ng whether the treatment he had experienced met
with a proper degree of sympathy. Apparently the experiment did not
succeed; and, almost reduced to despair, Kepler betook himself to the
advice of a friend, who had for some time past complained that she was
not consulted in this difficult negotiation. When she produced No. 10,
and the first visit was paid, the report upon her was as follows:--"She
has, undoubtedly, a good fortune, is of good family, and of economical
habits: but her physiognomy is most horribly ugly; she would be stared
at in the streets, not to mention the striking disproportion in our
figures. I am lank, lean, and spare; she short and thick: in a family
notorious for fulness, she is considered superfluously fat." The only
objection to No. 11 seems to have been her excessive youth; and when
this treaty was broken off on that account, Kepler turned his back upon
all his advisers, and chose for himself one who had figured as No. 5 in
the list, to whom he professes to have felt attached throughout, but
from whom the representations of his friends had hitherto detained him,
probably on account of her humble station.

The following is Kepler's summary of her character:--"Her name is
Susannah, the daughter of John Reuthinger and Barbara, citizens of the
town of Eferdingen. The father was by trade a cabinetmaker, but both her
parents are dead. She has received an education well worth the largest
dowry, by favour of the Lady of Stahrenberg, the strictness of whose
household is famous throughout the province. Her person and manners are
suitable to mine--no pride, no extravagance. She can bear to work; she
has a tolerable knowledge how to manage a family; middle-aged, and of a
disposition and capability to acquire what she still wants. Her I shall
marry, by favour of the noble Baron of Stahrenberg, at 12 o'clock on the
30th of next October, with all Eferdingen assembled to meet us, and we
shall eat the marriage dinner at Maurice's at the Golden Lion."[48]

[48] Life of Kepler, chap. vi.

Kepler's marriage seems to have taken place at the time here mentioned;
for, in his book on gauging, published at Linz in 1615, he informs us
that he took home his new wife in November, on which occasion he found
it necessary to stock his cellar with a few casks of wine. When the
wine-merchant came to measure the casks, Kepler objected to his method,
as he made no allowance for the different sizes of the bulging parts of
t