between its celestial and terrestrial parts must by no means be confounded. He was not, like Kepler, obliged to waste his time on work of that kind in order to get daily bread for himself and his family; but he was highly paid, and his scientific researches were most liberally supported by the king, who could not be expected to appreciate their real value; and it was only natural that he should annually send the king an offering of a kind that the latter could understand, and which by the king was considered an acceptable gift. Tycho showed clearly enough in the horoscopes which he drew up for the royal children that he was inclined to agree with Horace when he said—
"Tu ne quæsieris, scire nefas, quem mihi, quem tibi
Finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios
Tentaris numeros."
None of the almanacs which Tycho prepared for the king have been preserved, but a letter from the king is extant, dated 24th September 1587, in which he reminded Tycho about sending him the usual almanac for the ensuing year by the bearer of the letter, or, if it was not ready, as soon as possible.[1]
Tycho doubtless obeyed the king's command, and it turned out to be the last time he had to do so. King Frederick II. died on the 4th April 1588, in his fifty-fourth year, to the great regret of Tycho, who owed him so much, as well as of the country at large. His character was open and chivalrous, and he was sincerely religious, while he at the same time tried to keep himself free from the intolerance prevailing everywhere in those days. He was less free from another weakness of his time, and, with characteristic frankness, Vedel said in a funeral oration, that "if His Grace could have kept from that injurious drink which is much too prevalent all over the world among princes and
- ↑ Danske Magazin, ii. p. 247 (Weistritz, ii. p. 171).
