COPERNICUS. 113 



practical ethics resting on philosophy. Belief is not needed as a basis 

 for ethics — not by cultured men, at any rate. He is the first writer 

 within the christian communion to attempt to establish morality on a 

 foundation of reason. He is a Stoic. ' ' The essential reward of virtue 

 is virtue itself," he says; "the punishment of the vicious is vice, than 

 which nothing can be more wretched and unhappy. ' ' Future rewards 

 and punishments are not invoked. 



It is worth our while to pause here and reflect that we are hearing 

 a teacher to whom Copernicus listened; to whom all Italy, nay all 

 Europe, attended. This teaching was permitted in Italy. It influ- 

 enced thousands upon thousands of hearers. Perhaps the tolerant 

 treatment of Lutherans in Ermeland by Copernicus when adminis- 

 trator of his diocese may have had its origin in ideas received at this 

 time. 



There were other men in the faculty with a message for pupils of 

 genius. Aristotle and Plato were expounded from original Greek 

 texts, and the mazy fabrics of the commentators were swept away. Fra- 

 castor, who was, by and by, to become an opponent of the heliocentric 

 theory, was a teacher there. He was the first to teach that the ob- 

 liquity of the ecliptic changed uniformly (1538), in which respect — 

 only — his doctrine was more sound than that of Copernicus. Medicine 

 was expounded by four professors, and dissection of the human body 

 was practised. Marc Antonio della Torre, the instructor of da Vinci, 

 was one of the anatomists. So far as is known, Copernicus did not 

 take his doctor's degree in medicine. 



He was, however, skilled in physick, after the fashion of his day, 

 and practised the art during all his life. He was considered, some of 

 his biographers say, ' a second iEsculapius. ' We know nothing definite 

 of his medical practise until his later years. From 1529 to 1537 he 

 treated Bishop Ferber, who praises him as the preserver of his life. 

 Duke Albrecht of Prussia called him to Konigsberg in 1541 to treat 

 one of his court, and it is of record that the patient recovered. 



It does not appear that Copernicus returned to Frauenburg before 

 1506. He was then thirty-three years of age. All that the world had 

 then to offer in the way of culture was his. He had followed univer- 

 sity studies in theology, philosophy, logic, medicine, mathematics and 

 astronomy. He had mastered Greek, and practised painting. He had 

 been the friend or pupil of the greatest teachers of Italy for ten years, 

 and was now established as physician to his uncle in the bishop's palace 

 at Heilsberg, in high station, with an assured income. Up to this 

 period he had shown no original power ; but there can be no doubt that 

 he was universally regarded as a man of the highest culture. 



His relation to his uncle was that of Achates to ^Eneas, affectionate 



vol. lxv. — 8. 



