Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 3.djvu/184

122 STATESMEN AND SAGES NICHOLAS COPERNICUS By JOHN STOUGHTON, D.D. (1473-1543) THE life of Nicholas Copernicus furnishes a signal example of the accordance be- tween profound religious sentiment and the utmost inquisitiveness respecting the se- crets of nature and the laws of the universe. The birthplace of genius is sometimes found nestled amid the fairest scenes, and the opening years of life are favored with appeals to curiosity and imagination, such as stimulate the exercise of the intellect ; but the lot of Copernicus, as a boy, was cast in one of the flattest, tamest, and most uninteresting parts of Germany. Not far from the banks of the Vistula, on the way to the free city of Dantzic, lies a fortified town named Thorn, where the river is crossed by a wooden bridge, and the place is adorned by a bronze statue of our philosopher for there he was born. His father was a merchant, and in the municipal records his father's name appears as a freeman admitted to the franchise in 1462. In 1472 or 1473 a son was added to the family, and the parents had a horoscope taken of the child, who appeared at thirty-eight minutes past four on January 19, 1472, according to some ; at forty-eight minutes past four in the afternoon of February 19, 1473, according to others ; the exact instant of the nativity being an important point in astrolog- ical calculations, which, in those days, inspired in fathers and mothers the deepest concern. At all events, Copernicus was deemed to have entered the world under a lucky planet, and it was augured that he would turn out a man of distinguished talent. About ten years before Martin Luther studied at Mansfield, and then at Ei- senach, and rambled about the qifaint streets, singing Christmas carols in the town where he was born, Nicholas Copernicus passed through a similar course of edu- cation. He did so under some old-fashioned pedagogue, who no more dreamed of the scientific fame of his pupil than did Trebonius of the approaching celeb- rity of young Master Martin. Copernicus would there learn to read, to write, to construe Latin, and to commit to memory hymns, prayers, and catechisms. Whether as a lad he studied Greek is uncertain ; but, as his parents seem to have been wealthy, he would enjoy greater advantages than his still more illustrious contemporary ; hence at an early period he was sent to Cracow, where he studied