Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 78.djvu/333

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE GENESIS OF THE LAW OF GRAVITY
323

judged by the standards of to-day they are to be viewed with respect. When we remember that the telescope and microscope were then unknown, respect rises to admiration and wonder. So careful was he that not a single mistake due to carelessness has ever been detected in his work.

From 1576 to 1597 Tycho Brahé worked in his well-equipped observatory at Uraniburg on the island of Huen. For twenty years this temple of science was the greatest center of its sort in Europe. Philosophers, statesmen and even kings visited him in his island home. Year by year the great tables of observations grew until further additions seemed but repetitions of oft-told tales. Indeed, the tables grew beyond the ability of their maker to interpret, and some keener mind was needed to unfold their hidden meaning. The possessor of such a mind was even then living in Austria in the person of John Kepler.