The Martyrs of Science, or, The lives of Galileo, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler

inguishes himself, and takes his Degrees-He is appointed Professor of Astronomy and Greek in 1594-His first speculations on the Orbits of the Planets-Account of their Progress and Failure-His "Cosmogr

t in 1601-Succeeds Tycho as Imperial Mathematician-His

the determination of the orbit of Mars, and Galileo, at the age of 36, was about to direct the telescope to the unexplored regions of space. The diversity of gifts which Providence assigned to these three philosophers was no less remarkable. Tycho was destined to lay the foundation of modern astronomy, by a vast series

rvice of the Duke of Wirtemberg as a petty officer, and in that capacity had wasted his fortune. Upon setting out for the army, he left his wife in a state of pregnancy; and, at the end of seven months, she gave premature birth to John Kepler, who was, from this cause, a sickly child during the first years of his life.

these misfortunes, young Kepler was taken from school about two years afterwards, and was obliged to perform the functions of a servant in his father's house. In 1585, he was again placed in the school of Elmendingen; but

having received this, they returned to the school with the title of Veterans. Here they completed the usual course of study; and being admitted as resident students at Tubingen, they took their degree of Master. In prosecuting this course of study, Kepler was sadly interrupted, not only by periodical returns of his former complaints, but by family quarrels of the most serious import. These dissensions, arising greatly

of the geometrical and astronomical theorems which occurred in the course of his studies. While attending the lectures of M?stlin, professor of mathematics, who had distinguished himself by an oration in favour of the Copernican system, Kepler

year 1595, when he enjoyed some leisure from his lectures, he directed the whole energy of his mind to the three important topics of the number, the size, and the motion of the orbits of the planets. He first tried if the size of the planets' orbits, or the difference of their sizes, had any regular proportion to each other. Finding no proof of this, he inserted a new planet between Mars and Jupiter, and another between V

compare the orbits of the other planets' circles described in pentagons and hexagons. As this hypothesis was as inapplicable to the heavens as its predecessors, Kepler asked himself in despair, "What have plane figures to do with solid orbits? Solid bodies ought to be used for solid orbits." On the strength of this conceit, he supposed that the distances of the planets were regulated by the sizes of the five regular solids described within

given by Copernicus; but Kepler was so enamoured with it, that he ascribed the differences to errors of obser

ts determination. These extraordinary researches, which indicate the wildness and irregularity of Kepler's genius, were published in 1596, in a work entitled, "Prodromus of Cosmographical Dissertations; containing the co

commendation. The former praised the ingenuity and good faith which it displayed; and Tycho, though he requested him to try to adapt something of the same nature to the Tychonic system, saw th

epler, who openly professed the Protestant religion, saw the risks to which he was exposed, and retired with his wife into Hungary. Here he continued nearly a year, during which he composed and transmitted to his friend Zehentmaier, at Tubingen, several small treatises, "On the Magnet," "On the cause of the Obliquity of the Ecliptic," and "On the Divine Wisdom, as shewn in the Creation"-all of which seem to have been lost. In 1599, Kepler was recalled to Gratz by the States of Styria, and resumed his professorship; but the city was still divided into two factions, and Kepler, who was a lover of peace, found his situation very uncomfortable. Having learned from Tycho that he had been able to determine more accurately than had been done the eccentricities of the orbits of the planets, Kepler was anxious to avail himself of these observations, and set out on a visit to Tycho at Prague, where he arrived in January 1600. Tycho received him with g

phlet two of the scientific opponents of Tycho. Kepler's total dependence on the generosity of his friend had made him suspicious of his sincerity. He imagined that Tycho had not freely communicated to him all his observations, and that he had not been sufficiently liberal in supplying his wife with money in his absence. While absent a second time from Prague, and influenced by these feelings, he addressed a violent letter to Tycho, filled with repr

n theoretical inquiries. These two astronomers now undertook to compute, from Tycho's observations, a new set of astronomical tables, to be called the Rudolphine Tables, in honour of the Emperor. This scheme flattered the vanity of their master, and he pledged himself to pay all the expenses of the work. Longomontanus, Tycho's principal assistant, took upon himse

the States of Silesia, and the first instalment of which was to be paid in March 1602. The generosity of the Emperor did not fail to excite the jealousy of ignorant individ

occurs only every 800 years. After discussing a great variety of topics, but little connected with his subject, and in a style of absurd jocularity, he attacks the opinions of the Epicureans, that the star was a fortuitous concourse of atoms, in the following remarkable paragraph, which is a good specimen of the work:-"When I was a youth with plenty of idle time on my hands, I was much taken with the vanity, of which some grown men are not ashamed, of making anagrams by transposing the letters of my name, written in Latin. Out of Joannes Keplerus came Serpens in Akuleo (a serpent in his sting); but not being satisfied with the meaning of these words, and being unable to make another, I trusted the thing to chance, and taking out of a pack of playing cards as many as there were letters in the name, I wrote one upon each, and then began to shuffle them, and at each shuffle to read them in the order they came, to see if any meaning came of it. Now, may all