LIFE AND WORKS OF KEPLER. 109 



preserved liis friendly relations with the most distinguished of the 

 Jesuits, and, as their intluence over the mind of Ferdinand was un- 

 bounded, they managed, when Walleustein was named duke of Fried- 

 laud, to have an article introduced into the decree which might secure 

 Kepler's safety by attaching hiui to the duke's service; it was also stip- 

 ulated that the arrears of his salary as imperial astronomer should be 

 l)aid out of the revenues of the duchy. But new difficulties soon arose: 

 the gentle-spirited and affectionate Kepler, separated from his wife and 

 children, could not become reconciled to the tumult and disorder of the 

 camps. Little fitted for the calling of a courtier, he was deficient in 

 the assiduity and pliancy necessary to win the favor of a haughty and 

 imi)erious niaster, whose ])rotection was but a disguised servitude. 

 Wallenstein, seeing with extreme impatience the little faith reposed in 

 the language of the stars by him whom he considered as his astrologer, 

 did not long defer the dismissal of Kepler, replacing him by the Vene- 

 tian, Seni, whose delusive and accommodating science flattered, to the 

 last, the i^resumptuous ambition of a soldier who, as Schiller says, 

 "could scarcely tolerate that his will was not authoritative even in the 

 skies." 



Kepler feared not, in his weakness, to dare the resentment of the all- 

 powerful man who had imposed his laws on the Emperor himself ; he 

 demanded with pertinacity the payment of the sum stiimlated in the 

 imperial decree; but his strength was exhausted in vain in the numerous 

 journeys rendered necessary by the prosecution of his claim, and he 

 died at Eatisbou, in 1G29, at the age of fifty-eight years. 



By the union of the most opposite qualities, Kepler occupies in the 

 history of science an altogether exceptional place. By evincing, irom 

 his first steps in the study of astronomy, the presumptuous hope of 

 deciphering the enigma of nature, and of elevating himself by pure 

 reasoning to a knowledge of the {esthetic views of the Creator, he 

 seemed at first to wander with an insensate audacity, and without find- 

 ing soundings or shore, over that vast and agitated ocean where Des- 

 cartes, pursuing the same object, was destined soon to lose himself 

 beyond retrieval; but, in the ardent and sincere aspirations of his soul 

 toward truth, if the curiosity of Kepler disquiets and impels him, it 

 never delivers him over to the blindness of self-conceit. Eegarding as 

 certain only what had been demonstrated, he was always ready to cor- 

 rect his determinations by the sacrifice of his most cherished discoveries 

 as soon as a severe and laborious examination refused to confirm them ; 

 but what sublime emotions, what utterances of enthusiasm and exulta- 

 tion, when success has justified his temerity, and by persistent efforts 

 he has attained his end ! The noble pride which elevates and sometimes 

 inflates his language has nothing in common with the vain-glorious 

 satisfaction of a vulgar discoverer. Confident and daring when he is 

 seeking, Kepler becomes modest and simple when what he seeks is 

 found, and, in the transports of triumph, it is to God alone that he 

 ascribes the praise. His soul, equally comprehensive and exalted, was 

 without ambition as without vanity; he coveted neither the honors nor 

 applause of men; affecting no superiority over the cultivators of sci- 

 ence, obscure as they now are, to whom his correvS])ondence is addressed, 

 he never ceases to express the same respectful deference for the aged 

 Moestlin, whose sole glory in our eyes is that of having formed such a 

 disciple. When, after having mastered his greatest discoveries, it be- 

 came necessary for him to descend every day from the most exalted 

 contemplations to struggle with the vulgar necessities of life, he never 

 comi)laiued at seeing his merit overlooked or disputed, and always 



