142. Although the two laws of planetary motion just given were only
fully established for the case of Mars, Kepler stated that the earth’s
path also must be an oval of some kind, and was evidently already
convinced—aided by his firm belief in the harmony of Nature—that
all the planets moved in accordance with the same laws. This view
is indicated in the dedication of the book to the Emperor Rudolph,
which gives a fanciful account of the work as a struggle against the
rebellious War-God Mars, as the result of which he is finally brought
captive to the feet of the Emperor and undertakes to live for the
future as a loyal subject. As, however, he has many relations in the
ethereal spaces—his father Jupiter, his grandfather Saturn, his dear
sister Venus, his faithful brother Mercury—and he yearns for them
and they for him _on account of the similarity of their habits_, he
entreats the Emperor to send out an expedition as soon as possible
to capture them also, and with that object to provide Kepler with the
“sinews of war” in order that he may equip a suitable army.
Although the money thus delicately asked for was only supplied very
irregularly, Kepler kept steadily in view the expedition for which it
was to be used, or, in plainer words, he worked steadily at the problem
of extending his elliptic theory to the other planets, and constructing
the tables of the planetary motions, based on Tycho’s observations, at
which he had so long been engaged.
143. In 1611 his patron Rudolph was forced to abdicate the imperial
crown in favour of his brother Matthias, who had little interest in
astronomy, or even in astrology; and as Kepler’s position was thus
rendered more insecure than ever, he opened negotiations with the
Estates of Upper Austria, as the result of which he was promised a
small salary, on condition of undertaking the somewhat varied duties
of teaching mathematics at the high school of Linz, the capital, of
constructing a new map of the province, and of completing his planetary
tables. For the present, however, he decided to stay with Rudolph.
In the same year Kepler lost his wife, who had long been in weak bodily
and mental health.
In the following year (1612) Rudolph died, and Kepler then moved
to Linz and took up his new duties there, though still holding the
appointment of mathematician to the Emperor and occasionally even
receiving some portion of the salary of the office. In 1613 he married
again, after a careful consideration, recorded in an extraordinary
but very characteristic letter to one of his friends, of the relative
merits of eleven ladies whom he regarded as possible; and the provision
of a proper supply of wine for his new household led to the publication
of a pamphlet, of some mathematical interest, dealing with the proper
way of measuring the contents of a cask with curved sides.[90]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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