INDUCTIVE EPOCH OF KEPLER. 435 



ecliptic was decreasing, but would, after a long-con- 

 tinued diminution, stop, and then increase again 2 . 

 Nothing can be more just, as well as more poetically 

 happy, than Kepler's picture of the philosopher's 

 pursuit of scientific truth, conveyed by means of an 

 allusion to Virgil's shepherd and shepherdess : 



Malo me Galatea petit, lasciva puella 



Et fugit ad salices et so cupit ante videri. 



Coy yet inviting, Galatea loves 

 To sport in sight, then plunge into the groves ; 

 The challenge given, she darts along the green, 

 Will not be caught, yet would not run unseen. 



We may notice as another peculiarity of Kep- 

 ler's reasonings, the length and laboriousness of the 

 processes by which he discovered the errours of his 

 first guesses. One of the most important talents 

 requisite for a discoverer, is the ingenuity and skill 

 which devises means for rapidly testing false sup- 

 positions as they offer themselves. This talent 

 Kepler did not possess : he was not even a good 

 arithmetical calculator, often making mistakes, 

 some of which he detected and laments, while 

 others escaped him to the last. But his defects in 

 this respect were compensated by his courage and 

 perseverance* in undertaking and executing such 

 tasks ; and, what was still more admirable, he never 

 allowed the labour he had spent upon any con- 

 jecture to produce any reluctance in abandoning 

 the hypothesis, as soon as he had evidence of its 

 2 Bailly, A. M. iii. 175. 



FF2 



