1883. Prowe's Life of Copernicus. 313
not repent having shaken off one yoke, but they had not bargained for finding it replaced by another. They began to discover that they had acted not unlike the horse in Æsop's fable, who consented to be bitted and mounted in order to secure the alliance of the man against his enemy the stag. The truth was that they had flattered themselves with the hope of receiving all and giving nothing in exchange. They had expected to reap all the advantages of union, while bearing none of its burdens. They had invoked the aid of a strong power ; they refused to pay the price which that power was certain, sooner or later, to exact. The articles of incorporation had been loosely drawn ; they were naturally interpreted in widely different senses by the two contracting parties. The Prussians clung passionately to the separate privileges secured by them ; the Poles insisted on the reality of the covenanted union. And on their side were time, force, and the natural assimilative power of a victorious nationality.
It is thus easily seen that Lucas Watzelrode's position was a delicate one. Nor were his qualities of the kind to enable him to steer his way prosperously in such dangerous waters. He was a strenuous rather than a successful politician. He had abundance of energy, but was deficient in suppleness and resource. The numerous and admirable designs, upon the formation of which he expended abilities of no common order, uniformly failed. And the uprightness of his intentions availed little to appease the wrath excited by his unacceptable proposals of reform.
Of the last disquieted years of his uncle's life, Copernicus was the almost inseparable companion. A contemporary poet, not unwilling to air a Virgilian allusion, compared their relations to those of Æneas and Achates; and a prevalent impression of intimacy and fidelity may very possibly be recorded by the trite illustration. They were, at any rate, seldom apart; not only dwelling together at Heilsberg, but travelling together to Elbing and Marienburg for meetings of the Prussian deputies, to Petrikau, Thorn, and Cracow on the occasions of Polish Diets, conferences, and royal solemnities. The prolongation of one of these numerous absences from February 22 to May 4, 1509, gave Copernicus the opportunity of sending to the recently founded press of Cracow a little work interesting chiefly fiom the circumstances of its appearance. It was the first translation from the Greek published in Sarmatian regions, and it was the only work of any kind which Copernicus voluntarily chose to publish. The Epistles of Theophylactus Simocatta, a late Byzantine writer, were
