With these general convictions and these physical notions in his mind, Kepler endeavored to detect numerical and geometrical relations among the parts of the solar system. After extraordinary labor, perseverance, and ingenuity, he was eminently successful in discovering such relations; but the glory and merit of interpreting them according to their physical meaning, was reserved for his greater successor, Newton. CHAPTER IV. INDUCTIVE EPOCH OF KEPLER. _Sect._ 1.--_Intellectual Character of Kepler._ SEVERAL persons,[30\5] especially in recent times, who have taken a view of the discoveries of Kepler, appear to have been surprised and somewhat discontented that conjectures, apparently so fanciful and arbitrary as his, should have led to important discoveries. They seem to have been alarmed at the _Moral_ that their readers might draw, from the tale of a Quest of Knowledge, in which the Hero, though fantastical and self-willed, and violating in his conduct, as they conceived, all right rule and sound philosophy, is rewarded with the most signal triumphs. Perhaps one or two reflections may in some measure reconcile us to this result. {291} [Note 30\5: Laplace, _Précis de l'Hist. d'Ast._ p. 94. "Il est affligeant pour l'esprit humain de voir ce grand homme, même dans ses derniers ouvrages, se complaire avec délices dans ses chimériques spéculations, et les regarder comme l'âme et la vie de l'astronomie." _Hist. of Ast._, L. U. K., p. 53. "This success [of Kepler] may well inspire with dismay those who are accustomed to consider experiment and rigorous induction as the only means to interrogate nature with success." _Life of Kepler_, L. U. K., p. 14, "Bad philosophy." P. 15, "Kepler's miraculous good fortune in seizing truths across the wildest and most absurd theories." P. 54, "The danger of attempting to follow his method in the pursuit of truth."] In the first place, we may observe that the leading thought which suggested and animated all Kepler's attempts was true, and we may add, sagacious and philosophical; namely, that there must be _some_ numerical or geometrical relations among the times, distances, and velocities of the revolving bodies of the solar system. This settled and constant conviction of an important truth regulated all the conjectures, apparently so capricious and fanciful, which he made and examined, respecting particular relations in the system.