CHAPTER I. 

 WHAT MAY BE SEEN IN THE HEAVENS. 



" The contemplation of the works of creation elevates the mind to the ad- 

 miration of whatever is great and noble, accomplishing the object of all study, 

 which is to inspire the love of truth, of wisdom, of beauty, especially of good- 

 ness, the highest beauty, and of that supreme and eternal Mind which contains 

 all truth and wisdom, all beauty and goodness." MARY SOMERVILLE. 



O discern the luminous point which should guide 

 us in the shadows of the infinite, is the gift of 



genius. The first to discern this point in astron- 

 omy, the illustrious Kepler thereby succeeded in formu- 

 lating those laws, or rather rules, by which the move- 

 ments of the stars are regulated. How did he succeed? 

 How did he arrive at a goal so much to be desired ? 

 By intelligence in full possession of itself. It was by 

 abstracting his thoughts from all systematic conceptions, 

 the shackles of science ; it was by defying the tradi- 

 tional authority which had so long enslaved men's 

 minds ; it was by interrogating nature, which leaves all 



liberty to her interrogator, that Kepler was able to de- 



T 



