The Sleepwalkers (198 page)

The
frontispiece,
designed
by
Kepler's
hand,
shows
a
Greek
temple,
under
the
columns
of
which
five
astronomers
are
engaged
in
lively
dispute:
an
ancient
Babylonian,
Hipparchus,
Ptolemy,
Canon
Koppernigk
and
Tyge
de
Brahe.
In
a
wall
at
the
base
of
the
temple,
under
the
five
immortals'
feet,
there
is
a
small
niche
in
which
Kepler
crouches
at
a
rough-hewn
working
table,
mournfully
gazing
at
the
onlooker,
and
to
all
intents
like
one
of
Snow-White's
Seven
Dwarfs.
The
table-cloth
in
front
of
him
is
covered
with
numbers,
penned
by
a
quill
within
reach
of
his
hand,
indicating
the
fact
that
he
has
no
money
to
buy
paper.
Over
the
top
of
the
dome-shaped
roof
hovers
the
Imperial
Eagle,
dropping
gold
ducats
from
its
beak,
a
symbol
of
imperial
largesse.
Two
of
the
ducats
have
landed
on
Kepler's
table-cloth,
and
two
more
are
falling
through
the
air
–
a
hopeful
hint.

2.
The Tension Snaps

The
last
three
years
of
Kepler's
life
carry
haunting
echoes
of
the
legend
of
the
Wandering
Jew.
Quis
locus
eligendus,
vastatus
an
vastandus
?
–
"What
place
shall
I
choose,
one
that
is
destroyed,
or
one
that
is
going
to
be
destroyed?"
⁶
He
had
left
Linz
forever,
and
he
was
without
a
fixed
domicile.
Ulm
was
only
a
temporary
station,
for
the
duration
of
the
printing.
He
was
staying
in
a
house
that
a
friend
had
put
at
his
disposal,
and
though
it
had
been
specially
altered
to
accommodate
Kepler's
family,
he
did
not
have
them
with
him.
On
the
journey
up
the
Danube
from
Linz,
the
river
had
started
to
freeze,
and
he
had
to
continue
by
carriage,
leaving
Susanna
and
the
children
midways
at
Ratisbon.
At
least,
that
is
the
explanation
he
gave
in
a
letter
to
a
correspondent;
but
he
stayed
in
Ulm
nearly
ten
months,
and
did
not
send
for
them.

This
episode
is
characteristic
of
a
certain
oddness
in
his
behaviour
towards
the
end.
It
looks
as
if
the
heritage
of
his
vagrant
father
and
uncles
was
reasserting
itself
in
his
late
middle
age.
His
restlessness
had
found
an
outlet
in
creative
achievement;
when
he
finished
the
Rudolphine
Tables,
the
tension
snapped,
the
current
was
cut
off,
and
he
seemed
to
be
freewheeling
in
aimless
circles,
driven
on
by
an
evergrowing,
overriding
anxiety.
He
was
again
plagued
by
rashes
and
boils;
he
was
afraid
that
he
would
die
before
the
printing
of
the
Tables
was
finished;
and
the
future
was
a
waste
land
of
famine
and
despair.

And
yet,
in
spite
of
the
war,
his
plight
was
to
a
large
part
imaginary.
He
had
been
offered
the
most
coveted
Chair
in
Italy,
and
Lord
Bacon's
envoy,
Sir
Henry
Wotton,
had
invited
him
to
England.
^*
Yet
he
had
refused:

"Am
I
to
go
overseas
where
Wotton
invites
me?
I,
a
German?
I
who
love
the
firm
Continent
and
who
shrink
at
the
idea
of
an
island
in
narrow
boundaries
of
which
I
feel
the
dangers
in
advance?"
⁷

____________________

After
rejecting
these
tempting
offers,
he
asked
in
despair
his
friend
Bernegger
in
Strasburg
whether
he
could
get
him
a
modest
lectureship
at
that
University.
To
attract
an
audience,
he
would
be
willing
to
cast
the
horoscope
of
every
one
of
his
hearers
–
because
"the
threatening
attitude
of
the
Emperor,
which
is
apparent
in
all
his
words
and
deeds",
left
him
with
hardly
any
other
hope.
Bernegger
wrote
back
that
his
town
and
University
would
welcome
Kepler
with
open
arms
if
he
were
to
honour
them
with
his
presence,
and
offered
him
unlimited
personal
hospitality
in
his
spacious
house
with
its
"very
beautiful
garden".
But
Kepler
refused
"because
he
could
not
afford
the
expense
of
the
journey";
and
when
Bernegger
tried
to
cheer
him
up
with
the
news
that
a
portrait
of
Kepler
was
hung
on
the
wall
of
the
University
library:
"everybody
who
visits
the
library
sees
it.
If
only
they
could
see
you
in
person!",
Kepler's
reaction
was
that
the
portrait
"should
be
removed
from
that
public
place,
the
more
so
as
it
has
hardly
any
likeness
to
myself."
⁸