Notice respecting the House of Copernicus. 145 
gratification, and with the view of communicating pleasure to 
your readers, they are now offered to your attention. 
The astronomer, I am informed, resided in the highest gar- 
ret, “ a true nestling place of genius, which seems to delight in 
hatching its offspring in bye corners.” What mingled recol- 
lections crowd on the mind, when contemplating a sketch of 
this kind ! In this room was nursed the genius of those deep 
and profound speculations, which, in succeeding years, was to 
produce so mighty a revolution in the world. It was in this 
chamber that Copernicus investigated the systems of ancient 
times, and resolved to break through the theories which had 
been sanctioned by the authority of ages ; — which had grown 
up with a long race of centuries, and become identified, as it 
were, with the very habits and institutions of time. It was 
here the native independence /of his mind was displayed in its 
full vigour and power ; and which enabled him to abandon 
systems that had been embellished by the purest offspring of 
fancy, and illustrated by talents of the most splendid order ; 
and which seemed even in the more advanced periods of their 
career, to gain new accessions of strength, by becoming more 
intimately blended with the increasing sophistries of the schools. 
In this house Copernicus annihilated the labours of centuries, 
and prepared the elements of that mighty system, which, in an 
after age, was to be perfected, by the commanding genius of a 
Newton. This house might have often been to him an abode 
of uncertainty and of sorrow. Within its walls he was no 
doubt alternately elevated and depressed, as hope cheered him 
to advance, or error laid low his sanguine, anticipations. Du- 
ring the long period on which he meditated on his noble system, 
his great mind must have been the frequent theatre of conflicting 
doubts. Fame seldom encouraged him in his career, and the 
vistas of hope which the vantage ground of modern science 
now unfolds to the strong conception of the astronomer, but sel- 
dom soothed his anxious soul. 
Such men as Copernicus demand a solemn and thoughtful 
observation. The world but rarely sympathises with the man 
of close and studious retirement. How often, indeed, is he 
entirely neglected, till, from his lowly and, unpretending soli-. 
VOL. VII. NO. 13. JULY 1822. K 
