CHAPTER XV 



KEPLER: PIONEER OF THE MODERN IDEAS 

 OF NATURAL LAW 



THERE is much in history to make it seem as if genius were 

 a thing born to triumph spite of every difficulty. Village 

 Hampdens, mute Miltons there may be, in uncounted number ; 

 but the history of the men who have made history leaves a doubt. 

 The thing seems innate ; circumstances appear to have little 

 to do with its development. This is more or less Darwin's 

 view, and Darwin, we know, was counted in his youth not so 

 very bright, and so intended for the clergy. Buried, it would 

 seem, tenfold deep in his canonry at Frauenberg, and spite of 

 his priestly tasks, Coppernicus could still evolve the system 

 that dethroned the earth from its position as the centre of the 

 world. Isaac Newton's mother would have made him a farm- 

 boy, but he neglected his work ; it was no use trying. From a 

 like obscurity came the strange figure which bore onward the 

 flame kindled by Coppernicus, and lighted the way for Newton's 

 triumphs. 



Along in the waning years of the sixteenth century, at about 

 the same time that Shakespeare was holding horses before the 

 doors of the London theatres and Francis Bacon was a struggling 

 young barrister, there was a pot-boy in the little province of 

 Wurtemberg, serving the peasants round about, their beer. He 

 was a sickly lad, prone to violent illnesses. Perhaps it was on 

 this account that he was sent to a monastic school near by. 

 Perhaps he found favour with the monks who taught him. 

 Anyhow, he found his way to the University of Tubingen. 

 There he fell under the influence of Michael Moestlin, sectarian 

 of the new gospel. Even in this out-of-the-way corner the 

 leaven was at work. It had set a ferment in the brain of 

 Michael Moestlin. He passed it on to this sickly, eager lad 



who bore the name of Johann Kepler. This young Kepler's 



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