444 



COPERNICUS. 



demy of sciences and arts ; the society for the study 

 of the Northern languages and history; the Iceland 

 and Scandinavian societies; the surgical academy; 

 1 14 schools, among which is one for the deaf and 

 dumb, and one for the blind ; the veterinary school, 

 the gymnastic establishment, &c. Many of the ad- 

 mired works of Thorwaldsen (q.v.) adorn the churches 

 and palaces of Copenhagen, Besides numerous sorts 

 of mechanic-, and artists. Copenhagen contains maim 

 factories, which employ 14,000 hands. Among these 

 are the royal manufactory of porcelain, the manufac- 

 tories of cloth, calico, silk, cotton, oil-cloth, and 

 paper-liangings, the iron-founderies, and eighteen 

 sugar-refineries, with 520 workmen. 



Copenhagen is the centre of the domestic and fo- 

 reign commerce of Denmark, which is promoted by 

 the royal bank (founded, in 1736, by Christian VI.), 

 the marine insurance company, the East and West 

 India companies, and by the beautiful harbour, into 

 which about 5000 vessels enter annually. From the 

 2d to the 5tli of Sept., 1807, the town was born- 

 Ixinled by the British, and 305 houses and other 

 edifices, among which was a beautiful church, were 

 entirely burnt, and 2000 houses injured so as to be 

 rendered uninhabitable : 2000 persons, partly of the 

 garrison and partly citizens, lost their lives. The 

 environs of Copenhagen are, some of them, very fine. 

 In the neighbourhood are the summer palaces of the 

 king Fredericsberg, the usual summer residence of 

 the court, Hirschholm,Friedensburg, and Jaegerpreis. 

 In 1168, Copenhagen was a fisher's hamlet, which 

 was given by the king to bishop Axel (see Absalom), 

 who fortified it against the pirates, then numerous on 

 the islands. Gradually it rose to great importance, 

 but, of late, its commerce has sunk very much. 



COPERNICUS, NICHOLAS ; born at Thorn, on the 

 Vistula, Feb. 19, 1473, where his father had become 

 a citizen ten years before. It is supposed that his 

 family came originally from Westphalia. His mother 

 was sister to the bishop of Ermeland. From a school 

 at Thorn, Copernicus went to Cracow, where he 

 studied medicine, and received the degree of doctor. 

 At the same time he studied mathematics and astro- 

 nomy. The fame of Peurbach and Regiomontanus, 

 the restorers of astronomy in Europe, excited his 

 emulation. At the age of twenty-three, he went to 

 Italy, where the arts and sciences were beginning to 

 flourish, after the fall of the Byzantine empire. At 

 Bologna, he was instructed in astronomy by Domi- 

 nicus Maria, whose intimate friend he became. In 

 1500, he taught mathematics at Rome with great 

 success, and was already placed by the side of Regio- 

 montanus. From Rome he returned to his own 

 country, where his uncle made him a canon in the 

 cathedral of Frauenburg. In 1521, he was sent, by 

 the chapter, to the diet of Graudentz,one of the prin- 

 cipal objects of which was to put an end to the diffi- 

 culties which had arisen from the irregular coming of 

 money. Here he proposed a plan for establishing a 

 general mint at the public expense ; but the cities of 

 Elbing, Dantzic, and Thorn would not give up their 

 right of coining, and the plan of Copernicus was not 

 carried into effect. 



He now applied his whole strength to the contem- 

 plation of the sublime objects of nature. Among 

 the many hypotheses, with regard to our planetary 

 system, which had been advanced during the previous 

 2000 years, one had at last prevailed, the most in- 

 genious, and artificial, and the most wonderful mix- 

 ture of sagacity and error which the human mind has 

 ever conceived. Pythagoras, Aristotle, Plato, Hip- 

 parchus, Archimedes, and others, had all adopted it. 

 It was called the system of Ptolemy. (See System of 

 the Universe, and Ptolemy.) Copernicus doubted 

 whether the motions of the heavenly bodies could be 



so confused and so complicated as this hypothesis 

 would make them ; for nature follows, he thought, 

 more simple laws; and, as soon as these are found, 

 they must explain, with simplicity, the most compli- 

 cated appearances. He found, in the writings of the 

 ancients, that Nicetas, Heraclides.and Kcphoniiis had 

 thought of the possibility of a motion of the earth. 

 This induced him to examine the subject more fully. 

 The hypothesis of Aristarchus of Samos that iht 

 earth revolves in an oblique circle around the sun, 

 and also revolves daily on its own axis Copernicu* 

 could not yet have seen ; for it is found in no work 

 previous to his time, except the Arenario of An hi 

 medes, which was first printed at Venice, at a later 

 period. Copernicus now assumed that the siui va- 

 the centre of the system ; that the earth was a planet 

 like Mars and Venus; and that all the planets re 

 volve round the sun in the following order: Mer 

 cury, in 87 days ; Venus, in 224 ; the Earth, in Jiiio : 

 Mars, in one year and 321 days; Jupiter, in eleven 

 years ; and Saturn in 29 years. When he afterwards 

 described their paths, he found that these circles, not- 

 withstanding their simplicity, fully explained all the 

 motions of the heavenly bodies, and that the apparent 

 stations and retrogradations of the planets necessarily 

 resulted from the motion of the earth. Thus was 

 discovered the true system of the universe. Thus 

 Copernicus stands, as it were upon the boundary 

 line of a new era. (See Earth, and Astronomy!) He 

 died June 11, 1543, in the 71st year of his age. His 

 great countryman, Kepler, has described his charac- 

 ter in the following words : Copernicus, vir maxima 

 ingenio, et quod m hoc exercitio magni momenti est, 

 ultimo liber. The great and excellent character of 

 this philosopher best appears in the letter with which 

 he addresses his work to the pope. Excommunica- 

 tion, however, was issued from the Vatican against 

 Copernicus, and it was not till two hundred and 

 seventy-eight years after the publication of the work, 

 in 1821, that the papal court annulled the sentence. 



Let us review the progress of Copernicus's dis- 

 covery. He commences his labours at a time when 

 the belief in the immobility of the earth is universal. 

 He conceives the idea of its motion, and pursues it 

 with unwearied diligence, not for a few years, but 

 through the greater part of his life, constantly com- 

 paring it with the appearances in the heavens. He at 

 last confirms his idea, and thus becomes the founder of 

 a new system of astronomy. All this he did, a hundred 

 years before the invention of telescopes,with miserable 

 wooden instruments, on which the lines were often 

 only marked with ink. In his immortal work, dedi- 

 cated to the pope, Paul III., De Orbium caslestium 

 Revolutionibus, libri vi. (first published atNuremburg. 

 1543, folio ; later editions appeared at Basle, 1566, 

 and Amsterdam, 1617), his system is developed. 

 Besides his principal work, we have by the same au- 

 thor, Astronomia Instaurata, in six books, and a 

 work, De Lateribus et Angulis Triangulorum. His 

 principal work was completed in 1530 ; but he de- 

 termined to publish it only at the repeated solicita- 

 tions of his friends. As the first impression appeared 

 May 24, 1543, Copernicus enjoyed but for a few 

 days the pleasure of seeing his work in the hands oi 

 the world. (See Rhaeticus, Narratio de Libris RevoL 

 cosiest. Copernici, Dantzic, 1546, 4to). He there 

 advances his system merely as a hypothesis, which 

 explains, in a more simple and natural manner than 

 the previous ones, the phenomena of the heavens 

 This was a precaution which the prejudices of the 

 times obliged him to take ; but an inspection of the 

 book shows with what full and thorough conviction 

 he was persuaded that his system was the only possi- 

 ble one. Gassendi, as well as Lichtenberg, lias 

 written a Life of Copernicus (Vita Nic. Covernici. 



