of fortune-telling; when not fearful of giving offense he declined 

 to encourage this delusion. In his "Principles of Astrology" 

 (1602), he railed against the vanity and worthlessness of 

 astrology as ordinarily practiced and he denied the influence 

 of the stars and planets over nations and individuals. The 

 appearance of a brilliant comet in 1607 (since known as 

 Halley's comet) greatly alarmed the citizens of Prague and 

 threw the credulous court of Rudolph into consternation ; the 

 Emperor sent for his astronomer, and from the balcony of the 

 Belvedere they studied the celestial wonder with the aid of a 

 powerful telescope, while the man of science and faith com- 

 municated to the man of superstitious fears his own belief 

 based on mathematical knowledge. He ventured to say to 

 his Majesty that the comet was not called into existence for 

 the weal or the woe of the German Emperor, and he re- 

 minded him that the same comet had been seen in the year 

 44 B. C., on the occasion of the funeral procession of Julius 

 Caesar, had appeared at regular intervals of 75 years since 

 without witnessing the burial of a new Caesar, and it would 

 again appear in 1680. In passing through its path of many 

 millions of miles on strictly mathematical lines it did so un- 

 concerned about the fate of any individual on the insignificant 

 earth, or of the human race, and Kepler urged Rudolph to 

 lay aside senseless fears. "Each of the myriad stars," he added, 

 "is a shining witness of the incontestible truth that every 

 thing in nature is in motion, progress is life, rest is death." 

 Kepler regarded as absurd the sentiments soon to be expressed 

 in vivid language by the "divine William": 



"Meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven ; 

 The pale-fac'd moon looks bloody on the earth, 

 And lean look'd prophets whisper fearful change: 

 These signs fore-run the death or fall of kings." 



Although Kepler rejected the crude views of his contempo- 

 raries, he admitted his belief in a modified form of astrology ; 



87 



