During the two centuries which have elapsed since this invitation was given to Kepler, there has been no reign during which the most illustrious foreigner could hope for pecuniary support, either from the Sovereign or the Government of England. What English science has never been able to command for her indigenous talent, was not likely to be proffered to foreign merit. The generous hearts of individual Englishmen, indeed, are always open to the claims of intellectual pre-eminence, and ever ready to welcome the stranger whom it adorns; but through the frozen life-blood of a British minister such sympathies have seldom vibrated; and, amid the struggles of faction and the anxieties of personal and family ambition, he has turned a deaf ear to the demands of genius, whether she appeared in the humble posture of a suppliant, or in the prouder attitude of a national benefactor. If the imperial mathematician, therefore, had no other assurance of a comfortable home in England than that of Sir Henry Wotton, he acted a wise part in distrusting it; and we rejoice that the sacred name of Kepler was thus withheld from the long list of distinguished characters whom England has starved and dishonoured. In the year 1620, Kepler was exposed to a severe calamity, which continued to harass him for some time. His mother, Catherine Kepler, to whose peculiarities of temper we have already referred, was arrested on the 5th April, upon a charge of a very serious nature. One of her friends having some years before suffered a miscarriage, was subsequently attacked with violent headaches, and Catherine was charged with having administered poison to her friend. This accusation was indignantly repelled, and a young doctor of the law, whom she consulted, advised her to raise an action against her calumniator. From professional reasons, or probably pecuniary ones, this zealous practitioner continued to delay the lawsuit for five years. The judge who tried it happened to be displaced, and was succeeded by another, who had a personal quarrel with the prosecutor. The defender, who was aware of this favourable change in her case, became the accuser, and, in July 1620, Catherine Kepler was sent to prison, and condemned to the torture. The moment this event reached the ears of her son, he quitted Linz, and arrived in time to save her from punishment. He found that the evidence upon which she was condemned had no other foundation but her own intemperate conduct; and, though his interference was successful, yet she was not finally released from prison till the 4th November 1621. Convinced of her innocence, this bold woman, now in the 79th year of her age, raised a new action for damages against her opponent; but her death, in April 1622, put an end to her own miseries, as well as to the anxiety of her son. Among the virtues of this singular woman, we must number that of generosity. Moestlin, the old preceptor of Kepler, had