Wallenstein was a firm believer in astrology, and the reception Kepler experienced by him was probably due, in great measure, to his reputation in that art. However that may be, Kepler found in him a more munificent patron than any one of his three emperors; but he was not destined long to enjoy the appearance of better fortune. Almost the last work which he published was a commentary on the letter addressed, by the missionary Terrentio, from China, to the Jesuits at Ingolstadt. The object of this communication was to obtain from Europe means for carrying into effect a projected scheme for improving the Chinese calendar. In this essay Kepler maintains the opinion, which has been discussed with so much warmth in more modern times, that the pretended ancient observations of the Chinese were obtained by computing them backwards from a much more recent date. Wallenstein furnished him with an assistant for his calculations, and with a printing press; and through his influence nominated him to the professorship in the University of Rostoch, in the Duchy of Mecklenburg. His claims on the imperial treasury, which amounted at this time to 8000 crowns, and which Ferdinand would gladly have transferred to the charge of Wallenstein, still remained unsatisfied. Kepler made a last attempt to obtain them at Ratisbon, where the imperial meeting was held, but without success. The fatigue and vexation occasioned by his fruitless journey brought on a fever, which unexpectedly put an end to his life, in the early part of November, 1630, in his fifty-ninth year. His old master, Mästlin, survived him for about a year, dying at the age of eighty-one.

Kepler left behind him two children by his first wife, Susanna and Louis; and three sons and two daughters, Sebald, Cordelia, Friedman, Hildebert, and Anna Maria, by his widow. Susanna married, a few months before her father's death, a physician named Jacob Bartsch, the same who latterly assisted Kepler in preparing his " Ephemeris." He died very shortly after Kepler himself. Louis studied medicine, and died in 1663, whilst practising as a physician at Konigsberg. The other children died young.

Upon Kepler's death the Duke of Friedland caused an inventory to be taken of his effects, when it appeared that near

24,000 florins were due to him, chiefly on account of his salary from the emperor. His daughter Susanna, Bartsch's widow, managed to obtain a part of these arrears by refusing to give up Tycho Brahe's observations till her claims were satisfied. The widow and younger children were left in very straightened circumstances, which induced Louis, Kepler's eldest son, to print, for their relief, one of his father's works, which had been left by him unpublished. It was not without much reluctance, in consequence of a superstitious feeling which he did not attempt to conceal or deny. Kepler himself, and his son-in-law, Bartsch, had been employed in prepar ing it for publication at the time of their respective deaths; and Louis confessed that he did not approach the task without apprehension that he was incurring some risk of a similar fate. This little rhapsody is entitled a "Dream on Lunar Astronomy;" and was inintended to illustrate the appearances which would present themselves to an astronomer living upon the moon.

The narrative in the dream is put into the mouth of a personage, named Duracoto, the son of an Icelandic enchantress, of the name of Fiolxhildis. Kepler tells us that he chose the last name from an old map of Europe in his house, in which Iceland was called Fiolx: Duracoto seemed to him analogous to the names he found in the history of Scotland, the neighbouring country. Fiolx. hildis was in the habit of selling winds to mariners, and used to collect herbs to use in her incantations on the sides of Mount Hecla, on the Eve of St. John. Duracoto cut open one of his mother's bags, in punishment of which she sold him to some traders, who brought him to Denmark, where he became acquainted with Tycho Brahe. On his return to Iceland, Fiolxhildis received him kindly, and was delighted with the progress he had made in astronomy. She then informed him of the existence of certain spirits, or demons, from whom, although no traveller herself, she acquired a knowledge of other countries, and especially of a very remarkable country, called Livania. Duracoto requesting further information, the necessary ceremonies were performed for invoking the demon; Duracoto and his mother enveloped their heads in their clothing, and presently "the screaking of a harsh dissonant voice began to speak

in the Icelandic tongue." The island of Livania is situated in the depths of ether, at the distance of about 250000 miles; the road thence or thither is very seldom open, and even when it is passable, mankind find the journey a most difficult and dangerous one. The demon describes the method employed by his fellow spirits to convey such travellers as are thought fit for the undertaking: "We bring no sedentary people into our company, no corpulent or delicate persons; but we pick out those who waste their life in the continual use of post-horses, or who sail frequently to the Indies; who are accustomed to live upon biscuit, garlic, dried fish, and such abominable feeding. Those withered old hags are exactly fit for us, of whom the story is familiar that they travel immense distances by night on goats, and forks, and old petti coats. The Germans do not suit us at all; but we do not reject the dry Spaniards." This extract will probably be sufficient to show the style of the work. The inhabitants of Livania are represented to be divided into two classes, the Privolvans and Subvolvans, by whom are meant those supposed to live in the hemisphere facing the earth, which is called the Volva, and those on the opposite half of the moon but there is nothing very striking in the account given of the various phenomena as respects these two classes. In some notes which were added some time after the book was first written, are some odd insights into Kepler's method of composing. Fiolxhildis had been made to invoke the dæmon with twenty-one characters; Kepler declares, in a note, that he cannot remember why he fixed on this number, "except because that is the number of letters in Astronomia Copernicana, or because there are twenty-one combinations of the planets, two together, or because there are twenty-one different throws upon two dice." The dream is abruptly terminated by a storm, in which, says Kepler, "I suddenly waked; the Demon, Duracoto, and Fiolxhildis were gone, and instead of their covered heads, I found myself rolled up among the blankets."

Besides this trifle, Kepler left behind him a vast mass of unpublished writings, which came at last into the hands of his biographer, Hantsch. In 1714, Hantsch issued a prospectus for publishing them by subscription, in twenty-two folio

volumes. The plan met no encouragement, and nothing was published but a single folio volume of letters to and from Kepler, which seem to have furnished the principal materials for the memoir prefixed to them. After various unavailing attempts to interest different learned bodies in their appearance, the manuscripts were purchased for the library at St. Petersburg, where Euler, Lexell, and Kraft, undertook to examine them, and select the most interesting parts for publication. The result of this examination does not appear.

Kepler's body was buried in St. Peter's churchyard at Ratisbon, and a simple inscription was placed on his tombstone. This appears to have

been destroyed not long after, in the course of the wars which still desolated the country. In 1786, a proposal was made to erect a marble monument to his memory, but nothing was done. Kästner, on whose authority it is mentioned, says upon this, rather bitterly, that it matters little whether or not Germany, having almost refused him bread during his life, should, a century and a half after his death, offer him a stone.

Delambre mentions, in his History of Astronomy, that this design was resumed in 1803 by the Prince Bishop of Constance, and that a monument has been erected in the Botanical Garden at Ratisbon, near the place of his interment. It is built in the form of a temple, surmounted by a sphere; in the centre is placed a bust of Kepler, in Carrara marble. Delambre does not mention the original of the bust; but says it is not unlike the figure engraved in the frontispiece of the Rudolphine Tables. That frontispiece consists of a portico of ten pillars, supporting a cupola covered with astronomical emblems. Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Ptolemy, Hipparchus, and other astronomers, are seen among them. In one of the compartments of the common pedestal is a plan of the observatory at Uraniburg; in another, a printing press; in a third is the figure of a man, meant for Kepler, seated at a table. He is identified by the titles of his works, which are round him; but the whole is so small as to convey very little idea of his figure or countenance. The only portrait known of Kepler was given by him to his assistant Gringallet, who presented it to Bernegger; and it was placed by the latter in the library at Strasburg. Hantsch had a copy taken for the purpose of engraving it, but died before it was

completed. A portrait of Kepler is engraved in the seventh part of Boissard's Bibliotheca Chalcographica. It is not known whence this was taken, but it may, perhaps, be a copy of that which was engraved by desire of Bernegger in 1620. The likeness is said not to have been well preserved. "His heart and genius," says Kästner, "are faithfully depicted in his writings; and that may console us, if we cannot entirely trust his portrait." In the preceding pages, it has been endeavoured to select such passages from his writings as might throw the greatest light on his character, with a subordinate reference only to the importance of the subjects treated. In conclusion, it may be well to support the opinion which has been ventured on the real nature of his triumphs, and on the danger of attempting to follow his method in the pursuit of truth, by the judgment pronounced by Delambre, as well on his failures as on his success.

"Con

sidering these matters in another point of view, it is not impossible to convince ourselves that Kepler may have been always the same. Ardent, restless, burning to distinguish himself by his discoveries, he attempted everything; and having once obtained a glimpse of one, no labour was too hard for him in following or verifying it. All his attempts had not the same success, and, in fact, that was impossible. Those which have failed seem to us only fanciful; those which have been more fortunate appear sublime. When in search of that which really existed, he has sometimes found it; when he devoted himself to the pursuit of a chimera, he could not but fail; but even there he unfolded the same qualities, and that obstinate perseverance that must triumph over all difficulties but those which are insurmountable*."

Histoire de l'Astronomie Moderne, Paris, 1821.

has in view.

ISAAC NEWTON was born at Woolsthorpe, in Lincolnshire, on the 25th December, 1642 (O. S.) the year in which Galileo died. At his birth he was so small and weak that his life was despaired of. At the death of his father, which took place while he was yet an infant, the manor of Woolsthorpe, of which his family had been in possession several years, became his heritage. In a short time his mother married again; but this new alliance did not interfere with the performance of her duties towards her son. She sent him, at an early age, to the school of his native village, and afterwards, on attaining his twelfth year, to the neighbouring town of Grantham, that he might be instructed in the classics. Her intention, however, was not to make her son a mere scholar, but to give him those first principles of education which were considered necessary for every gentleman, and to render him able to manage his own estate. After a short period, therefore, she recalled him to Woolsthorpe, and began to employ him in domestic occupations. For these he soon showed himself neither fitted nor inclined. Already, during his residence at Grantham, Newton, though still a child, had made himself remarkable by a decided taste for various philosophical and mechanical inventions. He was boarded in the house of an apothecary, named Clarke, where, caring but little for the society of other children, he provided himself with a collection of saws, hammers, and other instruments, adapted to his size; these he employed with such skill and intelligence, that he was able to construct models of many kinds of machinery; he also made hour-glasses, acting by the descent of water, which marked the

time with extraordinary accuracy. A new windmill, of peculiar construction, having been erected in the vicinity of Grantham, Newton manifested a strong desire to discover the secret of its mechanism; and he accordingly went so often to watch the workmen employed in erecting it, that he was at length able to construct a model, which also turned with the wind, and worked 'as well as the mill itself; but with this difference, that he had added a mouse in the interior, which he called the miller, because it directed the mill, and ate up the flour, as a real miller might do. A certain acquaintance with drawing was necessary in these operations; to this art, though without a master, he successfully applied himself. The walls of his closet were soon covered with designs of all sorts, either copied from others, or taken from nature. These mechanical pursuits, which already implied considerable powers of invention and observation, occupied his attention to such a degree, that for them he neglected his studies in language; and, unless excited by particular circumstances, he ordinarily allowed himself to be surpassed by children of very inferior mental capacity. Having however, on some occasion, been surpassed by one of his class fellows, he determined to prevent the recurrence of such a mortification, and very shortly succeeded in placing himself at the head of them all.

It was after Newton had for several years cherished and, in part, unfolded so marked a disposition of mind, that his mother, having taken him home, wished to employ him in the affairs of her farm and household. The reader may easily judge that he had little inclination for such pursuits. More than once

B

he was sent by his mother on market-days to Grantham, to sell corn and other articles of farming produce, and desired to purchase the provisions required for the family; but as he was still very young, a confidential servant was sent with him to teach him how to market. On these occasions, however, Newton, immediately after riding into the town, allow ed his attendant to perform the business for which he was sent, while he himself retired to the house of the apothecary where he had formerly lodged, and employed his time in reading some old book, till the hour of return arrived. At other times he did not even proceed so far as the town, but stopping on the road, occupied himself in study, under the shelter of a hedge, till the servant came back. With such ardent desire for mental improvement, we may easily conceive that his repugnance to rural occupations must have been extreme; as soon as he could escape from them, his happiness consisted in sitting under some tree, either reading, or modelling in wood, with his knife, various machines that he had seen. To this day is shewn, at Woolsthorpe, a sun-dial, constructed by him on the wall of the house in which he lived. It fronts the garden, and is at the height to which a child can reach. This irresistible passion, which urged young Newton to the study of science, at last overcame the obstacles which the habits or the prudence of his mother had thrown in his way. One of his uncles having one day found him under a hedge, with a book in his hand, entirely absorbed in meditation, took it from him, and discovered that he was working a mathematical problem. Struck with finding so serious and decided a disposition in so young a person, he urged Newton's mother no longer to thwart him, but to send him once more to pursue his studies at Grantham.*

There he remained till he reached his eighteenth year, when he removed to Cambridge, and was entered at TrinityCollege, in 1660. Since the beginning of the seventeenth century, a taste for the cultivation of mathematical knowledge had shown itself among the members of that University. The elements of algebra and geometry generally

These details of the infancy of Newton fare taken chiefly from. "Collections for the History of the Town and Soke of Grantham, containing authentic Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton, &c. by Edmund Turner, (London, 1806.)" And from the Eloge on Newton, written by Fontenelle.

formed a part of the system of education, and Newton had the good fortune to find Dr. Barrow, professor; a man who, in addition to the merit of being one of the greatest mathematicians of his age, joined that of being the kindest instructor as well as the most zealous protector of the young genius growing up under his care.

Newton, in order to prepare himself for the public lessons, privately read the text books in advance, the better to follow the commentaries of the lecturer. These books were, Bishop Sanderson's Logic,* and Kepler's Treatise on Optics, from which it is evident the young learner must have made considerable progress in the elements of geometry when studying at Grantham. After Newton went to Cambridge, the process of the unfolding of his intellect, a subject so interesting in the study of the human mind, fortunately remains to us either described by himself or established in literary monuments, by which we are enabled accurately to trace its progress.

At this epoch, Descartes bore sway both in speculative and in natural philosophy. The authority of the metaphysical systems of his daring and fertile mind having succeeded to the empire which those of Aristotle had previously exercised, caused his method and his works to be adopted also in mathematics. Hence the geometry of Descartes was one of the first books that Newton read at Cambridge.

After Newton's persevering efforts, when reading alone, to make himself master of the elements of this science, explained so unconnectedly and imperfectly by other authors, he must have felt a lively pleasure on entering on the wide career that the French analyst was the first to open, and in which, having shown the connexion between algebraical equations and geometry, he discovers to us the use of that relation in solving, almost at sight, problems which, up to that time, had foiled the efforts of all the an cient and modern mathematicians. It is singular, however, that Newton, in his writings, has never mentioned Descartes favourably; and, on more than one occasion, has treated him with injustice.t

He next proceeded, when

The title is Logica artis Compendium, auctors Robert Sanderson. Oxon. 8vo.

+ Particularly in his Optics, where he attributes the discovery of the true theory of the rainbow to Antonius de Dominis, Archbishop of Spalatro, leaving to Descartes only the merit of having “mended the ex