The Sleepwalkers (111 page)

The
new
teacher
of
astronomy
and
"Mathematicus
of
the
Province"
–
a
title
that
went
with
it
–
arrived
in
Gratz
in
April
1594,
at
the
age
of
twenty-three.
A
year
later
he
hit
on
the
idea
which
would
dominate
the
rest
of
his
life,
and
out
of
which
his
revolutionary
discoveries
were
born.

I
have
so
far
concentrated
on
the
emotional
life
of
his
childhood
and
adolescence.
I
must
now
briefly
speak
of
his
intellectual
development.
Here
again,
we
have
his
self-portrait
to
guide
us:

"This
man
was
born
destined
to
spend
much
time
on
difficult
tasks
from
which
others
shrunk.
As
a
boy
he
precociously
attempted
the
science
of
versifying.
He
tried
to
write
comedies
and
chose
the
longest
poems
to
learn
by
heart...
His
efforts
were
at
first
devoted
to
acrostics
and
anagrams.
Later
on
he
set
about
various
most
difficult
forms
of
lyric
poetry,
wrote
a
pindaric
lay,
dithyrambic
poems
and
compositions
on
unusual
subjects,
such
as
the
resting-place
of
the
sun,
the
sources
of
rivers,
the
sight
of
Atlantis
through
the
clouds.
He
was
fond
of
riddles
and
subtle
witticisms
and
made
much
play
with
allegories
which
he
worked
out
to
the
most
minute
detail,
dragging
in
far-fetched
comparisons.
He
liked
to
compose
paradoxes
and
...
loved
mathematics
above
all
other
studies.

In
philosophy
he
read
the
texts
of
Aristotle
in
the
original...
In
theology
he
started
at
once
on
predestination
and
fell
in
with
the
Lutheran
view
of
the
absence
of
free
will...
But
later
on
he
opposed
it...
Inspired
by
his
view
of
divine
mercy,
he
did
not
believe
that
any
nation
was
destined
to
damnation...
He
explored
various
fields
of
mathematics
as
if
he
were
the
first
man
to
do
so
[and
made
a
number
of
discoveries],
which
later
on
he
found
to
have
already
been
discovered.
He
argued
with
men
of
every
profession
for
the
profit
of
his
mind.
He
jealously
preserved
all
his
writings
and
kept
any
book
he
could
lay
hands
on
with
the
idea
that
they
might
be
useful
at
some
time
in
the
future.
He
was
the
equal
of
Crusius
^*
in
his
attention
to
detail,
far
inferior
to
Crusius
in
industry,
but
his
superior
in
judgment.
Crusius
collected
facts,
he
analysed
them;
Crusius
was
a
hoe,
he
a
wedge..."

____________________

In
his
Horoscope
he
further
reports
that
during
his
first
year
at
the
University
he
wrote
essays
on
"the
heavens,
the
spirits,
the
Genii,
the
elements,
the
nature
of
fire,
the
tides,
the
shape
of
the
continents,
and
other
things
of
the
same
kind".

The
last remark about his student days reads:

"At
Tuebingen
I
often
defended
the
opinions
of
Copernicus
in
the
disputation
of
the
candidates,
and
I
composed
a
careful
disputation
on
the
first
motion,
which
consists
in
the
rotation
of
the
earth;
then
I
was
adding
to
this
the
motion
of
the
earth
around
the
sun
for
physical,
or
if
you
prefer,
metaphysical
reasons.

If there are living creatures
on the moon (a matter about which I took pleasure in speculating
after the manner of Pythagoras and Plutarch in a disputation written
in Tuebingen in 1593), it is to be assumed that they should be
adapted to the character of their particular country."

None
of
this
points
as
yet
in
any
definite
direction.
Indeed,
his
main
complaint
against
himself,
which
he
repeats
over
and
over
again,
is
his
"inconsistency,
thoughtlessness,
lack
of
discipline
and
rashness";
his
"lack
of
persistence
in
his
undertakings,
caused
by
the
quickness
of
his
spirit";
his
"beginning
many
new
tasks
before
the
previous
one
is
finished";
his
"sudden
enthusiasms
which
do
not
last,
for,
however
industrious
he
may
be,
nevertheless
he
is
a
bitter
hater
of
work";
his
"failure
to
finish
things
he
has
begun".

Again
we
see
that
magic
dynamo
of
the
psyche
at
work.
The
streak
of
irresponsibility
and
restlessness
in
the
blood,
which
turned
his
father,
brother
and
uncles
into
vagabonds
who
could
never
settle
down
in
any
place
or
profession,
drove
Kepler
into
his
unorthodox,
often
crankish
intellectual
enterprises,
made
him
into
the
most
reckless
and
erratic
spiritual
adventurer
of
the
scientific
revolution.