Tycho's Labours do honour to his Country--Death of Frederick II.--James VI. of Scotland visits Tycho at Uraniburg--Christian IV. visits Tycho--The Duke of Brunswick's visit to Tycho--The Danish Nobility, jealous of his fame, conspire against him--He is compelled to quit Uraniburg--And to abandon his Studies--Cruelty of the Minister Walchendorp--Tycho quits Denmark with his Family and Instruments--Is hospitably received by Count Rantzau--Who introduces him to the Emperor Rudolph--The Emperor invites him to Prague--He gives him a Pension of 3000 Crowns--And the Castle of Benach as a Residence and an Observatory--Kepler visits Tycho--Who obtains for him the Appointment of Mathematician to Rudolph, CHAPTER IV. 179 Tycho resumes his Astronomical Observations--Is attacked with a Painful Disease--His Sufferings and Death in 1601--His Funeral--His Temper--His Turn for Satire and Raillery--His Piety--Account of his Astronomical Discoveries--His Love of Astrology and Alchymy--Observations on the Character of the Alchymists--Tycho's Elixir--His Fondness for the Marvellous--His Automata and Invisible Bells--Account of the Idiot, called Lep, whom he kept as a Prophet--History of Tycho's Instruments--His Great Brass Globe preserved at Copenhagen--Present state of the Island of Huen, * * * * * LIFE OF JOHN KEPLER. CHAPTER I. 203 Kepler's Birth in 1571--His Family--And early Education--The Distresses and Poverty of his Family--He enters the Monastic School of Maulbronn--And is admitted into the University of Tubingen, where he distinguishes himself, and takes his Degree--He is appointed Professor of Astronomy and Greek in 1594--His first speculations on the Orbits of the Planets--Account of their Progress and Failure--His "Cosmographical Mystery" published--He Marries a Widow in 1597--Religious troubles at Gratz--He retires from thence to Hungary--Visits Tycho at Prague in 1600--Returns to Gratz, which he again quits for Prague--He is taken ill on the road--Is appointed Tycho's Assistant in 1601--Succeeds Tycho as Imperial Mathematician--His Work on the New Star of 1604--Singular specimen of it, CHAPTER II. 220