The Sleepwalkers (117 page)

"Nearly
twenty-five
years
have
passed
since
I
published
the
present
little
book...
Although
I
was
then
still
quite
young
and
this
publication
my
first
work
on
astronomy,
nevertheless
its
success
in
the
following
years
proclaims
with
a
loud
voice
that
never
before
has
anybody
published
a
more
significant,
happier,
and
in
view
of
its
subject,
worthier
first-book.
It
would
be
mistaken
to
regard
it
as
a
pure
invention
of
my
mind
(far
be
any
presumption
from
my
intent,
and
any
exaggerated
admiration
from
the
reader's,
when
we
touch
the
seven-stringed
harp
of
the
Creator's
wisdom).
For
as
if
a
heavenly
oracle
had
dictated
it
to
me,
the
published
booklet
was
in
all
its
parts
immediately
recognised
as
excellent
and
true
throughout
(as
it
is
the
rule
with
obvious
acts
of
God).'

Now,
Kepler's
style
is
often
exuberant
and
sometimes
bombastic,
but
rarely
to
this
extent.
The
apparent
presumption
is
in
fact
the
radiance
of
the
idée
fixe
,
an
emanation
of
the
immense
emotive
charge
which
such
ideas
carry.
When
the
patient
in
a
mental
home
declares
that
he
is
the
mouthpiece
of
the
Holy
Ghost,
he
means
it
not
as
a
boast
but
as
a
flat
statement
of
fact.

Here
we
have,
then,
a
young
man
of
twenty-four,
an
aspirant
of
theology,
with
only
a
sketchy
knowledge
of
astronomy,
who
hits
upon
a
crank
idea,
convinced
that
he
has
solved
the
"cosmic
mystery".
"There
is
no
great
ingenuity,"
to
quote
Seneca,
"without
an
admixture
of
dementedness,"
but
as
a
rule
the
dementedness
devours
the
ingenuity.
Kepler's
history
will
show
how
exceptions
to
this
rule
may
occur.

2.
Contents of the Mysterium

Leaving
its
crankish
leitmotif
aside,
Kepler's
first
book
contains
the
seeds
of
his
principal
future
discoveries.
I
must
therefore
briefly
describe
its
content.

The
Mysterium
has
an
overture,
a
first
and
a
second
movement.
The
overture
consists
of
the
Introduction
to
the
Reader
,
which
I
have
already
discussed,
and
the
first
chapter,
which
is
an
enthusiastic
and
lucid
profession
of
faith
in
Copernicus.
⁴
It
was
the
first
unequivocal,
public
commitment
by
a
professional
astronomer
which
appeared
in
print
fifty
years
after
Canon
Koppernigk's
death,
and
the
beginning
of
his
posthumous
triumph.
⁵
Galileo,
by
six
years
Kepler's
senior,
and
astronomers
like
Maestlin,
were
still
either
silent
on
Copernicus,
or
agreed
with
him
only
in
cautious
privacy.
Kepler
had
intended
to
add
to
his
chapter
a
proof
that
there
was
no
contradiction
between
the
teaching
of
Copernicus
and
Holy
Scripture;
but
the
head
of
the
theological
faculty
in
Tuebingen,
whose
official
consent
to
the
publication
of
the
book
had
to
be
obtained,
directed
him
to
leave
out
any
theological
reflections
and
–
in
the
tradition
of
the
famous
Osiander
preface
–
to
treat
the
Copernican
hypothesis
as
a
purely
formal,
mathematical
one.
^*
Kepler
accordingly
postponed
his
theological
apologia
to
a
later
work,
but
otherwise
did
the
exact
opposite
of
what
he
was
advised
to
do,
by
proclaiming
the
Copernican
system
to
be
literally,
physically
and
incontrovertibly
true,
"an
inexhaustible
treasure
of
truly
divine
insight
into
the
wonderful
order
of
the
world
and
all
bodies
therein".
It
sounded
like
a
fanfare
in
praise
of
the
brave
new
heliocentric
world.
The
arguments
in
its
favour
which
Kepler
adduced
could
mostly
be
found
in
Rheticus'
Narratio
Prima,
which
Kepler
reprinted
as
an
appendix
to
the
Mysterium,
to
save
his
readers
the
labour
of
toiling
through
Copernicus'
unreadable
book.

____________________

After
this
overture,
Kepler
gets
down
to
his
"principal
proof
that
the
planetary
spheres
are
separated
from
each
other,
or
fenced
in,
as
it
were,
by
the
five
perfect
solids.
(He
does
not
mean,
of
course,
that
the
solids
are
really
present
in
space,
nor
does
he
believe
in
the
existence
of
the
spheres
themselves,
as
we
shall
see.)
The
"proof"
consists,
roughly,
in
the
deduction
that
God
could
only
create
a
perfect
world,
and
since
only
five
symmetrical
solids
exist,
they
are
obviously
meant
to
be
placed
between
the
six
planetary
orbits
"where
they
fit
in
perfectly".
In
fact,
however,
they
do
not
fit
at
all,
as
he
was
soon
to
discover
to
his
woe.
Also,
there
are
not
six
planets
but
nine
(not
to
mention
the
small
fry
of
asteroids
between
Jupiter
and
Mars),
but
at
least
Kepler
was
spared
in
his
lifetime
the
discovery
of
the
three
others,
Uranus,
Neptune
and
Pluto.