K E P 
fiiial tendernefs and affe&ion he gave an inftancc in 1615, 
when his mother, then feventy years of age, being, 
through her own miCmanagement, and the partiality of 
her judges, involved in a procefs which threatened to be 
prejudicial to her reputation, and even to her life, he haf- 
tened to her affiftance from Lintz, a diftance of above three 
hundred miles, and never relied till he had delivered her 
from the impending danger. 
To his country his attachment was fo ftrong, that this 
alone prevented his acceptance of the honourable invita¬ 
tion which he received from Bologna, at a time when his 
circumftances were moft unpropitious. In a letter to one 
of his friends, he thus expreffed himfelf on this occafton : 
“ I am from the bottom of my foul a German, and fo ha¬ 
bituated to German manners and a German way of life, 
that, were even the emperor not to refufe me my difmiffion, 
lliil it would be with a heavy heart that I (hould remove 
to Italy. In Germany I durft, from my earlielt youth, 
exprefs my thoughts with freedom; were I to do the fame 
in Italy, I iliould incur, if not danger, at leaf! reproof, 
and very foon be looked upon with a very fufpicious eye.” 
This obfervation was perfectly correbl; for the Coperni- 
ean fyftem, which he warmly efpoufed, found powerful 
opponents in Italy, for no other reafon than becaufe it 
I’eemed to contradid the Bible, where the fun, which, ac¬ 
cording to Copernicus never quits his allotted place in 
the univerfe, is exprefsly commanded to Hand Hill, which 
he could not have done, had he not previoully moved. 
At this time too Kepler witnelfed the commencement of 
thofe perfections of his great contemporary, Galileo, be- 
caufe he had explained and ftrengthened that lyftem, 
though it was then impoffible to forefee that they would 
terminate in the political annihilation of the unfortunate 
philofopher. 
Kepler had afliduoufly applied himfelf to the lludy of 
divinity, both at fchool and at the academy. At a later 
period he bellowed lefs time on theological fpeculations, 
though he never relinquilhed them entirely. He took no 
part in the vehement dlfputes of the divines of thofe 
days, but had the courage to follow his own convidicns 
in things that feemed to him to run counter to reafon, 
even though, by fo doing, he was fure to incur the dif- 
pleafure of the different lefts. Kepler’s religion was the 
religion of the heart; a living knowledge of its truths 
condufted him, and alleviated the preffure of his fevere 
lot. His faith was proof againft every fliock ; Iris whole 
life was an uninterrupted intercourfe with God, whole 
glory beamed forth upon him from every liar which the 
telefcope prefented to his view in the immenlity of lpace. 
To the protellant faith he was lincerely attached ; and 
for this reafon he complained bitterly, during his refi- 
dence at Gratz, of the expulfion of the Lutheran divines, 
(whom however he was foon obliged to follow,) and that 
he had no opportunity for edification in the protellant 
manner. Though he fpent the greateft part of his life in 
catholic countries, where the molt violent antipathy to 
the proteftants then prevailed, yet, if we except his flight 
to Hungary, and the fealing up of his library at Lintz, 
he feems to have fuffered nothing on that account. He 
was probably protefted by his connexion with the court; 
perhaps too his mildnefs and prudence difarmed thofe 
whofe holtility was roufed by his protellant brethren. 
His whole foul was deeply imbued with fcience. To 
fcience he devoted all his energies; lhe was his confidante, 
his comforter in all his forrows ; he was her guardian, her 
faithful proteftor, her indefatigable friend ; fo that it is 
difficult to decide whether he owed the greateft obliga¬ 
tions to fcience, or fcience to him. A new difcovery in 
the Harry firmament, a truth explored with infinite labour, 
penetrated him with fuch joy as made him forget all ter- 
reftrial things. Concerning his Harmony of the World, he 
writes to one of his friends, that he would not exchange 
the honour of being the author of that work for the whole 
aleftorate of Saxony with all its rich lilver-mines. 
The lciences which he particularly cultivated were af- 
L E R. 679 
tronomy, mathematics, and natural p'hilofophy. Thefe 
three fillers are indebted to him for fome of their greateft 
improvements. It is impoffible to render them any fer- 
vice without the aid of accurate and continued oblerva- 
tions ; in regard to which Kepler had to Hruggle with 
various obftacles. He was not only by nature near-lighted, 
but alio deftitute of good inftruments. His circumltanceS 
forbade him to purchafe fuch as he wanted ; and Tycho’s 
excellent inftruments he was neither permitted to ufe as 
he wifiled during the life-time of the proprietor, by whom 
he was employed rather in calculations than observations, 
and of whofe referve he had reafon to complain, nor, as 
we have feen, after the death of that philofopher. The 
firlt folar fpot, which he took, though erroneoully, for Mer¬ 
cury, he difeovered under a (lied ; and, to determine the 
diameter of the fun, he crept into deep cellars. This 
deficiency in external refources was, however, abundantly 
compenfated by his attention, his patience, his extraordi¬ 
nary acutenefs, his care and accuracy in repeating his 
obfervations, and the admirable talent of correftiy com¬ 
bining each new difcovery with former acquifitions, which 
he poffeffed in a high degree. In fuch a Hate of things 
he could fcarcely be expected to fteer clear of occafional 
mifconceptions ; and the fuccefs which had fo often 
crowned his penetration made him fometimes too confident; 
fo that, where there were chafms in his knowledge, he 
had recourfe to conjectures, a proceeding which of itlelf 
could not be cenfured, had he not in fome cafes adopted 
thefe conjectures as certainties, and deduced from them 
confequences which experience could not poffibly difeo- 
ver in the vaft empire of nature. The cauies of this felf- 
delufion were Kepler’s lively imagination, a certain pro- 
penlity to the marvellous which appears in his works, 
and a tincture of myfticifm that pervaded his foul. Hence 
his love of aftrology, from which fome of the moderns 
have, without fufficient reafon, endeavoured to vindicate 
him ; though in his age no man could acquire the repu¬ 
tation of a good mathematician unlefs he underftood that 
empty fcience. So much is certain, and indeed he acknow¬ 
ledges it in all his letters, that, not only at the birth of all 
his children, but on other important occafions, he ob- 
ferved the pofitions of the planets, and endeavoured from 
their afpefts to dive into the fecrets of futurity. Though 
he wholly rejefted many fuperftitious notions of other af- 
trologers, Hill he was of opinion that it would be going 
too far to deny any value to the fcience; and he therefore 
zealoufly undertook its defence againft Fefelius. 
Without entering into a minute detail of Kepler’s 
works, it may fuffice to oblerve generally, that' fome 
of them are on aftronomical, others on mathematical, 
phylical, and chronological, fubjefts. Part of them con- 
flits of Aftronomical Ephemerides, which he publilhed at 
Lintz, and afterwards at Sagan. By far the greater num¬ 
ber are written in a didactic ftyle, and very few of the 
fmaller pieces are polemical. The firft production of his 
genius by which he made himfelf known was a Kalendar , 
which he publilhed at Gratz, as it appears, in 1594. His 
fagacity and induftry were far more brilliantly difplayed 
in his Prodromus Dijfertationvm Cofnographicarum, which 
fucceeded his Kalendar in 1596, and gained him the no¬ 
tice of men of fcience. His moft important works in- 
conteftibly were his book on the New Stars; on the Mo¬ 
tion of Mars ; on the Figure of Snow, Strena, feu de nive. 
fexangula ; his treatife on Dioptrics ; that on the year of 
our Saviour’s Nativity ; his Epitome of the Copernican 
Aftronomy. His induftry and accuracy are particularly 
confpicuous in his aftronomical tables, which, in honour 
of the emperor, he entitled the Rudolphinc Tables, and upon 
which he was engaged for a great number of years ; but 
in originality of ideas all his other performances are 
furpafted by his Harmony of the Univerj'e , which he was 
himfelf accuftomed to conlider as his mafter-piece. After 
his death appeared his Dream, ( Somnium ,) the principal 
fubjeft of which is the relation of the moon to the earth. 
This great man left a conflderable number of. manu- 
1 i'crigfs 
