The Sleepwalkers (141 page)

Tycho
reacted
with
unusual
diplomacy
and
restraint.
He
acknowledged
Kepler's
letter
and
book
with
great
courtesy,
praised
him
for
the
ingenuity
of
the
Mysterium
while
expressing
certain
reserves,
and
expressed
the
hope
that
Kepler
would
now
make
an
effort
to
apply
his
theory
of
the
five
solids
to
Tycho's
own
system
of
the
universe.
(Kepler
wrote
on
the
margin:
"Everybody
loves
himself,
but
one
can
see
his
high
opinion
of
my
method.")
¹⁷
Only
in
a
postscript
did
Tycho
complain
about
Kepler's
praise
of
Ursus.
A
little
later
Tycho
wrote
another
letter
to
Maestlin,
¹⁸
in
which
he
criticized
Kepler's
book
much
more
severely,
and
repeated
his
complaint.
The
intention
behind
this
was
obvious:
Tycho
had
immediately
realized
young
Kepler's
exceptional
gifts,
wanted
to
win
him
over
to
his
side,
and
hoped
that
Maestlin
would
exert
his
authority
with
his
former
pupil
in
this
sense.
Maestlin
duly
transmitted
Tycho's
complaint
to
Kepler,
who
realized
only
now
into
what
a
frightful
tangle
he
had
got
himself
–
and,
of
all
people,
with
Tycho,
who
was
his
only
hope.
So
he
sat
down
and
penned
a
long
and
agonized
epistle
to
Tycho
in
true
Keplerian
style,
bubbling
with
sincerity,
cheating
a
little
about
the
facts,
pathetic
and
brilliant
and
slightly
embarrassing,
all
at
the
same
time:

"How
come?
Why
does
he
[
Ursus]
set
such
value
on
my
flatteries?
...
If
he
were
a
man
he
would
despise
them,
if
he
were
wise
he
would
not
display
them
on
the
market
place.
The
nonentity
which
I
then
was,
searched
for
a
famous
man
who
would
praise
my
new
discovery.
I
begged
him
for
a
gift
and
behold,
it
was
he
who
extorted
a
gift
from
the
beggar
...
My
spirit
was
soaring
and
melting
away
with
joy
over
the
discovery
I
had
just
made.
If,
in
the
selfish
desire
to
flatter
him
I
blurted
out
words
which
exceeded
my
opinion
of
him,
this
is
to
be
explained
by
the
impulsiveness
of
youth."
¹⁹

And
so
on.
But
there
is
one
staggering
admission
in
the
letter:
when
Kepler
read
Ursus'
Fundaments
of
Astronomy
he
had
believed
that
the
trigonometrical
rules
in
it
were
Ursus'
original
discoveries
and
did
not
realize
that
most
of
them
could
be
found
in
Euclid!
²⁰
One
feels
the
ring
of
truth
in
this
admission
of
young
Kepler's
abysmal
ignorance
of
mathematics
at
a
time
when,
guided
by
intuition
alone,
he
had
mapped
out
the
course
of
his
later
achievements
in
the
Mysterium
.

Tycho
replied
briefly,
and
with
a
gracious
condescension
which
must
have
been
rather
galling
to
Kepler,
that
he
had
not
required
such
an
elaborate
apology.
Thus
the
incident
was
patched
up,
though
it
kept
rankling
in
Tycho
who,
later
on,
when
Kepler
became
his
assistant,
would
force
him
to
write
a
pamphlet
In
Defence
of
Tycho
against
Ursus
–
a
chore
which
Kepler
detested.
But
for
the
time
being,
Tycho
was
willing
to
forget
the
unfortunate
episode,
and
anxious
to
get
Kepler
as
his
collaborator.
He
found
it
difficult
to
get
the
new
observatory
at
Benatek
Castle
going,
and
his
former
assistants
were
in
no
hurry
to
rejoin
the
former
despot
of
Hveen.
So
he
wrote
to
Kepler
in
December
1599:

"You
have
no
doubt
already
been
told
that
I
have
been
most
graciously
called
here
by
his
Imperial
Majesty
and
that
I
have
been
received
in
the
most
friendly
and
benevolent
manner.
I
wish
that
you
would
come
here,
not
forced
by
the
adversity
of
fate,
but
rather
on
your
own
will
and
desire
for
common
study.
But
whatever
your
reason,
you
will
find
in
me
your
friend
who
will
not
deny
you
his
advice
and
help
in
adversity,
and
will
be
ready
with
his
help.
But
if
you
come
soon
we
shall
perhaps
find
ways
and
means
so
that
you
and
your
family
shall
be
better
looked
after
in
future.
Vale
.

Given
at
Benatek,
or
the
Venice
of
Bohemia,
on
December
9,
1599,
by
your
very
sympathetic
Tycho
Brahe's
own
hand."
²¹