not ready more or less to fill the place of a servant in his establishment. To a nature like his it was, of course, a matter of entire indifference that such a marriage would be sure to give rise to the strongest disapproval in all quarters. A series of unpleasant incidents, combined with the somewhat discontented and restless spirit which often showed itself throughout his career, caused, or rather forced, Tycho Brahe to abandon his life of magnificence and study at Uraniborg and again to leave his native land. This time it was to be for good. He had only himself to blame for this period of calamities, which must be regarded to a certain extent as his fall. The confidence he put in princes was in no way misplaced, for Christian the Fourth visited Hveen and continued to patronise one who had been so much favoured by his father. But duties connected with the prebend of Roskilde were neglected, the peasants on Hveen complained of ill-treatment and oppression. Some of the allowances being stopped and his private fortune being exhausted by extravagance, he found himself unable to keep up his elaborate establishment; added to this, he was worried by a disagreeable lawsuit respecting the marriage of his daughter, disclosures with regard to his private life and religious views were circulated by his enemies, and his most influential friends and supporters at Court had died or retired in the last few years. After a short stay in the capital, during which he waited lest the tide might again turn in his favour, Tycho Brahe reluctantly left Denmark and went to Rostock, where he made one last attempt to regain his position by addressing a letter to the King himself. The stern rebuke which he received as a reply from his royal master showed how his unpopularity had gained ground, and left him no hope of being recalled into favour. Tycho then composed his famous poem lamenting over the ingratitude of Denmark, the first few lines of which I give in a rough translation: Denmark, what have I done to thee, that thou shouldst thrust me from thy heart so cruelly? How canst thou treat me thus with harsh indignity as an enemy to thee, my fatherland? Have I not raised thee to fame and universal honour? Canst thou now turn from me or blame, Because my work has crowned with glory thy dear name? Which of thy children has greater gifts bestowed on thee, my fatherland ? Canst thou now in anger chide me, The day will come, my native land, When thou wilt turn with love and praise thy son's immortal work, &c. There is no doubt that he must have felt a keen regret at leaving his island, which, with all its wonderful facilities for study and research, had been his home at the time of his greatest prosperity. Of the costly buildings on Hveen there is at the present day hardly any trace to be found. For a short twenty years only did the glories of Uraniborg last. No successor came to fill the vacant place. The lord of Hveen was banished into exile, the deserted castle was left in neglect and disuse to fall into ruins, and Denmark had to rest content with a mere memory while her illustrious son set out undismayed to sound the trumpet of his fame in foreign lands. From the King of Denmark Tycho now turned to the Emperor Rudolph the Second, to whom he made such successful solicitations that after a year or so's wandering, during which he published his most famous book, Astronomic Instaurata Mechanica, he was finally received at Prague, and given the castle of Benatké near by, where he established himself with his family, set up an observatory, and sent his son to Denmark to fetch his instruments. He rejoiced at finding a new home and at being so well received and graciously helped by the Emperor, but in his heart he still yearned for his dear fatherland, and never did he forget his kindest, most understanding, and most munificent patron, King Frederik the Second. All this he expresses in a letter to his old friend Anders Vedel, who at this time. had also fallen out of favour at the Danish Court, where he was a chaplain. Among the disciples and assistants whom Tycho gathered round him at Prague was one who lived to gain a reputation as an astronomer which surpassed even that of his master. This was Johannes Kepler, who was then about twenty-eight years old. The close of the sixteenth century is a period of great moment in the history of the world's thought. What are now the most well-known facts, and the fundamental principles of philosophy and astronomy, were then being developed and fought for, for the first time, with all the ardour and enthusiasm which attend the discovery of new great truths, and were embued with all the freshness and vigour imparted to them by their first champions, who, while knowing that they must excite ardent controversy, were ready to suffer persecution-nay, even death-for convictions the value of which in the progress of human knowledge they knew could never be over-estimated. Both Kepler in his laws of the movements of the planets, and Giordano Bruno in his advanced conception of the solar system, were greatly indebted to Tycho Brahe for his profound and extensive observations respecting fixed stars, and his discovery with regard to the motion of comets. Tycho himself, however, was no great philosopher or thinker, and, having ensured accuracy in his observations and calculations, he made no attempt to go further with deductions and conjectures. His conception of the universe was retrograde when compared with the system of Copernicus. He took the earth as the centre of the universe, and the sun formed the centre for the orbits of the planets, but the sun itself together with the planets moved round the earth. The system was thus a compromise between the Ptolemaic and Copernican. Whether it was religious scruples and fear of persecution which induced him to maintain this theory, or whether, as some say, not being able to improve on the Copernican system, his conceit induced him to elaborate something original which might bear his own name, it is difficult to say. In 1601, at the early age of fifty-five, Tycho Brahe succumbed to a short but dangerous illness, and on his deathbed he solemnly entrusted his system to his foremost pupil, Kepler, in the hope that it might be handed down to future generations as marking an important epoch in the history of astronomy. I will conclude by quoting a part of the oration which was pronounced over the grave at the close of the magnificent funeral which was granted by the Emperor to the great Danish astronomer at Prague : In his words were truth and brevity, in his demeanour and countenance sincerity, in his counsel wisdom, in his deeds success. In him was nothing artificial or hypocritical, but he spoke his mind straight out, and to this no doubt is due the hatred with which many regarded him. He coveted nothing but time, and his endeavour was to be of service to all and hurtful to none. ARTHUR PONSONBY. THE COPYRIGHT BILLS, 1900 COPYRIGHT is divided into two branches-(1) Literary copyright; (2) artistic copyright. Literary copyright is concerned with the exclusive right of multiplying copies of books and bookish productions, as maps, sheets of music, and so forth. It also includes, by a somewhat forced extension of its name, 'performing right,' or the exclusive right of performing dramatic and musical pieces; and lecturing right, or the exclusive right of delivering lectures, addresses and speeches. Artistic copyright involves the right of producing copies of sculptures, pictures, engravings, photographs and other like artistic works. The law relating to copyright has given occasion to more discussion, rhetorical, forensic, and legislative, than any other of the numerous subjects which encumber the 150 and more volumes of the statutes, and is contained in the numerous Acts which are thus described by the Copyright Commission of 1878: They are drawn in different styles, and some are drawn so as to be barely intelligible. Obscurity of style is only one of the defects of these Acts. Their arrangement is often worse than their style. Of this the Copyright Act of 1842 is a conspicuous instance. And it is but just to say that the additions that have since been made to them do not belie the character thus given. Before, however, exploring the labyrinth of the statute law it is essential to ascertain the principles on which it is based. At the outset it may be well to state that the very existence of a law of copyright, or, in other words, of a right of property in the productions of the brain, has been denied as well on what may be called moral as on technical grounds. Lord Camden, in the case of Donaldson v. Beckett, in the House of Lords,1 ore rotundissimo denounced the claim of authors to copyright as follows: They [i.e. authors of books] forget their Creator as well as their fellow-creatures who wish to monopolise His noblest gifts and greatest benefits. Why did we enter 1 Cobbett's Parl. History, vol. xvii. p. 999. into society at all but to enlighten one another's minds and improve our faculties for the common welfare of the species. Those great men, those favoured mortals, those sublime spirits who show that ray of divinity which we call genius are entrusted by Providence with the delegated power of imparting to their fellowcreatures that instruction which Heaven meant for universal benefit. They must not be niggards to the world or hoard up for themselves the common stock. He proceeds, a little further on, in a still more high-falutin style: It was not for gain that Bacon, Newton, Milton, Locke, instructed and delighted the world. It would be unworthy of such men to traffic with a dirty bookseller for so much a sheet of letterpress. When the bookseller offered Milton five pounds for his Paradise Lost, he did not reject it and commit his poem to the flames, nor did he accept the miserable pittance as the reward of his labour; he knew that the real price of his book was immortality, and that posterity would pay it. Never did more eloquent nonsense proceed from the lips of any orator. Milton, no doubt, if ever poet had the feeling, felt the craving after immortality, but terrestrially he condescended to make a contract with the dirty bookseller,' Samuel Simmons, that the bookseller should pay him 5l. down, with a promise of 5l. more when 1,300 copies were sold of the first edition and 5l. more when 1,300 copies were sold of the second edition, and so on for successive editions; each edition to consist of 1,300 copies, to be sold at 3s. a copy; and in 1680, after the death of Milton, his widow settled the claim for a payment of 81.2 Moreover, 'posterity' paid the price in hard cash as well as immortality, for Milton's poems formed the subject of two injunction suits, the one in 1739 and the other in 1750. Lord Camden's 'glozing' prose was, however, outdone by Byron's 'lies of rhyme,' when he sang in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers of Scott as follows: And think thou, Scott, by vain conceit perchance No, when the sons of song descend to trade Such be their meed, such still the just reward In this we spurn Apollo's venal son, And bid a long good-night to Marmion. But never had erring genius more cause to repent of unjust upbraidings. The following were the prices paid by Mr. Murray to the hireling bard,' Byron, as the 'just reward' of his 'prostituted muse: ' |