works and we have noted how his books were carried in packs and in uniform pockets right into the line of battle. But now he was out of touch with the fighting men and with those who stayed and suffered at home in England. The war poetry, or rather the poetry inspired by the war, which Britishers loved was that of the soldiers themselves. There were published several slim volumes of verses written by the fighting men and called "Soldier Poets": these were what England loved during the war and, reading them in these after years, one is struck by the fact that scarcely one poem talks of duty or sacrifice and the enemy is never mentioned. There is no jingoism, no talk of Goths or Huns in these pitiful little books of verse and often the writers are solely occupied to describe something of beauty that had caught at their soul amid all the ugliness of war. Death they talk of frequently and nearly always they think of it as did Barrie's Peter Pan who cried "Death will be such a wonderful adventure": their sorrow that they may die is mainly because of the grief of those who love them and this is the spirit of the poem written by Rupert Brooke which we quote here in full so typical is it of the British soldier's finest thoughts during the war:

"If I should die, think only this of me.
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;

A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,

A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;

And laughter, learnt of friends, and gentleness,

In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.»

The wistful beauty of this sonnet cannot fail to touch the heart even now. When it was published in the early war days it struck answering chords in all British hearts. Its gentleness and tender melancholy and the very real love for England which breathes in every word and its entire absence of brassy patriotism filled the longing

that was in men's hearts far better than the blood and thunder of Kipling.

Indeed in these latter years Kipling seems to have lost touch with the world of humanity. He seems to move in an atmosphere too rare for the common man and his attitude to the softer emotions of life is a little reminiscent of that of the "Ancients" in the last act of Bernard Shaws strange fantasy "Back to Methusalah". Duty, sacrifice, hardship; these are strong words but stronger still to human beings are the words, love, comradeship, sympathy. The duty that Kipling has preached of late is a stern, harsh duty and it holds little of the milk of human kindness. Anecdotes that are told of two great explorers illustrate very aptly the difference between the sense of duty that allows of no interference from weaker impulses and the sense of duty that is tempered by compassion. One of them was on a ski expedition when one of his men collapsed. Duty called the explorer to continue the march unhampered by the weakling: he was all for going on and protested with violence against his men's insistence that the exhausted man should be carried along. The other explorer, on the other hand, when faced by the same problem allowed the voice of compassion to speak louder than that of duty and never once thought of abandoning the stricken comrade. The first man was undoubtedly the stronger character: he faced the fact of the situation squarely and saw that his duty to the whole band demanded the sacrifice of the one. The other failed under the supreme test but when history sums up the ultimate worth of each of these men surely her palm will go to him. One man's will is of iron and is as cold as the snows of those Northlands. We admire him silently as we admire a frozen ice peak but when we think of the other and remember the epic story of his death with his comrades in the tent out in the storming wastes our hearts are there; and that little tent beco mes a temple of love and tender worship.

The latter-day Kipling has become too like the first man to command the love of the English: his austerity repels and he dwells alone on those heights of his own electing. Strong indeed must he be of soul when he who lost a dearly loved son in the war can lift up his voice in praise to the old God of battles:

"Then praise the Lord Most High

Whose strength hath saved us whole,

Who bade us chose that the flesh should die
And not the living soul."

A later generation will sit in judgement on the Kipling who was England's judge, her explorer, her singer and her prophet. Present day England denies his a seat among the elect of her literature: Georgian vers librists will have none of his melodious, facile rhyming and equal scathing of his short stories comes from the psycho-analytical school of writers. Authors who burrow and rootle in the subterranean passages of human minds have little sympathy for the clean-shaven life-on-the-surface, good fellows of Kipling's early stories.

Some day may come a reaction and Kipling may again become a popular idol, even while he lives. But posterity is ever the best judge of a man's worth and to posterity we must leave him. One thing however is certain and cannot be denied him: his place as the Singer of the Empire. That place he holds unchallenged and alone: greater poets there have been undoubtedly, but no one man has ever before set himself the great task of revealing to the English all that their England was to them and of teaching them all that they should do for her. When the history of the last few decades of England's story comes to be written surely some place must be found for this man who so wrought upon the hearts of his countrymen at home and in the dominions that at one time he was their very voice of Empire. Briton's sons rallied to her as one man at the time of her greatest trial. No one will ever be able to tell how much of this stupendous loyalty is due to the man Rudyard Kipling for there is no measure by which we can tell the extent of his influence. He, himself, with puritan simplicity is content to lay all his work at the feet of God whose instrument he has been:

"If there be good in that I wrought,
Thy hand compelled it, Master, Thine;
Where I have failed to meet Thy thought
I know, through Thee, the blame is mine.

One instants's toil to thee Denied
Stands all Eternity's Offence,

Of that I did with Thee to guide

To Thee, through Thee, be excellence."

TYCHO BRAHE OG HANS KORRESPONDENTER

I den nye Udgave af Tycho Brahes «Opera omnia», som jeg har

besørget sammen med afdøde Dr. Dreyer, optager de astronomiske Breve hele tre Bind. Af disse indeholder det ene (tom. VI) de Breve, som Tycho Brahe selv i levende Live har udgivet, nemlig hans Brevvexling med Landgrev Wilhelm af Hessen og dennes Hof-Astronom Christopher Rothmann (se herom Edda XIV S. 103 ff.). Disse Breve blev trykte i Tycho Brahes eget Trykkeri paa Uraniborg og udkom i 1596. I Fortalen til denne Udgave udtaler Tycho Brahe sig imidlertid om sin Plan at udgive flere Breve af dem, som han havde udvexlet med andre Videnskabsmænd. Hans Plan gik ud paa, at der skulde udgives endnu to Bind Breve, af hvilke det første skulde indeholde Breve fra og til lærde Mænd og Venner i Fædrelandet og de nærmeste Lande, og det andet Brevvexlingen med Folk i fjernere Lande. Det siges ogsaa ved flere Lejligheder, at nogle af disse Breve virkelig blev trykte, men der er ikke opbevaret Spor af de trykte Breve. Der imod findes der endnu adskillige Afskrifter, som aabenbart er foretagne med Udgivelsen for Øje. At det ikke lykkedes Tycho Brahe selv at faa mere end det ene Bind udgivet, har sin naturlige Aarsag deri, at han allerede Aaret efter Udgivelsen af det første Bind saae sig nødsaget til at forlade Fædrelandet.

Den nye Udgave er imidlertid i flere Henseender kommet til at afvige fra den Plan, som Tycho Brahe selv havde lagt. For det Første i Henseende til Indholdet. Ganske vist siger Tycho Brahe, at, endskjønt han kalder Brevene «astronomiske», er der dog adskillige af dem, der ogsaa behandler andre «filosofiske» Spørgsmaal, navnlig fysiske og chemiske; i denne Henseende gaar dog den nye Udgave noget videre, idet det ikke har været muligt skarpt at adskille de videnskabelige Breve fra andre, der er af en mere forretningsmæssig Art. Navnlig gjælder det de Breve, der behandler Tycho Brahes Stilling i Bøhmen, hvor Spørgs maal af praktisk Natur vedrørende hans Stilling som kejserlig Hof

Astronom ikke kan adskilles fra astronomiske Spørgsmaal, og ligeledes i hans Brevvexling med Kepler er det ikke muligt at adskille de Breve, der omhandler det personlige og forretningsmæssige Forhold mellem de to Astronomer, fra dem, hvori videnskabelige Spørgsmaal drøftes. Men ellers var det Meningen, at blandt de «astronomiske» Breve skulde kun de optages, som er skrevne af eller til andre Videnskabsmænd og handler om videnskabelige Emner, medens Breve af forretningsmæssig Art eller Breve skrevne af eller til Slægtninge finder deres Plads i Udgavens sidste Bind mellem «Breve og Aktstykker», der udgives af Dr. Nys strøm. Ogsaa i en anden Henseende har vi fulgt en anden Plan end Tycho Brahes egen. Han siger udtrykkelig, at han ikke vil følge en chronologisk Ordning, men stille Korrespondancen med de samme Kor respondenter ved Siden af hinanden, og en saadan Ordning er ogsaa fulgt i nogle af de bevarede Haandskrifter. I Modsætning hertil har vi i den nye Udgave fundet det praktisk at give Brevene, baade dem fra og dem til Tycho Brahe, i en strængt chronologisk Rækkefølge. Heri følger vi den tidligere Udgave, som blev besørget af F. R. Friis, dog med enkelte Afvigelser, idet Friis ikke altid var helt klar over, at nogle af Brevene var daterede efter «gammel Stil», og andre efter «ny Stil»>, hvilket ganske vist i nogle Tilfælde, men ikke altid, er noteret i selve Brevene. Forholdet er jo det, at den nye Stil indførtes i de katholske Lande i Aaret 1582, medens man i de protestantiske Lande vedblev at regne efter gammel Stil og altsaa var 10 Dage tilbage for de katholske Landes Tidsregning. Tycho Brahe selv benyttede gammel Stil indtil den Dag, da han overskred den bøhmiske Grænse, men modtog allerede, medens han var i Danmark, Breve fra Venner, som boede i Lande, der benyttede ny Stil. Omvendt korresponderede Tycho Brahe, da han havde bosat sig i Bøhmen, ofte med Venner i Danmark eller i Nordtyskland, hvor den gamle Stil endnu brugtes. Dette maa man stadig holde sig for Øje.

De Fortjenester, som Friis har indlagt sig ved Udgivelsen af Tycho Brahes Brevvexling, maa ikke undervurderes; Manglerne skal jeg senere komme tilbage til. Efter at han i 1875 havde udgivet en Samling «Breve og Aktstykker», som dog mest indeholder Familiebreve og Forretningsbreve, især skrevne paa Dansk eller Tysk, og kun nogle faa Breve af videnskabelig Art, skrevne paa Latin, udgav han i Aarene 1876-1886 en Række lærde, latinske Breve, stammende fra Aarene 1568-1587, i 1896 Brevvexlingen mellem Tycho Brahe og Holger Rosenkrantz og endelig i Aarene 1900-1909 Brevene fra 1588 og senere. Denne Udgave blev dog aldrig afsluttet, da Friis døde i 1910. Han var da naaet til Slutningen af 1599, men de talrige Breve fra 1600 og 1601, som navnlig findes i Universitetsbibliotheket i Basel, naaede han ikke at faa udgivet; en Del af disse var dog udgivet af Fr. Burckhardt i et Baseler Program fra 1887, Resten er nu af os blevet udgivet for første Gang. Endvidere udelod Friis en Del Breve, som tidligere var trykte, nemlig Tycho Brahes Brevvexling med Kepler, som blev udgivet sammen med Keplers øvrige Brevvexling af Hansch i 1718, og hans