would have been very hard for the king to obtain the consent of the Privy Council, although its principal members were at that time very friendly disposed to Tycho; and in particular these great nobles would have protested against so monstrous a proceeding as the transmission of a valuable fief to the children of a "bondwoman." Probably the act was only drawn up in an idle moment, while the writer[1] was thinking about the chance of a visit from the king, but it shows at any rate that Tycho's wishes went in the direction indicated by the draught, and that he felt the insecure position in which all his creations at Hveen were placed. All his endowments were only enjoyed by him during the king's pleasure, and even the island was only granted for his own lifetime. Were then the beautiful buildings and wonderful instruments some day to vanish again, as the observatories of Alexandria, Cairo, Meragah, Cordova, and Nürnberg had vanished? This thought was doubtless a painful one to Tycho, who, the more he studied the stars in the heavens and the elements in the earth, could not but feel that life was short and art was long.
While his royal protector lived, Tycho and his observatory were, however, safe enough; that much he knew, not only by the readiness with which one pecuniary grant after another was made to him, but also by many more private acts of kindness and good feeling which emanated from the king, and of which we have ample proofs in various letters still extant. The king evidently looked on Tycho not only as a great man, whose achievements conferred honour on the country and on the monarch who supported him, but also as a confidential servant to whom he could turn for advice on matters within his province, and whom he in return delighted to honour and befriend. All the existing
- ↑ According to Friis (Elias Olsen Morsing, Copenhagen, 1889, p. 6), the handwriting seems to be Vedel's.
