attaining the second place in the annual examination. The first name on the list was John Hippolytus Brentius. Whilst he was thus engaged at Tubingen, the astronomical lectureship at Gratz, the chief town of Styria, became vacant by the death of George Stadt, and the situation was offered to Kepler. Of this first occasion of turning his thoughts towards astronomy, he has himself given the following account: "As soon as I was of an age to feel the charms of philosophy, I embraced every part of it with intense desire, but paid no especial regard to astronomy. I had indeed capacity enough for it, and learned without difficulty the geometrical and astronomical theorems occurring in the usual course of the school, being well grounded in figures, numbers, and proportions. But those were compulsory studies—there was nothing to show a particular turn for astronomy. I was educated at the expense of the Duke of Wirtemberg, and when I saw such of my companions as the duke selected to send abroad shrink in various ways from their employments, out of fondness for home, I, who was more callous, had early made up my mind to go with the utmost readiness whithersoever I might be sent. The first offering itself was an astronomical post, which I was in fact forced to accept by the authority of my tutors; not that I was alarmed, in the manner I had condemned in others, by the remoteness of the situation, but by the unexpected and contemptible nature of the office, and by the slightness of my information in this branch of philosophy. I entered on it, therefore, better furnished with talent than knowledge: with many protestations that I was not abandoning my claim to be provided for in some other more brilliant profession. What progress I made in the first two years of my studies, may be seen in my 'Mysterium Cosmographicum;' and the encouragement given me by my tutor, Mästlin, to take up the science of astronomy, may be read in the same book, and in his letter which is prefixed to the 'Narrative of Rheticus.' I looked on that discovery as of the highest importance, and still more so, because I saw how greatly it was approved by Mästlin."