The Sleepwalkers (194 page)

Now,
as
the
fifth
ruled,
to
my
joy,
alone
in
my
heart,
a
fact
which
I
also
expressed
to
her
in
words,
suddenly
a
new
rival
arose
for
her,
whom
I
shall
call
No.
7
–
because
certain
people,
whom
you
know,
suspected
the
humility
of
the
fifth
and
recommended
the
noble
rank
of
the
seventh.
She
also
had
an
appearance
which
deserved
to
be
loved.
Again
I
was
prepared
to
give
up
the
fifth,
and
to
choose
the
seventh,
provided
it
was
true
what
they
said
about
her..."

But
again he prevaricated;

"and
what
else
could
have
been
the
result
but
a
rejection,
which
I
had
quasi-provoked?"

Tongues
were
wagging
all
over
Linz;
to
avoid
more
gossip
and
ridicule,
he
now
turned
his
attention
to
a
candidate
of
common
origin
"who
nevertheless
aspired
to
the
nobility.
Though
her
appearance
had
nothing
to
recommend
her,
her
mother
was
a
most
worthy
person."
But
she
was
as
fickle
as
he
was
undecided,
and
after
alternately
giving
him
her
word
and
retracting
it
on
seven
subsequent
occasions,
he
again
thanked
Divine
Providence
and
let
her
go.

His
methods
now
became
more
cautious
and
secretive.
When
he
met
No.
9,
who,
apart
from
a
lung
disease,
had
much
to
recommend
her,
he
pretended
to
be
in
love
with
somebody
else,
hoping
that
the
candidate's
reactions
might
betray
her
feelings.
Her
reactions
were
promptly
to
tell
Mother,
who
was
ready
to
give
her
blessing,
but
Kepler
mistakenly
thought
she
had
rejected
him
and
then
it
was
too
late
to
put
matters
right.

The
tenth was also of noble rank, of sufficient means and thrifty.

"But
her
features
were
most
abhorrent,
and
her
shape
ugly
even
for
a
man
of
simple
tastes.
The
contrast
of
our
bodies
was
most
conspicuous:
I
thin,
dried-up
and
meagre;
she,
short
and
fat,
and
coming
from
a
family
distinguished
by
redundant
obesity.
She
was
quite
unworthy
to
be
compared
with
the
fifth,
but
this
did
not
revive
love
for
the
latter."

The
eleventh
and
last
one
was
again
"of
noble
rank,
opulent
and
thrifty";
but
after
waiting
four
months
for
an
answer,
Kepler
was
told
that
the
maiden
was
not
yet
sufficiently
grown
up.

"Having
thus
exhausted
the
counsels
of
all
my
friends,
I,
at
the
last
moment
before
my
departure
for
Rattisbon,
returned
to
the
fifth,
pledged
her
my
word
and
received
hers.

Now
you
have
my
commentary
on
my
remark
at
the
beginning
of
this
invitation.
You
now
see
how
Divine
Providence
drove
me
into
these
perplexities
that
I
may
learn
to
scorn
noble
rank,
wealth
and
parentage,
of
which
she
has
none,
and
to
seek
with
equanimity
other,
simpler
virtues..."

The
letter
ends
with
Kepler
entreating
his
aristocratic
friend
to
come
to
the
wedding
banquet
and
help
him
by
his
presence
to
brave
the
adversity
of
public
opinion.

Susanna
seemed
to
have
justified
Kepler's
choice,
and
lived
up
to
his
expectations.
There
is
hardly
any
later
mention
of
her
in
his
letters,
and
as
far
as
Kepler's
domestic
life
was
concerned,
no
news
is
good
news.
She
bore
him
seven
children,
of
whom
three
died
in
infancy.

I
have
said,
at
the
beginning
of
this
chapter,
that
Kepler's
way
of
discovering
the
right
wife
for
himself
strangely
reminds
one
of
the
method
of
his
scientific
discoveries.
Perhaps,
at
the
end
of
this
matrimonial
odyssey,
this
sounds
less
far-fetched
or
whimsical.
There
is
the
same
characteristic
split
in
the
personality
between,
on
the
one
hand,
the
pathetically
eager,
Chaplinesque
figure
who
stumbles
from
one
wrong
hypothesis
to
another
and
from
one
candidate
to
the
next
–
oval
orbits,
egg-shaped
orbits,
chubby-faced
orbits;
who
proceeds
by
trial
and
error,
falls
into
grotesque
traps,
analyses
with
pedantic
seriousness
each
mistake
and
finds
in
each
a
sign
of
Divine
Providence;
one
can
hardly
imagine
a
more
painfully
humourless
performance.
But
on
the
other
hand,
he
did
discover
his
Laws
and
did
make
the
right
choice
among
the
eleven
candidates,
guided
by
that
sleepwalking
intuition
which
made
his
waking
errors
cancel
out
and
always
asserted
itself
at
the
critical
moment.
Social
rank
and
financial
considerations
are
topmost
in
his
waking
consciousness,
yet
in
the
end
he
married
the
only
candidate
who
had
neither
rank,
nor
money,
nor
family;
and
though
he
anxiously
listens
to
everybody's
advice,
seems
to
be
easily
swayed
and
without
a
will
of
his
own,
he
decides
on
the
person
unanimously
rejected
by
all.