KENTUCKY KEPLER. 



307 



tory department. There is a Roman Catholic col- 

 lege at Bairdstown, called St Joseph's college ; 

 Centre college, at Danville, established by Presby- 

 terians ; and a college at Augusta, established by 

 Methodists. There is also a Baptist college at 

 Georgetown, and a Presbyterian college, called 

 Cumberland college, at Princeton. The legislature 

 lias several times taken steps for establishing a sys- 

 tem of common schools, but nothing effectual has 

 been accomplished. There are two banks in the 

 state, called the bank of Kentucky, and the bank of 

 the commonwealth. There are also branches of the 

 United States bank at Lexington and Louisville. 

 The legislature is composed of a senate, consisting 

 of thirty-eight members, chosen by districts, for four 

 years, and a house of representatives, not exceeding 

 100, chosen annually. The governor and lieutenant- 

 governor are chosen by the people for four years, but 

 are not eligible for the succeeding seven years. The 

 legislature meets on the first Monday in November. 

 The principal rivers of Kentucky are the Ohio, which 

 flows along the state 637 miles, following its wind- 

 ings; the Mississippi, Tennessee, Cumberland, Ken- 

 tucky, Green, Licking, Big Sandy, Salt and Rolling. 

 The Cumberland mountains form the south-east 

 boundary of this state. The eastern counties, bor- 

 dering on Virginia, are mountainous and broken. A 

 tract from five to twenty miles wide, along the banks 

 of the Ohio, is hilly and broken land, interspersed 

 with many fertile valleys. Between this strip, Green 

 river, and the eastern counties, lies what has been 

 called the garden of the state. This is the most 

 populous part, and is about 150 miles long, and 

 from 50 to 100 wide. The soil is excellent, and the 

 surface is agreeably diversified, gently rising and 

 descending. These lands produce black-walnut, 

 black-cherry, honey-locust, buckeye, pawpaw, sugar- 

 maple, mulberry, elm, ash, cottonwood, whitethorn, 

 with an abundance of grape-vines. There is a tract 

 of country in the south-western part of the state, east 

 and north of Cumberland river, and watered by Green 

 and Barren rivers, about 100 miles in extent, called 

 the barrens, which, a few years since, was a beauti- 

 ful prairie, destitute of timber. It is now covered 

 with a young growth of various kinds of trees. 

 These, however, do not prevent the growth of grass, 

 and an .almost endless variety of plants, which are in 

 bloom during the whole of the spring and summer, 

 when the whole region is a wilderness of the most 

 beautiful flowers. The soil is of an excellent quality, 

 being a mixture of clay, loam, and sand. Through 

 this country there runs a chain of conical hills, called 

 knobs. It is also distinguished for some stupendous 

 caves. Ancient fortifications and mounds of earth 

 are found in almost all parts of Kentucky. The caves 

 in the south-western part of the state are great curi- 

 osities. One, styled Mammoth cave, 130 miles from 

 Lexington, on the road leading to Nashville, is said 

 to be eight or ten miles in length, with a great num- 

 ber of avenues and windings. Earth strongly 

 impregnated with nitre is found in most of these caves, 

 and there are many establishments for manufacturing 

 it. From 100 pounds of earth, 50 pounds of nitre 

 have frequently been obtained. A number of the 

 rivers in this state have excavated the earth, so as to 

 form abrupt precipices, deep glens, and frightful 

 gulfs. The precipices formed by Kentucky river 

 are, in many places, awfully sublime, presenting per 

 pendicular banks of 300 feet, of solid limestone, sur- 

 mounted witli a steep and difficult ascent, four times 

 as high. The banks of Cumberland river are less 

 precipitous, but equally depressed below the surface 

 of the surrounding country. Wheat, tobacco, anc 

 hemp are the staple productions. Indian corn is 

 however, the principal grain raised for home con 



sumption. Rye, oats, barley, buckwheat, flax, pota- 

 toes, &c., are cultivated. Apples, pears, peaches, 

 cherries, and plums are the most common fruits. 

 The domestic animals are large and beautiful, parti- 

 cularly the horse. Great numbers of swine, horned 

 cattle, horses, and mules are annually driven to the 

 neighbouring states for a market, and large quantities 

 of pork, bacon, and lard are exported. The fattening 

 of animals is the chief mode of consuming the sur- 

 3lus grain, on account of the expense of conveying it 

 ;o market. Considerable quantities of whiskey are 

 made. Marble, of excellent quality, abounds, and 

 ;he whole state may be said to repose on a bed of 

 imestone. Salt and iron are among the minerals of 

 ;his state. The most extensive works for the manu- 

 facture of salt established west of the Allegheny 

 mountains, are on the waters of Kentucky. These 

 supply not only this state, but a great part of Ohio 

 and Tennessee. Kentucky, from its position, has 

 become a manufacturing state. See United States. 



Kentucky, a river in Kentucky, which rises in the 

 south-east part of the state, and runs north-west into 

 the Ohio, seventy-seven miles above the rapids at 

 Louisville. It is navigable, in the winter, for small 

 boats, about 180 miles. The current is rapid, and 

 the banks are high and rocky. 



KEPLER, JOHN, a great mathematician and astro- 

 nomer, to whom astronomy is indebted for much of 

 its present perfection, was born in 1571, at Weil, in 

 Wurtemberg, and was descended from a noble family. 

 Poverty, and the vicissitudes of his father's fortune 

 (who was an innkeeper), were the causes of the 

 neglect of his education, and of the unhappiness of 

 his youthful days. But, in his eighteenth year, after 

 the death of his lather, he left the monastic school of 

 Maulbrunn, and succeeded in entering the university 

 of Tubingen. Here he studied the course then pre- 

 scribed first philosophy and mathematics, and then 

 theology. He also indulged his inclination for astro- 

 nomy, and devoted himself especially to the investi- 

 gation of the physical causes of the motion of the 

 celestial bodies. From Tubingen, he was invited, in 

 1593, to become professor of mathematics and morals 

 at Gratz, in Stiria, where he pursued his astronomical 

 studies. For the sake of freedom of conscience, he 

 fled to Hungary, but returned some time after. 

 Meanwhile the astronomer Tycho de Brahe had 

 come to Germany, his acquaintance with whom had 

 an important influence on Kepler's life. He resolved 

 to relinquish his situation, and to prepare, at Prague, 

 with Tycho, the famous Rodolphine tables, called 

 after the reigning emperor Rodolph, which were first 

 printed at Ulm, in 1626, and which Lalande (Ast. \. 

 p. 474) calls an Ouvrage essentiel, et guifut lefonde- 

 ment de tons les calculs de I'astronomie pendant mi 

 siecle. At Tycho's recommendation, he was estab- 

 lished in that place ; but, as his office and science did 

 not afford him a subsistence, he studied medicine, in 

 order to gain a livelihood by the practice of it. The 

 emperor had assigned him a salary, but, in the period 

 of trouble which preceded the thirty years' war, it 

 was not paid. Even when he was appointed imperial 

 mathematician, by Rodolph's successor, Matthias, his 

 hope of recovering his arrears was disappointed . 

 Controversies with the clergy, and the disturbed 

 state of the Austrian dominions-, made his situation 

 very uncomfortable. He left Lintz, repaired to 

 Ratisbon, declined an invitation to England, and was 

 confirmed by the succeeding emperor, Ferdinand, in 

 the office of imperial mathematician, and afterwards 

 went to Ulm, in order to print his Rodolphine tables. 

 In 1627, he returned to Prague, and received from 

 the emperor 6000 guilders. He finally became a 

 professor at Rostock, on the recommendation of 

 All)ert, duke of Wallenstein, at that time duke of 

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