96 



LIFE AND WORKS OF KEPLER. 



the universe and regalating tlie order of the cosmos, had in view tlie 

 fi^■e regular bodies of geometry as known since the days of Pythagoras 

 and Phito, a;;d that he has fixed, according to those dimensions, the 

 number of heavens, their proi)ortious, and the relations of their move- 

 ments." 



It is impossible not to be struck -with the confident ardor of the young 

 author and his enthusiastic admiration for the wisdom Avhich governs 

 the world and the majesty of the i^roblems to which his life was to be 

 consecrated. "Happy the man," says he, "who devotes himself to the 

 study of the heavens; he learns to set less value on what the world ad- 

 mires the most; the works of God are for him above all else, and their 

 study will furnish him with the purest of enjoyments. Father of the 

 world," he adds, "the creature whom Thou hast deigned to raise to the 

 intelligent contemplation of Thy glor\Ms like the king of a vast empire; 

 be is almost comparable to a god, since he has learned to comprehend 

 Thy thoughts." The theory which inspired such transports is to-day 

 disavowed by science. That brilliant edihce was destined to crumble 

 away, little by little, for want of sure foundations, and Kepler, at that 

 epoch, may be likened, according to Bacon's happy comparison, to the 

 lark which soars to the skies, but brings back nothing from her excur- 

 sions. 



He always entertained, however, a great tenderness for this first labor, 

 and, although he himself has, in a second edition, pointed out grave 

 errors, he insists that no debut in science was ever more hai)i)y. Of 

 this work little is recollected but some solid and convincing argninents 

 in favor of the system of Copernicus. Kepler does not hesitate to cen- 

 sure emphatically, in a note, the tribunal which had dared to place in 

 the Index of the Lateran the works of the illustrious Pole. "When vre 

 Lave used," he says, "the edge of an axe upon iron, it cannot serve ;if- 

 terward even to cut wood." The calculations which he executed on this 

 occasion served, so to speak, to clear the field which was to yield him so 

 ample a harvest; and the learned world, not less charmed by the agree- 

 able and brilliant form of his exi)osition than surprised by the novelty 

 of his ideas, became attentive to what the young astronomer might in 

 future submit to it. 



Having acquired a modest competence by his mai-riage with thc^ young 

 and fair Barbara Miiller, already the Avidow of a first and se])avate(l 

 from a second husband by divorce, Kepler seemed permanently fix(Ml in 

 Styria, and devoted himself, amid general applause, to the study of 

 the science in Avhich he delighted. His correspondence shows him to 

 have been, at this epoch, fully satisfied with his labors and in the serene 

 enjoyment of domestic happiness. This i)eriod of sweet tranquillity and 

 studious leisure makes its appearance in his life as a i)eaceful oasis, 

 where he was to repose but for a short time, and Avhicli he Avas destined 

 never to find again. The Archduke Charles had as successor his son 

 Ferdinand, Avho, a far better Catholic than he, chose as generalissimo of 

 his troops the holy Virgin, and made a A'Oav to extinguish heresy in his 

 estates; the most simple means Avas to driAC out the heretics, and it was 

 that to Avhich ho resorted. Kepler, protected by learned Jesuits, who 

 kncAV how to appreciate his merit, Avas treated with an exceptional in- 

 dulgence. After having been forced to quit Griitz, he was permitted to 

 return on condition of observing due prudence and reserA^e. This, Ave 

 must conclude, he did not do to a satisfactory degree; for, shortly after, 

 he AA^as banished anew, forty-fiA^e days being allowed him to sell or rent 

 the lands of his Avife. It was of such acts, doubtless, that a celebrated 

 historian was thiiLkiug when he wrote that, Avithout disturbance and 



