^ KEPLER. 



in the Life of Cardan, by Henry Moiiey, Vol. I. pages 92 — 95. 

 Mr Morley seems to misunderstand the words of Cardan which he 

 quotes on his page 92, in consequence of which he says that 

 Cardan " lays it down coolly and philosophically, as one of his first 

 axioms, that dice and cards ought to be played for money." In 

 the passage quoted by Mr Morley, Cardan seems rather to admit 

 the propriety of moderation in the stake, than to assert that there 

 must be a stake; this moderation Cardan recommends elsewhere, 

 as for example in his second Chapter. Cardan's treatise is briefly 

 noticed in the article Prohability of the English Cyclopcedia. 



7. Some remarks on the subject of chance were made by 

 Kepler in his work De Stella Kova in pede Serjjentarii, which was 

 published in 1606. Kepler examines the different opinions on the 

 cause of the appearance of a new star which shone with great 

 splendour in 1604, and among these opinions the Epicurean notion 

 that the star had been produced by the fortuitous concurrence 

 of atoms. The whole passage is curious, but we need not repro- 

 duce it, for it is easily accessible in the reprint of Kepler's works 

 now in the course of publication ; see Joannis Kepleri Astronomi 

 Opera Omnia edidit Dr Ch. Frisch, Vol. ii. pp. 714 — 716. See 

 also the Life of Kepler in the Library of Useful Knoiuledge, p. 13. 

 The passage attracted the attention of Dugald Stewart ; see his 

 Works edited by Hamilton, Vol. I. p. 617. 



A few words of Kepler may be quoted as evidence of the 

 soundness of his opinions ; he shows that even such events as 

 throws of dice do not happen without a cause. He says, 



Quare hoc jactu Venus cecidit, illo canis 1 Nimh'um lusor liac vice 

 tessellam alio latere arripuit, aliter marm condidit, aliter intus agitavit, 

 alio impetii animi maniisve projecit, aliter interflavit aura, alio loco 

 alvei imj)egit. JSTihil hie est, quod sua causa sic caruerit, si quis ista 

 subtilia posset coiisectavi. 



8. The next investigation which we have to notice is that by 

 Galileo, entitled Consider azione sopyu il Giuco dei Dadi. The date 

 of this piece is unknown; Galileo died in 1642. It appears that 

 a friend had consulted Galileo on the following dilBculty : with 

 three dice the number 9 and the number 10 can each be produced 

 by six different combinations, and yet experience shows that the 



