Notwithstanding all its faults, the genius and unwearied perseverance displayed by Kepler in this book, immediately ranked him among astronomers of the first class; and he received the most flattering encomiums from many of the most celebrated; among others, from Galileo and Tycho Brahe, whose opinion he invited upon his performance. Galileo contented himself with praising in general terms the ingenuity and good faith which appeared so conspicuously in it. Tycho Brahe entered into a more detailed criticism of the work, and, as Kepler shrewdly remarked, showed how highly he thought of it by advising him to try to adapt something of the same kind to the Tychonic system. Kepler also sent a copy of his book to the imperial astronomer, Raimar, with a complimentary letter, in which he exalted him above all other astronomers of the age. Raimar had surreptitiously acquired a notion of Tycho Brahe's theory, and published it as his own; and Tycho, in his letter, complained of Kepler's extravagant flattery. This drew a long apologetical reply from Kepler, in which he attributed the admiration he had expressed of Raimar to his own want of information at that time, having since met with many things in Euclid and Regiomontanus, which he then believed original in Raimar. With this explanation, Tycho professed himself perfectly satisfied. FOOTNOTES: [179] The following scrupulous note added by Kepler in 1621 to a subsequent edition of this work, deserves to be quoted. It shows how entirely superior he was to the paltriness of attempting to appropriate the discoveries of others, of which many of his contemporaries had exhibited instances even on slighter pretences than this passage might have afforded him. The note is as follows: "Not circulating round Jupiter like the Medicæan stars. Be not deceived. I never had them in my thoughts, but, like the other primary planets, including the sun in the centre of the system within their orbits." [180] This inconvenient mode of dating was necessary before the new or Gregorian style was universally adopted. CHAPTER II. _Kepler's Marriage—He joins Tycho Brahe at Prague—Is appointed Imperial Mathematician—Treatise on the New Star._