The Sleepwalkers (112 page)

The
lectures
of
this
new
teacher
must
have
been
quite
an
experience.
He
thought
himself
a
poor
pedagogue
because,
as
he
explains
in
his
self-analysis,
whenever
he
got
excited
–
which
was
most
of
the
time
–
he
"burst
into
speech
without
having
time
to
weigh
whether
he
was
saying
the
right
thing".
His
"enthusiasm
and
eagerness
is
harmful,
and
an
obstacle
to
him",
because
it
continually
leads
him
into
digressions,
because
he
always
thinks
of
"new
words
and
new
subjects,
new
ways
of
expressing
or
proving
his
point,
or
even
of
altering
the
plan
of
his
lecture
or
holding
back
what
he
intended
to
say".
The
fault,
he
explains,
lies
in
his
peculiar
kind
of
memory
which
makes
him
promptly
forget
everything
he
is
not
interested
in,
but
which
is
quite
wonderful
in
relating
one
idea
to
another.
"This
is
the
cause
of
the
many
parentheses
in
his
lectures
when
everything
occurs
to
him
at
once
and,
because
of
the
turmoil
of
all
these
images
of
thought
in
his
memory,
he
must
pour
them
out
in
his
speech.
On
these
grounds
his
lectures
are
tiring,
or
at
any
rate
perplexing
and
not
very
intelligible."

No
wonder
that
in
his
first
year
he
had
only
a
handful
of
students
in
his
class,
and
in
his
second,
none
at
all.
Barely
twelve
months
after
his
arrival
in
Gratz
he
wrote
to
his
old
teacher
of
astronomy
in
Tuebingen,
Michael
Maestlin,
that
he
could
not
hope
to
last
for
another
year,
imploring
Maestlin
to
get
him
a
job
back
at
home.
He
felt
unhappy,
an
exile
from
his
sophisticated
alma
mater
among
the
provincial
Styrians.
On
his
arrival,
he
had
been
promptly
attacked
by
"Hungarian
fever".
Besides,
religious
tension
was
growing
in
the
town,
and
made
prospects
even
gloomier.

However,
the
directors
of
the
school
took
a
more
optimistic
view.
In
their
report
on
the
new
teacher
¹¹
they
explained
that
the
absence
of
students
should
not
be
blamed
on
him,
"because
the
study
of
mathematics
is
not
every
man's
affair".
They
made
him
give
some
additional
lectures
on
Virgil
and
rhetorics
"so
that
he
should
not
be
paid
for
nothing
–
until
the
public
is
prepared
to
profit
from
his
mathematics
too".
The
remarkable
thing
about
their
reports
is
their
unmitigated
approval
not
only
of
Kepler's
intellect,
but
also
of
his
character.
He
had
"at
first
perorando
,
then
docendo
,
and
finally
also
disputando
,
given
such
account
of
himself
that
we
cannot
judge
otherwise
but
that
he
is,
in
spite
of
his
youth,
a
learned
and
in
moribus
a
modest,
and
to
this
school
of
a
respected
Province
a
fitting
magister
and
professor".
This
praise
contradicts
Kepler's
own
statement
that
the
head
of
the
school
was
his
"dangerous
enemy",
because
"I
did
not
respect
him
sufficiently
as
my
superior
and
disregarded
his
orders".
¹²
But
young
Kepler
was
as
hypochondriacal
about
his
relations
to
others
as
he
was
about
his
health.

5.
Astrology

Another
onerous
duty,
which
he
secretly
enjoyed,
during
his
four
years
in
Gratz,
was
the
publication
of
an
annual
calendar
of
astrological
forecasts.
This
was
a
traditional
obligation
imposed
on
the
official
mathematicus
in
Styria
and
brought
an
additional
remuneration
of
twenty
florins
per
calendar
–
which
Kepler
direly
needed
at
his
miserable
salary
of
a
hundred
and
fifty
florins
per
annum
.

With
his
first
calendar,
Kepler
was
decidedly
lucky.
He
had
prophesied,
among
other
things,
a
cold
spell
and
an
invasion
by
the
Turks.
Six
months
later
he
reported
smugly
to
Michael
Maestlin:

"By
the
way,
so
far
the
calendar's
predictions
are
proving
correct.
There
is
an
unheard-of
cold
in
our
land.
In
the
Alpine
farms
people
die
of
the
cold.
It
is
reliably
reported
that
when
they
arrive
home
and
blow
their
noses,
the
noses
fall
off...
As
for
the
Turks,
on
January
1
they
devastated
the
whole
country
from
Vienna
to
Neustadt,
setting
everything
on
fire
and
carrying
off
men
and
plunder."
¹³