about the earth in the space of a year; and that the planets, by their proper motions, revolved round the fun in their feveral periods; thus retaining the most abfurd part of the Ptolemaic hypothefis, which makes the whole planetary fyftem revolve round the earth in the fpace of every twenty-four hours.

"Tycho, indeed, was fo bigot. ted to his own hypothefis, and fhewed, even in his last moments, such an attachment to his own fyftem, as to defire his favourite scholar, the great Kepler, to follow his fyftem rather than that of Copernicus.

"If we were to estimate the me rits of Tycho Brahe as an astronomer, we fhould compare the science as he left it with the ftate in which he found it. His great merit confifted in his inventions and improvements of mathematical inftruments, and in the diligence and exactness with which he made aftronomical obfervations for a long feries of years. And as his inftruments were remarkably good, he composed a catalogue of 777 fixed stars, all obferved by himself, with an accuracy unknown to former aftronomers. He likewife discovered the refraction of the air; demonftrated, againft the prevailing opinion of thofe times, that the comets were higher than the moon; and from his obfervations on the moon and the other planets, the theories of their motions were afterwards corrected and improved. He was alfo the firft aftronomer who compofed a table of refractions, and fhewed the ufe to be made of them in aftronomy. Such is the reputation of Tvcho Brahe, for his great proficiency in that science, that Coftard, in his Hiftory of Aftronomy, has fixed upon his name as marking the begin ning of a new period.

"He feems to have embraced a large circle of the arts and sciences. He cultivated poetry, and wrote Latin verfes, not without fome degree of claffic elegance. He drew the plan for building the caftle of Cronborg, and sketched the defign for the noble mausoleum of Federic the Se. cond, which was executed in Italy, and is erected in the cathedral of

Rofkild.

Rofkild. He dabbled alfo in phy. fic. He was fond of being confulted, and readily gave his advice and medicines gratis to thofe who confulted him. He invented an elixir, which he calls an infallible cure for epidemic disorders, of which he has published the recipe in a letter to the emperor Rhodolph.

"He was a good mechanic. He poffeffed feveral automates, and took great delight in fhowing them to the peafants, and was always pleafed if they took them for fpirits.

"He was no lefs fond of being confulted as a fortune-teller, and willingly encouraged an opinion, that his knowledge of the heavenly bodies enabled him to obferve horofcopes, and foretel events. Many traditional fables of his predictions have been handed down to pofterity, which fhew his proneness to judicial aftrology, and the weakness of thofe who believed his predictions.

"In many inftances aftrological predictions, by alarming, occafion the event which they foretel, and have thus gained a falfe credit from the weak or the unwary. Thus Tycho Brahe's aftrological predictions proved fatal to the emperor Rhodolph the Second: for, being informed by Tycho, that a star which prefided at his nativity threatened him with fome finifter defigns to his prejudice, from his relations, he was thrown into fuch a panic, that he did not venture to quit his palace, or appear before any perfon; and, as the conduct of his brother Matthias confirmed the aftrologer's informations, he fell at laft a prey to his grief, and died 18th of January 1612, aged fifty-nine years.

"At Uranienburgh Tycho Brahe had feveral contrivances calculated to deceive and aftonifh thofe who came to vifit and confult him. Among others, feveral bells, com

municating with the rooms in the upper ftory, inhabited by his fcho, lars, the handles of which were concealed in his own apartments.

"Frequently, when company was with him, he would pretend to want fomething, and having fecretly pulled the bell, would cry out "Come hither Peter, come hither Christian ” and pleafed to observe the astonishment of the company, who not hearing the bells, were furprized at the appearance of the perfon who was thus fummoned.

"He was no lefs devoted to the ftudy of chymiftry than to aftronomy, and expended as much on the terreftrial aftronomy, as he ftyles it, as on the celestial. He left, indeed, no writings upon that fcience, although it feems to have been his intention to have given to the public a felection of his experiments, which he had made with fo much labour and expence; yet he adds, in the true cant of alchymy, "On confideration, and by the advice of the most illuftrious as well as the most learned men, he thought it improper to unfold the fecrets of the art to the vulgar, as few people were capable of uning its myfteries to advantage, and without detriment."

"His foibles were as prominent as his virtue and capacity. He was of a morofe and unbending difpofition, indulged himself in too great freedom of fpeech, but while he rallied others was not pleased to be rallied himself.

"He was greatly addicted to judicial aftrology, and prone to a cre dulityand fuperftition below his learnning and judgment. If he met an old woman in going out of his houfe, he would inftantly return home; and confidered an hare as an ill omen. While he lived at Uranienburgh he had a fool, whofe name was Sep, who was accuftomed during dinner to fit at