324 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



John Kepler was bom and reared in poverty, and all his life had to 

 struggle to keep actual want from the door. There could scarcely be 

 a greater contrast than that presented by these two men: Brah6, the 

 favored son of fortune, possessing all that wealth and princely favor 

 could procure, acknowledged as the foremost philosopher of his day; 

 Kepler, with nothing to commend him to notice save a passion 

 for knowledge and longing to learn the hidden meaning of equations 

 and formulae and mystic numbers. The common bond between them 

 was the love of the truth and the capacity for taking infinite pains. 

 For the progress of the race each of these men needed the other, and 

 dame fortune's immediate problem was the bringing them together. 



Geocentric System afteb Tycho BRAHfi 



By SO doing it would be possible for Brah6 to pass on to Kepler the 

 completion of his own work, and at the same time train him for an 

 even greater task. 



In 1590 James I., of England, visited Denmark and spent eight 

 days with Tycho and his wonderful instruments. On leaving he pre- 

 sented the astronomer with various gifts, and among these was a pet 

 dog of which tiie astronomer became very fond. Now this canine be- 

 came the innocent cause of much trouble to his master, for it seems that 

 one day the chancellor of Denmark brutally kicked the poor beast. This 

 was too much for Tycho's temper — never very even — and he roundly be- 

 rated the chancellor for his cruelty. Of course there is more to the 

 story than just this, but at all events Tycho made a powerful enemy. 



