104 MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES. 



victim in many instances to the errors of astrology, and even of cabali>m. 

 He had laboured in all the observatories of Germany and Sweden, when 

 the King of Denmark constructed for him upon the island of Haven, near 

 Copenhagen, a magnificent observatory, in which, for seventeen years, he fol- 

 lowed the motions of the planets and the stars, in order to connect them with 

 the system which he had conceived to replace those of Ptolemy and Copernicus 

 (Figs. 73 76). According to his system the earth was motionless in the 

 centre of the world, and the sun and moon revolved around it, while the 

 other five planets gravitated around the sun. But Tycho Brahe, acceding to 

 the pressing invitation of the Emperor Rudolph II., who was anxious to get 

 him to his court, turned astrologer, in order to obtain the pension which was 

 paid him, and lost himself in the vagaries of cabalism. He died at Prague 

 in 1601, leaving behind him a European, reputation, which his works, very 

 inferior to those of Copernicus, scarcely justified. 



And yet Copernicus and Tycho Brahe were the creators of true astronomy, 

 and it may be said in their praise that, at a time when astrologers, necro- 

 mancers, and diviners were alone in favour, like Cosmo Ruggieri at the 

 French court, and John Dee at the court of Queen Elizabeth, the observa- 

 tions and systems of the Polish astronomer and the Danish astronomer 

 inaugurated a new era in the scientific world, and opened the route which A\;I- 

 afterwards followed, and with so much renown, by Galileo, Keppler, Huygeus, 

 and Xewton. As has been remarked by the learned Dr. Hoefer, " Copernicus 

 begat Keppler, and Keppler begat Xewton. "What a genealogical tree ! " 



XVLLA DIB 



S I X B L I X E A 



Fig. 79. Portrait of Bernard Abb&tia, Astronomer to the King. Fac-simile of a AVood Engrav- 

 ing of the " Prognostication sur le manage de Henry, roy de Xavarre, et de Marguerite de 

 France" (Paris, Guillaume de Xyverd, 1572, small octavo). The Latin motto, " Vulla dies 

 sine lines," signifies " There's no life without an ending," or " There is no day whL-h u not 

 regulated by the stars." 



