and also on account of the positions of Mercury and Mars. Countries whose rulers were born when Gemini was culminating may also be on the look-out, and generally speaking kings and princes are more affected by eclipses than private people ("as I have observed myself"), because the sun and the moon are the princes among the planets. The effect will last as many months as the eclipse lasted hours, and the beginning of it depends on the moon's distance from the horizon at the commencement of the eclipse. This eclipse will take effect from March till July 1574 (for latitude 56°). As examples of this kind of prognostications he quotes several recent eclipses. First, the lunar eclipse of April 3, 1558, after which Charles V. died; then the solar eclipse of April 18, 1558, which did not begin to take effect till the end of the year, and then Christian III. of Denmark and Norway died; and shortly afterward the deposed king, Christiern II., a captive for many years, died also; and Tycho shows how beautifully this agreed with their horoscopes. On November 7, 1565, a lunar eclipse took place near the Plejades, a group of stars with a moist and rainy influence, and consequently rainy weather came on, as he had at the time predicted at Leipzig. Similarly a lunar eclipse occurred on the 28th October 1566 close to Orion, and the effect should, according to Ptolemy, begin at once; and so it did, and the whole winter turned out wet, as he predicted himself at Rostock. He does not say a word about the old Sultan!
The book is wound up with In Vraniam Elegia Autoris, filling more than eight pages, and a page of verses by Vedel. In the Elegy, Tycho promises soon to produce something better, as neither the sneers of idle people nor the hardships of study shall deter him; let others boast of their achievements in war or of their ancient family, let others seek the favour of princes or hunt for riches, or waste
