card in hand, and with any other two cards 
a pair roya). 
The third stake is won by the person, 
who first makes up the cards in his hand 
one and thirty ; each dignified card going 
for ten, and drawing from the pack as usual 
in this game. 
BRAHE (Tycho), a celebrated astro- 
nomer, descended from a noble family ori- 
ginally of Sweden but settled in Denmark, 
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 un- 
der private tutors, j 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 uncie 
to Leipsic to study the law, where his ac- 
quirements gave manifest indications of ex- 
traordinary abilities. His natural inclina- 
tion, however, was to the study of the hea- 
vens, to which he applied himself so assidu- 
ously, that, notwithstanding the care of his 
tutor to keep him close to the study of the 
law', he made use of every means in his 
pow'er for improving his knowledge of astro- 
nomy ; he purchased with his pocket money 
whatever books he could meet with on the 
subject, and read them with great attention, 
procuring assistance in difficult cases from 
Bartholomew Schultens, his private tutor ; 
and having procured a Small celestial globe, 
be took opportunities, when his tutor was 
in bed, and when the weather was clear, to 
examine the constellations in the heavens, 
to learn their names from the globe, and 
their motions from observation. 
After a course of three years study at 
Leipsic, his uncle dying, he returned home 
in 1565. In this year, at a wedding-feast, 
a difference arising between Brahe and a 
Danish nobleman, they fought, and our au- 
thor had part of his nose cut oil' by a blow : 
a defect which he so artfully supplied with 
one made of gold and silver, that it was 
scarcely perceivable. About this time he 
began to apply himself to chemistry, pro- 
posing nothing less than to obtain the philo- 
sopher’s stone. 
In 1571 he returned to Denmark ; and 
was favoured by his maternal uncle, Steno 
Billes, a lover of learning, with a conve- 
nient place at his castle of Herritzvad near 
Knuds, torp, for making his observations, 
and building a laboratory. And here it w’as 
he discovered, in 1573, a new star in tire 
constellation Cassiopeia. But soon after, 
his marrying a country girl, beneath his 
rank, occasioned so violent a quarrel be- 
tween him and bis relations, that the king 
was obliged to interpose to reconcile them. 
In 1574, by the king’s command, he read 
lectures at Copenhagen on the theory of 
the planets. The year following he began 
his travels through Germany, and proceeded 
as far as Venice. He then resolved to re- 
move his family, and settle at Basil ; but 
Frederick the Second, King of Denmark, 
being informed of his design, 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 be- 
stowed upon him for life the island, of Huen 
in the Sound, and promised that an obser- 
vatory and laboratory should he built for 
him, with a 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 name of IJrani- 
bounr. The king also gave him a pension 
of 2000 crowns out of Isis treasury, a fee in 
Norway, and a canonry of Roshild, which 
brought him in 1000 more. This situation 
he eisjoyed for the space of about twenty 
years, pursuing his observations and stu- 
dies with great industry : here he kept al- 
ways in his house ten or twelve young men, 
who assisted him in his observations, and 
wdiom he instructed in astronomy and ma- 
thematics, Here also he received a visit 
from James the Sixth, King of Scotland, 
afterward James the First of England, hav- 
ing come to Denmark to espouse Anne, 
daughter of Frederick the Second. James 
made our author some noble presents, and 
wrote a copy of Latin verses in his praise. 
Brahe’s tranquillity, however, in this hap- 
py situation was at length fatally interrupt- 
ed. Soon after the death of King Frederick, 
by the aspersions of envious and malevolent 
ministers, he was deprived of his pension, 
fee, and canonry, in 1596. Being thus ren- 
dered incapable of supporting the expenses 
of his establishment, lie quitted his favourite 
Uranibourg, and w ithdrew to Copenhagen, 
with some of his instruments, and continued 
his astronomical observations and chemical 
experiments in that city, till the same male- 
volence procured from .the new King, 
Charles the Fourth, an order for lvim to dis- 
