The Sleepwalkers (172 page)

Kepler
then
confessed
that
he
had
no
instruments,
and
asked
Galileo
whether
he
had
a
quadrant
sufficiently
precise
to
read
quarter-minutes
of
arc;
if
so,
would
Galileo
please
make
a
series
of
observations
to
prove
that
the
fixed
stars
show
small
seasonal
displacements
–
which
would
provide
direct
proof
of
the
earth's
motion.

"Even
if
we
could
detect
no
displacement
at
all,
we
would
nevertheless
share
the
laurels
of
having
investigated
a
most
noble
problem
which
nobody
has
attacked
before
us.
Sat
Sapienti
...
Farewell,
and
answer
me
with
a
very
long
letter."
⁸

Poor,
naïve
Kepler!
It
did
not
occur
to
him
that
Galileo
might
take
offence
at
his
exhortations,
and
regard
them
as
an
implied
reproach
of
cowardice.
He
waited
in
vain
for
an
answer
to
his
exuberant
overtures.
Galileo
withdrew
his
feelers;
for
the
next
twelve
years,
Kepler
did
not
hear
from
him.

But
from
time
to
time
unpleasant
rumours
reached
him
froth
Italy.
Among
Kepler's
admirers
was
a
certain
Edmund
Bruce,
a
sentimental
English
traveller
in
Italy,
amateur
philosopher
and
science
snob,
who
loved
to
rub
shoulders
with
scholars
and
to
spread
gossip
about
them.
In
August
1602,
five
years
after
Galileo
had
broken
off
their
correspondence,
Bruce
wrote
Kepler
from
Florence
that
Magini
(the
professor
of
astronomy
at
Bologna)
had
assured
him
of
his
love
and
admiration
of
Kepler,
whereas
Galileo
had
admitted
to
him,
Bruce,
having
received
Kepler
Mysterium
,
but
had
denied
this
to
Magini.

"I
scolded
Galileo
for
his
scant
praise
of
you,
for
I
know
for
certain
that
he
lectures
on
your
and
his
own
discoveries
to
his
pupils
and
others.
I,
however,
act
and
shall
always
act
in
a
manner
which
serves
not
his
fame,
but
yours."
⁹

Kepler
could
not
be
bothered
to
answer
this
busybody,
but
a
year
later
–
21
August,
1603
–
Bruce
wrote
again,
this
time
from
Padua:

"If
you
knew
how
often
and
how
much
I
discuss
you
with
all
the
savants
of
Italy
you
would
consider
me
not
only
an
admirer
but
a
friend.
I
spoke
with
them
of
your
admirable
discoveries
in
music,
of
your
studies
of
Mars,
and
explained
to
them
your
Mysterium
which
they
all
praise.
They
wait
impatiently
for
your
future
works...
Galileo
has
your
book
and
teaches
your
discoveries
as
his
own..."
¹⁰

This
time
Kepler
did
answer.
After
apologizing
for
the
delay
and
declaring
himself
delighted
with
Bruce's
friendship,
he
continued:

"But
there
is
something
about
which
I
wish
to
warn
you.
Do
not
form
a
higher
opinion
of
me,
and
do
not
induce
others
to
do
so,
than
my
achievements
are
able
to
justify...
For
you
certainly
understand
that
betrayed
expectations
lead
eventually
to
contempt.
I
wish
in
no
way
to
restrain
Galileo
from
claiming,
what
is
mine,
as
his
own.
My
witnesses
are
the
bright
daylight
and
time."
¹¹

The
letter
ends
with
"Greetings
to
Magini
and
Galileo".

Bruce's
accusations
should
not
be
taken
seriously.
In
fact,
the
opposite
is
true:
the
trouble
with
Galileo
was
not
that
he
appropriated
Kepler's
discoveries
–
but
that
he
ignored
them,
as
we
shall
see.
But
the
episode
nevertheless
sheds
some
additional
light
on
the
relations
between
the
two
men.
Though
Bruce
cannot
be
trusted
on
points
of
fact,
the
inimical
attitude
of
Galileo
to
Kepler
emerges
clearly
from
Bruce's
letters.
It
fits
in
with
the
fact
that
he
broke
off
the
correspondence,
and
with
later
events.

Kepler,
on
the
other
hand,
who
had
good
reason
to
be
offended
by
Galileo's
silence,
could
easily
have
been
provoked
by
Bruce's
scandal-mongering
into
starting
one
of
those
juicy
quarrels
between
scholars
which
were
the
order
of
the
day.
He
was
suspicious
and
excitable
enough,
as
his
relations
with
Tycho
have
shown.
But
towards
Galileo
he
always
behaved
in
an
oddly
generous
way.
It
is
true
that
they
lived
in
different
countries
and
never
met
personally;
but
hatred,
like
gravity,
is
capable
of
action
at
a
distance.
The
reason
for
Kepler's
forbearingness
was
perhaps
that
he
had
no
occasion
to
develop
an
inferiority
complex
towards
Galileo.