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KEOGANG, in Geography, the mod w-eftcrly of the 

 branches or muuths of the river Ava, in Pegu, wliich runs 

 i:Uo the ffa near Cape Negrais. 



KEOWE, or Keowee, tlie name given in America to 

 the Savannah river, above its conflux with the Tugulo, the 

 veil main branch. — Alfo, the incient name of the populous 

 town and territory of the Cherokee Indians, on the river of 

 that name. The foil is fertile, and the adjacent heisjhts 

 mighr, with little expcnce, be rendered alinoil imprcgnabl". 

 The fruitful vale of Keovve is feven or eight miles in extent, 

 terminated by a high ridge of hills, and opening again to an 

 extent of ten or twelve miles down to Sinica, and in breadth 

 one or tv.o miles. Thii was once a thickly inhabited fettle- 

 ment, well cultivated and planted. To the feeble remains 

 of the once potent Cherokees it now exhibits a different 

 fpeftacle. 



KEOZEE, a town of Birmah, on the Irawaddy ; JJ 

 miles N.E. ot Pagahm. Tiiis town is ornamented with fe- 

 veral neat temples. 



KEPELDEE, a town of Hindooftan, in the country of 

 the Nayrs ; 30 miles E. of IVllicherry. 



KEPHER Kenn-a, a village of Paleftine, faid to be the 

 ancient " Cana," where our Saviour changed the water into 

 wine. 



KEPLER, John-, in Biography, a celebrated aftronomer 

 and mathematician, born at Wiel, in the duchy of Wirtem- 

 berg, December 27th, 1571, was fon of Henry Kepler, 

 an officer in the army, who had ferved his country with dif- 

 tinction, but who, by misfortunes, was reduced to low and 

 narrow circumftances. He gave his fon the beft education 

 in his power, though the youth was fubjecl to many diffi- 

 culties, by being fent to difFer-ent places, and by being put 

 tinder different n.afters. His genius and avidity for know- 

 ledge aninatcd him to furmount every obilacle, and to make 

 a very rapid proficiency. He was fent to Tubingen to pur- 

 fue his academic ftudics, and was admitted to the degree of 

 bachelor in 1588, and to that of mailer of philofophy in 

 1591. He applied himfelf to mathematics and theology, 

 and undertook the duties of the miniftry for a fhort time. 

 But his inclination being decidedly in favour of mathematics, 

 he refolved to devote his whole time and ilrength to the 

 fcience ; and fo high was his reputation, that in the year 

 1,94 he was invited to Gratz, in Stiria, to fill the mathe- 

 matical chair in the univerfity of 'that city. In the year 

 ijg'i, he married a lady of a noble family ; and in two years 

 from this period he was driven from Gratz by perfecution, 

 on account of his religious principles ; though he was foon 

 recilled by the flates of Stiria : but not thinking himfelf 

 fafe, he acc-pted a preffing invitation from Tycho Brahe 

 to fettle in Bohemia, and removed thither with his family 

 and books in the year 1600. Upon a dole intimacy, Kep- 

 ler wa« diiTatibfied with the conduct of Tycho, and com- 

 plained of his un^nllingnefs as well to promote his iiitereft, 

 as to communicate to him all his difcoveries and improve- 

 ments. Tycho, however, died in 1601 ; but previoufly to 

 this, he introduced him to the acquaintance of the emperor 

 Rodolph, who gave him a favourable reception, and ap- 

 pointed him his mathematician. This title of mathematician 

 to his imperial majelly Kepler poffefTed during the remainder 

 of his life, not only under the reign of Rodolph, but under 

 kis fuccefTor-s Mattliias and Ferdinand. Upon the death 

 of Tycho, the emperor Rodolpli ordered him to com- 

 plete the tables begun by tliat great man, which were to be 

 called the " Rodolphinc Tables.' Thefc, tiotwithftanding 

 the vigour with which he applied himfelf to them, were, 

 owing to unexpected diffienlties, not completed and pub- 

 lished till the year 1G2-. Having completed that work, he 



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obtained the emperor's leave to go and refide at Sagan, in 

 Silefia, where he fullered much inconvenience from not hav- 

 ing his penlion regularly paid him. This circumllance ob- 

 liged him to take a journey to Ratifbon in 1630, to fohcit 

 for the arrears due. Here he died in November, at the age 

 of 59 years. Tlie account of the labours and difcoveries of 

 this great man has been given by Mr. Maclaurin, in his 

 work on the " Difcoveries of Sir Ifaac Newton," and from 

 that we ihall extradt the following (Itetch. " To Kepler," 

 fays lie, " we owe the difcovery of the true figure of the 

 orbits, and the proportions of the motions of the folar fyf- 

 tem. This aftronomer had a particular paffion for finding 

 analogies and harmonies in nature, after the manner of the 

 Pythagoreans and Platoniils. Three things, he tells us, lie 

 anxioully fought after from his early youth: — Why the 

 planets were W-f. in number ? Why the dimenfions of their 

 orbits were fuch as Copernicus had defcribed from obferva- 

 tions ? And, what was the analogy or law of their revolu- 

 tions ? He fought for the reafons of the firll two of thefe 

 in the properties of numbers and plane figures, witliout fuc- 

 ccfs. But at lengtli reflecting that while tlie i)lane regular 

 figures may be infinite in number, the regular folids are only 

 five, he imagined that certain myileries in nature might cor- 

 refpond with this limitation inherent in the efiences of things : 

 he therefore endeavoured to find fome relation between the 

 dimenfions of thofe folids and the intervals of t!ic planetary 

 fpheres ; and imagining that a cube infcribed in the fphere 

 of Saturn would touch by its fix planes the fphere of Jupi- 

 ter, and that the other four regular folids in like manner 

 fitted the intervals that are between the fpheres of the other 

 planets ; he became perfuaded that this was the true reafon 

 why the prim.ary planets were precifely fix in number, and 

 that the author of the world had determined their d;!tances 

 from the fun, the centre of the fyllem, from a regard to this 

 analogy. Bemg thus, as he imagined, poffelied of the 

 grand lecret of the Pythagoreans, and plealed with the dif- 

 covery, he publiflied it in 1596, under the title of " Myf- 

 teriuni Cofmographicum." He fent a copy of this book to 

 Tycho Brahe, who did not approve of the i'peculations con- 

 tained in it, but wrote to Kepler, urging him firll to lay a 

 fohd foundation in obfervations, and then, by afccnding 

 from them, to ftrive to come at the caufes of things : and to 

 this advice we are indebted for the more folid difcoveries of 

 Kepler. This great man, foon after the death of Tycho, 

 foimd that aftronomers had erred from the firft rife of the 

 fcience, in afcribing always circular orbits and uniform mo- 

 tions to the planets ; and he difcovered that each of them 

 moves in an clhpfis, which has one of its foci in the centre 

 of the fun ; that the motion of each is really unequable, 

 and varies in fuch a manner, that " a ray fuppofed to be al- 

 ways drawn from the planet to the fun defcribes equal areas 

 in equal times." It was fome years later before he dif- 

 covered the analogy that there is between the dillances of 

 the feveral planets from the fun, and the periods in which 

 they complete their rev- lutions. He has, however, left it 

 upon record, that on the 15th of May, i/')i8, he found 

 that " the fquares of the periodic times are always in the 

 fame proportion as the cubes of the mean dillances from the 

 fun." When Kepler faw, according lo better obfervations, 

 that his difpofition of the five regular folids among the 

 planetary fpheres was not agreeable to the intervals between 

 their orbits, he endeavoured to difcover other fchemts of 

 harmony. For this purpofe, he compared the motions of 

 the fame planet at its grcateft and kail diflanees, and of the 

 different planets in their different orbits, as they would ap- 

 pear viewed frcm the fun ; and here he fancied that he had 

 found a fimilitude to the divilions of the odlave in tnulic. 



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