astronomy studied from the moon, and cast in the form of a dream to
overcome the practical difficulties of the hypothesis of visiting the
moon. Other writings in large numbers were left unpublished. No attempt
at a complete edition of Kepler's works was made for a long time. One
was projected in 1714 by his biographer, Hantsch, but all that appeared
was one volume of letters. After various learned bodies had declined to
move in the matter the manuscripts were purchased for the Imperial
Russian library. An edition was at length brought out at Frankfort by C.
Frisch, in eight volumes, appearing at intervals from 1858-1870.

Kepler's fame does not rest upon his voluminous works. With his peculiar
method of approaching problems there was bound to be an inordinate
amount of chaff mixed with the grain, and he used no winnowing machine.
His simplicity and transparent honesty induced him to include
everything, in fact he seemed to glory in the number of false trails he
laboriously followed. He was one who might be expected to find the
proverbial "needle in a haystack," but unfortunately the needle was not
always there. Delambre says, "Ardent, restless, burning to distinguish
himself by his discoveries he attempted everything, and having once
obtained a glimpse of one, no labour was too hard for him in following
or verifying it. All his attempts had not the same success, and in fact
that was impossible. Those which have failed seem to us only fanciful;
those which have been more fortunate appear sublime. When in search of
that which really existed, he has sometimes found it; when he devoted
himself to the pursuit of a chimera, he could not but fail, but even
then he unfolded the same qualities, and that obstinate perseverance
that must triumph over all difficulties but those which are
insurmountable." Berry, in his "Short History of Astronomy," says "as
one reads chapter after chapter without a lucid, still less a correct
idea, it is impossible to refrain from regrets that the intelligence of