296 Prowe's Life of Copernicus. Oct.
founder of a new and more sublime astronomy. In the Interests of posterity, it would have been better had it been otherwise. The modern biographers of Copernicus would be well content if the memorials of their hero had been suffered to lie embalmed in the secure dust of forgetfulness. But, by a singular fatality, zeal conspired with neglect to intercept the sources of information. Some, who could have spoken much that we would now very gladly hear, kept silence; others, in their eagerness to promote an already wide-spread and ever-growing reputation, served as the unconscious agents of a devastation especially malignant because deliberately selective.
The most prominent example of such unlucky though well- meant activity is afforded by Johannes Broscius, an astronomical professor of high reputation at the University of Cracow in the early part of the seventeenth century. In an evil hour he resolved to erect a literary monument to the memory of Copernicus, and undertook, in 1612, a journey to the scene of his life and labours in the Prussian province of Ermland for the purpose of collecting materials. The laudable end which he was known to have in view secured for him abundant opportunities, and he returned to Cracow laden with a rich booty of original documents, destined, as it was supposed, for immediate publication — destined rather, as it proved, to irretrievable destruction. Of the whole mass of invaluable papers which he had secured, two letters only saw the light; all the rest went the trackless ways of loss and ravage. Nor was this an isolated instance. Broscius and his fellows were succeeded by the armies of Gustavus Adolphus and the tenth and twelfth Charleses. But warlike pillage proved on the whole less deadly than learned curiosity. Many of the books and manuscripts carried off by the invaders are still safely preserved in Swedish libraries; others have been restored at the request of the Prussian Government; much, no doubt, has irrevocably disappeared.
It will thus be seen that the harvest which remained to be garnered by the labourers of recent times was a scanty and a scattered one. Indeed, it might be said that the sheaves of com were long ago borne out of sight — in large measure, alas! to be trampled under foot or cast into the fire — while only the niggardly gleanings neglected amidst the profusion of early plunder were left to recompense the patient diligence of late comers. The most conspicuous amongst these is the author of the work now in part before us. Some idea of the enormous amount of labour embodied in it may be gathered from the fact that its publication has been delayed ten years, and is
