has, undoubtedly, a good fortune, is of good family, and of economical habits: but her physiognomy is most horribly ugly; she would be stared at in the streets, not to mention the striking disproportion in our figures. I am lank, lean, and spare; she short and thick: in a family notorious for fulness, she is considered superfluously fat." The only objection to No. 11 seems to have been her excessive youth; and when this treaty was broken off on that account, Kepler turned his back upon all his advisers, and chose for himself one who had figured as No. 5 in the list, to whom he professes to have felt attached throughout, but from whom the representations of his friends had hitherto detained him, probably on account of her humble station. The following is Kepler's summary of her character:--"Her name is Susannah, the daughter of John Reuthinger and Barbara, citizens of the town of Eferdingen. The father was by trade a cabinetmaker, but both her parents are dead. She has received an education well worth the largest dowry, by favour of the Lady of Stahrenberg, the strictness of whose household is famous throughout the province. Her person and manners are suitable to mine--no pride, no extravagance. She can bear to work; she has a tolerable knowledge how to manage a family; middle-aged, and of a disposition and capability to acquire what she still wants. Her I shall marry, by favour of the noble Baron of Stahrenberg, at 12 o'clock on the 30th of next October, with all Eferdingen assembled to meet us, and we shall eat the marriage dinner at Maurice's at the Golden Lion."[48] [48] Life of Kepler, chap. vi. Kepler's marriage seems to have taken place at the time here mentioned; for, in his book on gauging, published at Linz in 1615, he informs us that he took home his new wife in November, on which occasion he found it necessary to stock his cellar with a few casks of wine. When the wine-merchant came to measure the casks, Kepler objected to his method, as he made no allowance for the different sizes of the bulging parts of the cask. From this accident, Kepler was led to study the subject of gauging, and to write the book which we have mentioned, and which contains the earliest specimens of the modern analysis. About this period, Kepler was summoned to the Diet at Ratisbon, to give his opinion on the reformation of the kalendar, and he published a short essay on the subject; but though the Government did not scruple to avail themselves of his services, yet his pension was allowed to fall in arrear, and, in order to support his family, he was obliged to publish an Almanac, suited to the taste of the age. "In order," says he, "to defray the expense of the Ephemeris for two years,[49] I have been obliged to compose _a vile prophesying Almanac, which is scarcely more respectable than begging_, unless from its saving the Emperor's credit, who abandons me entirely, and would suffer me to perish with hunger."