In the course of the following year, while absent from Prague, he fancied that Tycho had injured him, and accordingly addressed to the noble Dane a letter full of insults and reproaches. A mild reply from Tycho opened the eyes of Kepler to his own ingratitude. His better feelings soon returned, and he sent to his great patron this humble apology: "Most noble Tycho! How shall I enumerate, or rightly estimate, your benefits conferred on me! For two months you have liberally and gratuitously maintained me, and my whole family; you have provided for all my wishes; you have done me every possible kindness; you have communicated to me every thing you hold most dear; no one, by word or deed, has intentionally injured me in any thing; in short, not to your own children, your wife, or yourself, have you shown more indulgence than to me. This being so, as I am anxious to put upon record, I cannot reflect, without consternation, that I should have been so given up by God to my own intemperance, as to shut my eyes on all these benefits; that, instead of modest and respectful gratitude, I should indulge for three weeks in continual moroseness towards all your family, and in headlong passion and the utmost insolence towards yourself, who possess so many claims on my veneration, from your noble family, your extraordinary learning, and distinguished reputation. Whatever I have said or written against the person, the fame, the honor, and the learning, of your Excellency; or whatever, in any other way, I have injuriously spoken or written, (if they admit no other more favorable interpretation,) as to my grief I have spoken and written many things, and more than I can remember; all and every thing I recant, and freely and honestly declare and profess to be groundless, false, and incapable of proof." This was ample satisfaction to the generous Tycho. "To err is human: to forgive, divine." On Kepler's return to Prague, he was presented to the Emperor by Tycho, and honored with the title of Imperial Mathematician. This was in 1601, when he was thirty years of age. Tycho died shortly after, and Kepler succeeded him as principal mathematician to the Emperor; but his salary was badly paid, and he suffered much from pecuniary embarrassments. Although he held the astrologers, or those who told fortunes by the stars, in great contempt, yet he entertained notions of his own, on the same subject, quite as extravagant, and practised the art of casting nativities, to eke out a support for his family. When Galileo began to observe with his telescope, and announced, in rapid succession, his wonderful discoveries, Kepler entered into them with his characteristic enthusiasm, although they subverted many of his favorite hypotheses. But such was his love of truth, that he was among the first to congratulate Galileo, and a most engaging correspondence was carried on between these master-spirits.