BRAHE. 



The second stake is won by what is 

 called the brag, which consists in one of 

 theg-amesters challenging the rest to pro- 

 duce cards equal to his : now it is to be 

 observed that a pair of aces is the best 

 brag, u pair of kings the next, and so on ; 

 and a pair of any sort wins the stake from 

 the most valuable single card. In this 

 part consists the great diversion of the 

 game ; for, by the artful management of 

 the looks, gestures, and voice, it frequent- 

 ly happens, that a pair of fives, trays, or 

 even duces, out-brags a much higher 

 pair, and even from pairs royal, to the no 

 small merriment of the company. The 

 knave of clubs is here a principal favour- 

 ite, nvaking a pair with any other card in 

 hand, and with any other two cards a 

 pair royal. 



The third stake is won by the person, 

 who first makes up the cards in his hand 

 one and thirty ; each dignified card go- 

 ing for ten, and drawing from the pack 

 as usual in this game. 



BRA FIE (TTCHO), a celebrated astro- 

 nomer, descended from a noble family, 

 originally of Sweden, but settled in Den- 

 mark, was born the 14th of December, 

 1546, at Knudstrop, in the county of 

 Schonen, near Helsinbourg. He was 

 taught Latin when seven years old, and 

 studied five years under private tutors. 

 His father dying while he was very young, 

 his uncle, George Brahe, adopted him, 

 and sent him in 1559 to study philosophy 

 and rhetoric at Copenhagen. The great 

 eclipse of the sun, on the 21st of August, 

 1560, happening at the precise time the 

 astronomers had foretold, he began to 

 consider astronomy as something divine ; 

 and purchasing the tables of Stadius, he 

 gained some notion of the theory of the 

 planets. In 1562 he was sent by his un- 

 cle to Leipsic to study the law, where his 

 acquirements gave manifest indications 

 of extraordinary abilities. His natural in- 

 clination, however, was to the study of 

 the heavens, to which he applied himself 



ID assiduously, that, notwithstanding the 

 ire of his tutor to keep him close to the 

 :udy of the law, he made use of every 

 leans in his power for improving his 

 nowledge of astronomy ; he purchased 

 'ith his pocket money whatever books 

 e could meet with on the subject, and 

 read them with great attention, procur- 

 ing assistance in difficult cases from Bar- 

 tholomew Schultens, his private tutor ; 

 and having procured a small celestial 

 globe, he took opportunities, when his 

 tutor was in bed, and when the weather 

 was clear, to examine the constellations 

 n the heavens, to learn their names from 



the globe, and their motions from obser- 

 vations. 



After a course of three years study at 

 Leipsic, his uncle dying, he returned 

 home in 1565. In this year, at a \vedaing- 

 feast, a difference arising he.tv een Brahe 

 and a Danish nobleman, they fought, and 

 our author had part o '/is nose cut oft by 

 a blow : a defect which he so artfully 

 supplied with one made of gold anc) sil- 

 ver, that it was scarcely perceivable. 

 About this time he began to apply him- 

 self to chem.stry, proposing nothing 1 

 less than to obtain the philosopher's 

 stone. 



In 1571 he returned to Denmark, and 

 was favoured by his maternal uncle Steno 

 Bilies, a lover of learning, with a conve- 

 nient place at his castle of Herri 1 'zvad 

 near Knudstrop, for making his observa- 

 tions, and building a laboratory. And 

 here it was he discovered, in 1573, a new 

 star in the constellation Cassiopeia But 

 soon after, his marrying a country girl, 

 beneath his rank, occasioned so violent a 

 quarrel between him and his relations, 

 that the king was obliged to interpose to 

 reconcile them. 



In 1574, by the king's command, he 

 read lectures a*. Copenhagen on the theo- 

 ry of the planets. The year following he 

 began his travels through Germany, and 

 proceeded as far as Venice. Hi- then re- 

 solved to remove his family, and settle at 

 Basil ; but Frederick the Second, King 

 of Denmark, being 1 informed of his de- 

 sign, and unwilling to lose a man who 

 was capable of doing so much honour to 

 his country, he promised to enable him 

 to pursue his studies, and bestowed upon 

 him for life the island of Huen in the 

 Sound, and promised that an observatory 

 and laboratory should be built for him, 

 w r i: ha supply of money for carrying on 

 his designs; and accordingly, the first 

 stone of the observatory was laid the 8th 

 of August 1576, under the nameofUrani- 

 bourg. The king also gave him a pen- 

 sion of 2000 crowns out of his treasury,a 

 fee in Norway, and a canonry of Roshild, 

 which brought him in 1000 more. This 

 situation he enjoyed for the space of 

 about twenty years, pursuing his observa- 

 tions and studies with great industry : 

 here he kept always in his house ten or 

 twelve young men, who assisted him in 

 his observations, and whom he instructed 

 in astronomy and mathematics. Here al- 

 so he received a visit from James the 

 Sixth, King of Scotland, afterwards James 

 the First of England, having come to Den- 

 mark to espouse Anne, daughter of Fre- 



