This page has been validated.
TYCHO BRAHE IN BOHEMIA.
295

thing in Bohemia and went away, or if something happened to him, what would then become of himself (Kepler), and perhaps the observations would be lost or become inaccessible.

Influenced by these considerations as well as by the possible difficulty of getting the consent of his wife's relations to her removal from Gratz, where she had a small property near the town, to Benatky, where she would have to live among foreigners, Kepler drew up several different proposals for a formal agreement with Tycho Brahe, in which he most carefully tried to secure his future position, both as regards the lodging of his family at Prague, or at least in an upper storey at Benatky, with separate kitchen, supply of fuel and victuals, &c., as also with regard to his scientific work.[1] He added that he would not be content with general promises, which was a rather superfluous remark, since the minuteness with which he had specified his demands made this very evident. On the 5th of April the matter was discussed verbally between Tycho and Kepler in the presence of Jessenius of Wittenberg, and in answer to Kepler's written demands, Tycho partly read himself, partly let Jessenius read, a written answer which followed Kepler's demands point for point.[2] Tycho took the whole matter far more quietly than might have been expected from a man of his hot temper and imperious ways, but though he offered to bear part of Kepler's travelling expenses, and to do his utmost to get him settled at Prague (if he absolutely wanted to live there), or in a separate house in or near Benatky, he was unable to guarantee anything about salary or the keeping open of Kepler's Styrian post, until he could communicate with the Emperor and with Corraduc and Barwitz. Though Tycho begged Kepler to wait until his servant Daniel came back from Pilsen with replies to letters which

  1. Opera, viii. pp. 721–724.
  2. Ibid., p. 725.