my at Gratz, and although he had no strong predilection for 

 this science he applied himself industriously to its study, and 

 his genius was soon manifested by brilliant discoveries and 

 ingenious speculations. Galileo and Tycho Brahe both praised 

 his "Cosmographical Dissertations" published in 1596. 



In the following year he married Barbara Miiller, who 

 was a widow for the second time at the age of twenty -three, 

 and to whom he had been attached for five years, but whose 

 parents had opposed her marriage. She brought him less 

 dowry than he had expected and his salary at Gratz was 

 very small; moreover disputes with bis wife's relations, and 

 attacks made by the Catholics on Protestants, to which party 

 Kepler avowed adherence, made his position untenable and 

 he withdrew into Hungary. A year later Kepler returned to 

 his professorship, but he failed to secure the peace he loved, 

 and anxious to consult the eminent astronomer at the court 

 of Rudolph II., he accepted the invitation to Benatek, where 

 we first encountered him. During his visit to Brahe arrange- 

 ments to secure him a salaried position at the court failed, 

 but when he returned in 1601 the Emperor appointed him 

 imperial mathematician and assistant in the observatory. 



Brahe and Kepler then undertook to compute a new set 

 of astronomical tables to be called the "Rudolphine Tables" 

 in honor of their liberal patron; after the death of Brahe, 

 Kepler succeeded him as chief mathematician and was pro- 

 mised a good salary, but the depleted imperial treasury pre- 

 vented prompt payments ; during the nine years that Kepler 

 remained at the court he struggled with the miseries of 

 poverty, and finally after passing through a severe illness, 

 losing his favorite son by small-pox and his wife by typhus 

 fever, his cup of sorrow overflowed. The death of Rudolph 

 in 1612 did not sever Kepler's connection with the court, for 

 Matthias, who succeeded his brother, reappointed him imperial 



85 



