this way the attention of the young astronomer might be withdrawn
from the study of the stars and directed in what appeared to him a
more useful way. Indeed, to the wise heads of those days, the
pursuit of natural science seemed so much waste of good time which
might otherwise be devoted to logic or rhetoric or some other branch
of study more in vogue at that time. To assist in this attempt to
wean Tycho from his scientific tastes, his uncle chose as a tutor to
accompany him an intelligent and upright young man named Vedel, who
was four years senior to his pupil, and accordingly, in 1562, we find
the pair taking up their abode at the University of Leipzig.

The tutor, however, soon found that he had undertaken a most hopeless
task. He could not succeed in imbuing Tycho with the slightest taste
for the study of the law or the other branches of knowledge which
were then thought so desirable. The stars, and nothing but the
stars, engrossed the attention of his pupil. We are told that all
the money he could obtain was spent secretly in buying astronomical
books and instruments. He learned the name of the stars from a
little globe, which he kept hidden from Vedel, and only ventured to
use during the latter's absence. No little friction was at first
caused by all this, but in after years a fast and enduring friendship
grew up between Tycho and his tutor, each of whom learned to respect
and to love the other.

Before Tycho was seventeen he had commenced the difficult task of
calculating the movements of the planets and the places which they
occupied on the sky from time to time. He was not a little surprised
to find that the actual positions of the planets differed very widely
from those which were assigned to them by calculations from the best
existing works of astronomers. With the insight of genius he saw