Copernicus. 303 



particular researches respecting the life and writings of 

 Copernicus ■*. N. Copernicus was a canon at ErmeJand, 

 And administrator of the possessions of the chapter of 

 Allenstein. As he had therefore two places of residence, 

 he had observatories at both. In the habitation possessed 

 at present by an evangelical Lutheran pastor, there were 

 some manuscript verses, written by Copernicus with his 

 own hand, pasted to the chimney piece ; but about fifteea 

 years ago a pastor who left the place carried with him this 

 memorial of that celebrated man. The name and arms of 

 Copernicus were also painted in colours on a pane of a 

 window; butthis monument, which had remained three cen- 

 turies and a half, disappeared likewise about a dozen years 

 ago. Over the door is shown a place where there was 

 an aperture, through which the solar rays entered at stated 

 times and passed into another chamber; but six years ago 

 the present possessor caused the hole to be filled up f. The 

 tower in the neighbourhood, on which Copernicus made 

 his observations, is kept in bad repair, and serves for the 

 confinement of prisoners, the rattling of whose chains we 

 could hear. When we arrived at Frauenburg we visited 

 the church where the ashes of Copernicus are deposited, 

 and several times repeated his name — a name never men- 

 tioned by the old or the young but with the greatest re- 

 spect; they leave to the learned to pay honour to the extent 

 of his scientific knowledge, and venerate the remains of a 

 man who is their neighbour. Frauenburg has a high situa- 

 tion ; where the church stands there is no water, nor is 

 there a single mill in the surrounding district. Copernicus 

 constructed half a mile higher up the river an oblique dam 

 fifteen ells anda half in length, where he erected a mill, and 

 the water was raised by a wheel to the summit of a tower, 

 from which it was distributed by pipes, so that each of the 

 canons had water .conveyed into his house. This machine 

 has been worn out. The chapter, whose finances in the 

 year 1772 were in a bad state, are now about repairing this 

 work. It is a common saying among the learned of this 

 place, that a model of this machine was requested in the 

 time of Louis XIV. We entered the church. Near the 

 altar is a grave-stone covered in part by a marble balustrade 



* T. Sniack-cki. 



f It is probable that thj? was an astronomical gmnnon, which Coper- 

 nicus had caused to be constructed in his habitation for the purpose of 

 observing the equinoxes, solstices, and inclination o£ the ecliptic. — Note 

 i>y,Sniadecki. 



which 



