him assisting an astronomical alderman, in the ancient city of
Augsburg, to erect a tremendous wooden machine--a quadrant of 19-feet
radius--to be used in observing the heavens. At another time we
learn that the King of Denmark had recognised the talents of his
illustrious subject, and promised to confer on him a pleasant
sinecure in the shape of a canonry, which would assist him with the
means for indulging his scientific pursuits. Again we are told that
Tycho is pursuing experiments in chemistry with the greatest energy,
nor is this so incompatible as might at first be thought with his
devotion to astronomy. In those early days of knowledge the
different sciences seemed bound together by mysterious bonds.
Alchemists and astrologers taught that the several planets were
correlated in some mysterious manner with the several metals. It
was, therefore hardly surprising that Tycho should have included a
study of the properties of the metals in the programme of his
astronomical work.

[PLATE: URANIBORG AND ITS GROUNDS.

PLATE: GROUND-PLAN OF THE OBSERVATORY.]

An event, however, occurred in 1572 which stimulated Tycho's
astronomical labours, and started him on his life's work. On the
11th of November in that year, he was returning home to supper after
a day's work in his laboratory, when he happened to lift his face to
the sky, and there he beheld a brilliant new star. It was in the
constellation of Cassiopeia, and occupied a position in which there
had certainly been no bright star visible when his attention had last
been directed to that part of the heavens. Such a phenomenon was so
startling that he found it hard to trust the evidence of his senses.