JOHANNES KEPLER 47 



science, the reason is to be found in their comparatively small 

 scope and in the dominance of materialism, from the narrov/ 

 and dreary outlook of which the spiritual world has com- 

 pletely disappeared. When Kepler says, for example: 'And 

 I have always striven to investigate, with an open mind and 

 by the use of reason, what the nature of spirit may be, and 

 principally whether there may not be a world soul in the heart 

 of the world, which is more deeply connected with the pro- 

 cesses of nature . . .' great men of science will still be able to 

 follow him; now perhaps attaching to his words an essentially 

 deeper and preciser meaning. 



Kepler's external life, even in Linz, finally became less and 

 less favourable under the stress of the Thirty Years War; five 

 children of his had died there, and his salary ceased com- 

 pletely. Ferdinand II made over to him the 12,000 guilders 

 owing to Wallenstein, who was well-disposed towards Kep- 

 ler, since the latter had once given him an astrological result 

 of importance. So Kepler moved under Wallenstein's 

 protection to Sagan, where comparative quiet had reigned 

 during the war. But his salary remained unpaid. In order 

 to make a personal appeal for it after Wallenstein's dismissal, 

 which had shortly afterwards occurred, he set out for the 

 Reichstag at Regensburg, but exhausted by the fatigues of the 

 long journey on horseback, he fell seriously ill on his arrival, 

 and died shortly afterwards, on the 15th November, 1630. 

 His epitaph, composed by himself, is as follows: 



Mensus eram coelos, nunc terrae metior umbras; 

 Mens coelestis erat, corporis umbra jacet. 



His grave in the churchyard near the fortification of Regens- 

 burg was so completely buried later on in the war by the 

 bombardment of the walls, that it can no longer be found. 



