84 HISTORY OF SCIENCE. 



to whose care the publication of his work was entrusted, to consider 

 Nuremberg a more suitable place than Wittenberg, where the influence 

 of the Protestant reformers was supreme. Even there it was judged 

 expedient to prefix to the work an apologetic preface, in which it is 

 stated that the new doctrine was put forth not as a fact but only as an 

 hypothesis. In the light of subsequent events it appears not a little 

 remarkable that Copernicus was encouraged by some ecclesiastical 

 friends in the publication of the astronomical doctrines which proved 

 so obnoxious to the theologians of every creed. Among men of 

 science the new system of the world found at first but small recogni- 

 tion. The unquestioned belief of ages had left the earth firmly fixed 

 in the centre of the universe, and it could hardly be moved from its 

 position without the strenuous opposition of the many who in every 

 age are unwilling to accept new truths. The scientific men who had 

 not risen above the dogmatism of the old philosophy brought forward 

 the old absurd arguments, and the theologians made the most positive 

 assertions on a question they did not understand. It was noticed, 

 however, that those who did accept the new doctrine of the universe 

 were astronomers and scientific men of the first order. Amongst others 

 was Mcestlin, who is distinguished for having been the instructor of 

 Kepler, and the first probably who pointed out the true cause of the 

 faint illumination of the moon which is sometimes seen on the dark 

 side of our satellite when in her first quarter, and is then popularly 

 known as " the old moon in the new moon's arms." Some say, how- 

 ever, that the famous painter Leonardo da Vinci (1452 1519) was the 

 first to suggest the real explanation of this appearance. This is not 

 improbable, for Leonardo is known to have been profoundly versed in 

 the science of his day, and as an artist he would be conversant with 

 the phenomena of reflected ligh, of which the appearance in question 

 is only an instance on the grand scale. Before the time of which we 

 are speaking the illumination of the shaded part of the moon's surface 

 was vaguely attributed to the planet Venus, but now every one admits 

 with Mcestlin that it is due to the light reflected from that part of 

 the earth's surface which directly receives the sun's rays. When this 

 simple explanation was first advanced, a great outcry was raised on 

 the ground that it was contrary to Genesis i. 15. But of the opposition 

 of theologians to science we shall have presently to adduce a more 

 famous example. 



TYCHO BRAKE (1546 1601) was born at Knudstorp, in Denmark, 

 of a distinguished family. His career exhibits strange vicissitudes of 

 fortune, and some of its incidents would give interest to the pages of 

 a romance. While a student at Copenhagen, in his fourteenth year, 

 an event happened which determined the bent of his mind. An eclipse 

 of the sun had been predicted for the 2ist August, 1560, and Tycho 

 waited with great eagerness to see whether the time and manner of its 

 occurrence would realize the., announcements of the astronomers, or 



