tions and improvements of mathematical inilruments, and .in
the diligence and exadtnefs with which he made aftronoinical
obfervations for a long feries of years. .And as his inilruments
were remarkably good, he compofed a catalogue of 777 fixed
ftars, all obferved by himfelf, with an accuracy unknown to
former aftronomers. Tie likewife difcovered the refradtion
of the air; demonftrated, againft the prevailing opinion of thofe
times, that the comets were higher than the moon; and from
his obfervations on the moon and the other planets, the theories
of their.motiotts were afterwards corrected and improved *. He
was alfo the firft aftronomer who compofed a table of refradtions,
and ihewed the ufe to be made of them in aftronomy. Such is
the reputation of Tycho Brahe, for his great proficiency in that
fcience, that Coftard, in his Hiftoiy of Aftronomy, has fixed
upon his name as marking the beginning of a new period.
He feems to have embraced a large circle of the arts and
fciences. He cultivated poetry, and wrote Latin verfe*, not without
fome degree of claffic elegance. He dre w the plan for building
the caftle of Cronborg, and iketched the defign for the noble
maufoleum of Frederic the Second, which was executed in
Italy, and is eredted in the cathedral of Rolkild. He dabbled
alfo in phyfic. He was fond of being confulted, and readily
gave his advice and medicines gratis to thofe who confulted
him. He .invented an elixir, which he calls an infallible cure
^ See Bonnycaftle’s Introduction to Aftronomy, p.16 1 .
for
for epidemic diforders, of which he has publiihed the recipe in CHAP.
a letter to the emperor Rhodolph. 1
He was a good mechanic. He pofiefled feveral automates,
and took gfeat delight in ihowing them to the peafants, and was
always pleafed if they took them for fpirits.
He 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 horofcopes, and foretel
events. Many traditional fables of his predictions have been
handed down to pofterity, which ihew his pronenefs to judicial
aftrology, and the weaknefs of thofe who believed his predictions.
In many inftances aftrological predidtions, by alarming, occafion
the event which they foretel, and have, thus gained a falfe credit
from the weak or the unwary. Thus Tycho Brahe’s aftrological
predidtions proved fatal to the emperor Rhodolph the Second:
for, being informed by Tycho, that a ftar which prefided at his
nativity threatened him with fome finifter defigns to his prejudice,
from his relations, he was thrown into fuch a panic, that he did
not venture to quit his palace, or appear before any perfon; and,
as the conduit of his brother Matthias confirmed the aftrologer’s
informations, he fell at laft a prey to his grief, and: died 18th
January 1612, aged fifty-nine years.
At Uranienburgh Tycho Brahe had feveral contrivances calculated
to deceive and aftoniih thofe who came to vifit and eonfult
him. Among others, feveral bells, communicating with the
§ rooms.