318 Prowe's Life of Copernicus. Oct.
the view on the east side alone being interrupted by the rusty-red brick gable of the pinnacled cathedral. It was here that Copernicus set up his 'Triquetrum', [1] an instrument for taking the altitudes of the stars, constructed by himself, according to Ptolemaic precepts, of three strips of deal marked in ink with numerous divisions. Aided by this rude implement, which afforded, with the utmost care, a degree of accuracy at least 2,400 times inferior to that at the command of modern astronomers,[2] he effected the most complete and surprising scientific revolution known in the history of human progress.
It was soon discovered, however, that he possessed other gifts besides those needed for star-gazing, and that his clear judgment and strong sense could be made eminently useful in practical affairs. Nor does he seem to have raised any objection to the interruption of his studies. Whether from duty or inclination, services, of whatever kind they might be that were demanded of him, were no less cheerfully rendered than those of Clorinda to King Aladin : —
'Son pronta, imponi pur, ad ogni impresa ;
L'alte non temo, e l'umili non sdegno.'
Thus, he undertook and fulfilled, as 'administrator ' of the distant capitular domains of Allenstein and Mehlsack, duties of the most heterogeneous character. He was at once bailiff, military governor, judge in civil and criminal cases, of first instance and of appeal, tax-collector, vicar-general. Some records of his daily labours in the allotment of lands have been preserved, and show the minuteness of the details with which he was obliged to be conversant. The conditions of tenure in Ermland were various and complicated. The difficulties at the best of times attending their regulation were increased tenfold by the disturbed state of the country.
Albert, Margrave of Brandenburg-Anspach, became Grand Master of the Teutonic Order in 1511. He was young, he was resolute, he had powerful relatives, he came of a race conscious of, and bent upon, a future, and he was determined, by any means that came to hand, to rescue from an anomalous and intolerable position the body of which he had assumed the
- ↑ Alias 'Instrumentum parallacticum,' or ' Regulæ Ptolemaicæ.' That of Copernicus was presented to Tycho Brahe in 1584, and was lost or destroyed at Prague during the Thirty Years' War.
- ↑ Copernicus aspired to render his observations exact within ten minutes (of arc); good instruments may now well be depended upon (apart from unfavourable conditions) within a quarter of a second.
