1883. Prowe's Life of Copernicus. 297
still far from complete. Preparations were indeed being made for its production before the generation now in the prime of life had as yet assumed that ' muddy vesture ' so unconsciously put on, so reluctantly put off. In 1852, Dr. Prowe made a journey to Sweden for the express purpose of searching out Copernican relics, and was rewarded with many valuable and interesting discoveries. We are not aware over what length of previous time his studies in the same direction had extended, but it may be presumed that no novice in Copernican literature could have been led to take such a step, or would have been capable of profiting by the opportunities which it offered when taken. The expedition, at any rate, formed the starting-point for a series of essays on separate points in the life of the great astronomer, which prepared, and have been absorbed into, the exhaustive biography published a few months back. This, however, constitutes only the first volume of the work, albeit a volume consisting of two ' parts,' each a goodly tome of some 500 pages ; the second, if we apprehend the author's design rightly,[1] will comprise the few minor works and extant letters of Copernicus, together with a number of illustrative documents; the third will be devoted to commentary and explanation ; the whole forming a worthy sequel to the centenary edition of the Copernican opus magnum issued at Thorn in 1873.
The biography, however, may be treated as a finished performance. Nothing has been excluded from it by which the personal history of its subject could be even remotely elucidated. Nor are we obliged to take a single statement on trust. A running commentary in the shape of foot-notes accompanies each page, setting forth the ipsissima verba of the authorities upon which the narrative is founded, together with an array of facts, arguments, and illustrative details of the highest value, but threatening at times to swamp and submerge the text in a flood of voluminous erudition. The book, indeed, is by no means one to tickle the palate of the epicure in reading, but requires for its enjoyment a good healthy appetite for knowledge, such as we fear is, at least m this country, under the influence of circulating libraries, a multifarious periodical literature, and what we may call potted learning in the form of popular abridgments, becoming daily rarer. Dr. Prowe's design was a widely different one from that of the meritorious writers who cater for the subscribers to Mudie's and the Grosvenor; but on the execution of that design he is well
- ↑ We have looked in vain for a statement of the plan of the work. The reader is compelled to gather it piecemeal from scattered notes.
