The Sleepwalkers (192 page)

This
confession
of
the
discoverer
of
radio-waves
sounds
suspiciously
like
in
echo
of
Kepler,
echoing
Plato,
echoing
Pythagoras:
"Methinks
that
all
of
nature
and
the
graceful
sky
are
set
into
symbols
in
geometriam
."

X COMPUTING
A
BRIDE

ONLY
one
circumstance,
but
a
basic
one,
relieved
the
gloom
of
Kepler's
later
years:
his
second
marriage,
in
1613,
to
Susanna
Reuttinger.
He
was
forty-one,
she
twenty-four,
the
daughter
of
a
cabinet-maker.
Susanna's
parents
had
died
while
she
was
a
child;
she
had
been
brought
up
in
the
household
of
the
Baroness
Starhemberg.
We
do
not
know
what
position
she
occupied
in
the
household,
but
to
judge
by
the
scandalized
reactions
of
Kepler's
correspondents,
it
must
have
been
a
lowly
one
–
something
between
a
maid
and
a
companion.

Kepler's
first
marriage
had
been
engineered
by
his
well-wishers
when
he
was
an
inexperienced
and
penniless
young
teacher.
Before
his
second
marriage,
friends
and
go-betweens
again
played
a
prominent
part
–
but
this
time
Kepler
had
to
choose
between
no
less
than
eleven
candidates
for
his
hand.
In
a
letter
to
an
unknown
nobleman,
which
extends
to
eight
printed
folio
pages,
Kepler
has
described
in
meticulous
detail
the
process
of
elimination
and
selection
that
he
followed.
It
is
a
curious
document,
and
among
the
most
revealing
in
his
voluminous
writings.
It
shows
that
he
solved
the
problem
of
choosing
the
right
wife
among
the
eleven
candidates
by
much
the
same
method
by
which
he
found
the
orbit
of
Mars:
he
committed
a
series
of
mistakes
which
might
have
proved
fatal,
but
cancelled
out;
and
up
to
the
last
moment
he
failed
to
realize
that
he
held
the
correct
solution
in
his
hands.

The
letter
is
dated
from
Linz,
23
October,
1613:
¹

"Though
all
Christians
start
a
wedding
invitation
by
solemnly
declaring
that
their
marriage
is
due
to
special
Divine
management,
I
as
a
philosopher,
would
like
to
discourse
with
you,
O
wisest
of
men,
in
greater
detail
about
this.
Was
it
Divine
Providence
or
my
own
moral
guilt
which,
for
two
years
or
longer,
tore
me
in
so
many
different
directions
and
made
me
consider
the
possibilities
of
such
different
unions?
If
it
was
Divine
Providence,
to
what
purpose
did
it
use
these
various
personalities
and
events?
For
there
is
nothing
that
I
would
like
to
investigate
more
thoroughly,
and
that
I
more
intensely
long
to
know,
than
this:
can
I
find
God,
whom
I
can
almost
touch
with
my
hands
when
I
contemplate
the
universe,
also
in
my
own
self?
If,
on
the
other
hand,
the
fault
was
mine,
in
what
did
it
consist?
Cupidity,
lack
of
judgment,
or
ignorance?
And
why,
on
the
other
hand,
was
there
nobody
among
my
advisers
to
approve
of
my
final
decision?
Why
am
I
losing
their
previous
esteem
or
appear
to
be
losing
it?

'What
could
have
seemed
more
reasonable
than
that
I,
as
a
philosopher,
past
the
peak
of
virility,
at
an
age
when
passion
is
extinct,
the
body
dried
and
softened
by
nature,
should
have
married
a
widow
who
would
look
after
the
household,
who
was
known
to
me
and
my
first
wife,
and
unmistakably
recommended
to
me
by
her?
But
if
so,
why
did
nothing
come
of
it?
..."

The
reasons
why
this
first
project
came
to
nothing
were,
among
others,
that
the
prospective
bride
had
two
marriageable
daughters,
that
her
fortune
was
in
the
hands
of
a
trustee;
and,
as
an
afterthought,

"also
a
consideration
of
health,
because,
though
her
body
was
strong,
it
was
suspect
of
ill-health
because
of
her
stinking
breath;
to
this
came
my
dubious
reputation
in
matters
of
religion.
In
addition
to
this,
when
I
met
the
woman
after
everything
had
been
settled
(I
had
not
seen
her
for
the
last
six
years),
there
was
nothing
about
her
that
pleased
me.
It
is
therefore
sufficiently
clear
that
the
matter
could
not
succeed.
But
why
did
God
permit
that
I
should
be
occupied
with
this
project
which
was
doomed
to
failure?
Perhaps
to
prevent
my
getting
involved
in
other
perplexities
while
my
thoughts
were
on
this
person
?
...
I
believe
that
things
like
this
happen
to
others
too,
not
only
once
but
often;
but
the
difference
is
that
others
do
not
worry
as
much
as
I
do,
that
they
forget
more
easily
and
get
over
things
quicker
than
I
do;
or
that
they
have
more
self-control
and
are
less
credulous
than
I
am...
And
now
for
the
others.