_ MICHAEL GOTTLIEB
HANSCHIUS. Lipsiae, 1718.]
We have always admired, as a stroke of wit, the way Hansch takes to
indicate Kepler's birthplace. Disdaining to use any but mathematical
symbols for so great a mathematician, he writes that he was born on the
21st of December, 1571, in longitude 29 deg. 7', latitude 48 deg. 54'! It
may be worth mentioning, that on this cryptic spot stood the little town
of Weil in the Duchy of Wuertemberg. His birth was cast at a time when
his parents were reduced to great poverty, and he received very little
early schooling. He was, however, sent to Tuebingen, and here he pursued
the scholastic studies of the age, designing for the Church. But the
old eternal creed-questionings arose in his mind. He stumbled at the
omnipresence of Christ's body, wrote a Latin poem against it, and, when
he had completed his studies, got for a _testimonium_ that he had
distinguished himself by his oratorical talents, but was considered
unfit to be a fellow-laborer in the Church of Wuertemberg. A larger
priesthood awaited him.
The astronomical lectureship at the University of Graetz, in Styria,
falling vacant, Kepler was in his twenty-third year appointed to fill
it.
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