SCIENCE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 85 



perhaps we might have better said, of the astrologers, for the publica- 

 tion in which the prediction appeared took occasion to connect this 

 astronomical occurrence with the destinies of princes and of nations. 

 When, on the day and at the very instant predicted, he saw the sun 

 obscured to precisely the degree that had been foretold, the boy was 

 greatly impressed, and he resolved to learn the principles of a science 

 which could disclose future events with such extraordinary correctness. 

 The attraction of this study was doubtless much intensified by the sup- 

 posed influence of such events on the fortunes of mankind. When he 

 afterwards went to Leipsic to study law, instead of devoting himself to 

 his legal tomes, he nightly followed the stars through the heavens. He 

 secretly applied himself to the study of mathematics, and thus unaided 

 acquired a competent knowledge of astronomical calculations. He 

 was about to leave Leipsic and make the tour of Germany when he re- 

 ceived intelligence of his uncle's death, and was recalled to his native 

 country to enter upon the possession of the fortune this relative had .be- 

 queathed him. His rich relatives were disgusted with his devotion to 

 astronomical studies ; which the Danish nobles pronounced to be a con- 

 temptible and useless pursuit. Tycho leaves Copenhagen, travels for 

 four years in Germany, where he fights a duel in which he loses the 

 most prominent feature of his face, but repairs the loss by a metallic 

 imitation. He visits Augsburg, where he causes a quadrant of the enor- 

 mous radius of fourteen cubits to be made, so that its graduated arc 

 may show distinctly minutes of a degree. Tycho now devotes not a 

 little attention to alchemy, and he greatly occupies himself in attempts 

 to produce the precious metals. But, after his return to Copenhagen, 

 an unexpected event withdraws him from his alembics and crucibles. 

 It is the sudden appearance early in November, 1572, of a new star of 

 extraordinary brightness in the constellation Cassiopeia. Tycho saw 

 it on the nth of November shining with a brilliancy greater than that 

 of Sirius nearly equal, indeed, to that of Venus at her brightest. He 

 hastened to his observatory, and with his sextant immediately measured 

 the distances of the new star from the other stars of the constellation. 

 He continued his observations during the whole time the star re- 

 mained visible, which was only about seventeen months. For the splen- 

 dour it exhibited when first observed had, by January, 1573, gradually 

 decreased, and its light was then about equal to that of Jupiter ; and 

 this decrease continued, the new celestial object becoming comparable 

 to stars of the first magnitude, second magnitude, and so on succes- 

 sively, until in March, 1574, it finally disappeared altogether. The 

 colour of the star changed also : at first white and brilliant as Venus, 

 it became successively yellowish, reddish, bluish. It had no parallax, 

 that is, its position among the fixed stars did not vary with the posi- 

 tion of the observer, and it was therefore situated in an immensely 

 distant region of space. 



Tycho's observations were all regularly entered in a manuscript, which 



