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COXE’S TRAVELS IN DENMARK. 333
Ptolemaic hypothefis. He was, indeed, too well acquainted with the motions of the
heavenly bodies, not to be convinced that the fun was the centre of the fyiflem; and
though ftruck with the fimplicity and harmony of that of Pythagoras, revived by Co-
pernicus, yet out of refpect for feveral paflages of feripture, he abfurdly endeavoured to
reconcile (what were never intended to be recon ciled) his learning with his faith: He
rejected the diurnal rotation of the earth on its own axis; fuppofed that the earth was
quiefcent ; that the fun, with all the planets, was carried about the earth in the {pace of
a year; and that the planets, by their proper motions, revolved round the fun in their
feveral periods: thus retaining the moft abfurd part of the Ptolemaic hypothefis, which
makes the whole planetary fyftem revolve round the earth in the fpace of twenty-four
hours.
Tycho, indeed, was fo bigotted to his own hypothefis, even in his laft moments, as to
defire his favourite fcholar, the great Kepler, to follow his fyftem rather than that of
‘Copernicus.
If we were to eftimate the merits of Tycho Brahe as an aftronomer, we fhould com-
pare the fcience as he left it with the ftate in which he foundit. His great merit con-
fifted in his inventions and improvements of mathematical inftruments, and in the di-
ligence and exattnefs with which he made aftronomical obfervations for a feries of
years. As his inftruments were remarkably good, he compofed a catalogue of feven
hundred and feventy-feven fixed ftars, obferved by himfelf, with an accuracy unknown
to former aftronomers ; he difcovered the refraction of the air, demonftrated, contrary
to the prevailing opinion of thefe times, that the comets were higher than the moon, .
and from his obfervations on the moon and planets, the theories of their motions were
afterwards corrected and improved *. He was the firft who compofed a table of re-
fractions, and fhewed their ufe in aftronomy. Such is the reputation of ‘Tycho Brahe,
for his great proficiency in that fcience, that Coftard, in the Hiftory of Aftronomy, has
fixed on his name for the beginning of a new period.
He embraced a large circle of the arts and fciences. He cultivated poetry, and
wrote Latin verfes, not without fome degree of claffic elerance. He drew the plan for
building the caftle of Cronborg, and {ketched the defien for the noble maufoleum of
vedere the Second, which was executed in Italy, and is erected in the cathedral of
Rofkild: He dabbled alfo in phyfic; was fond of being confulted, and gave his ad-
vice and medicines gratis ; he invented an elixir, which he calls an infallible cure for
-epidemic diforders, of which he publifhed the recipe in a letter to the Emperor Rho-
dolph.
He was a good mechanic. He poflefled feveral automates, took creat delight in
fhewing them to the peafants, and was gratified if they were confidered as {pirits.
Tycho was no lefs fond of being confulted as a fortune-teller, and willingly encouraged
an opinion, that his knowledge of the heavenly bodies enabled him to obferve horo-
{copes, and foretel events. ‘Traditional fables of his predi€tions have been handed
down to pofterity, which fhew his pronenefs to judicial aftrology, and the weaknels of
thofe who believed his predictions.
At Uranienburgh Tycho Brahe had feveral contrivances calculated to deceive and
aftonifh thofe who came to vifit and confult him. Among others, feveral bells, com-
municated with the rooms in the upper ftory, inhabited by his fcholars, the handles of
which were concealed in his own apartments. Frequently, when company was with
him, he would pretend to want fomething, and having fecretly pulled the bell, would
* See Bonnycattle’s Introduction to Aflronomy, p. 6r.
° ey
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