munificent offers to Kepler, and invited him to take up his
residence at Sagan in Silesia. The religious dissensions which agitated
Linz, the love of tranquillity which Kepler had so little enjoyed, and
the publication of his great work, induced him to accept of this offer.
He accordingly removed his family from Linz to Ratisbon in 1629, and he
himself set out for Prague, with the double object of presenting the
Rudolphine Tables to the Emperor, and of soliciting his permission to go
into the service of the Duke of Friedland. The Emperor did not hesitate
to grant this request; and would have gladly transferred Kepler's
arrears as well as himself to the charge of a foreign prince. Kepler
accordingly set out with his wife and family for Sagan, where he arrived
in 1629. The Duke Albert treated him with liberality and distinction. He
supplied him with an assistant for his calculations, and also with a
printing press; and, by his influence with the Duke of Mecklenburg, he
obtained for him a professorship in the University of Rostoch.

In this remote situation, Kepler found it extremely difficult to obtain
payment of the imperial pension which he still retained. The arrears had
accumulated to 8000 crowns, and he resolved to go to the Imperial
Assembly at Ratisbon to make a final effort to obtain them. His
attempts, however, were fruitless. The vexation which this occasioned,
and the great fatigue which he had undergone, threw him into a violent
fever, which is said to have been one of cold, and to have been
accompanied with an imposthume in his brain, occasioned by too much
study. This disease baffled the skill of his physicians, and carried him
off on the 5th November, O.S. 1630, in the sixtieth year of his age.

The remains of this great man were interred in St Peter's Churchyard at
Ratisbon, and the following inscription, embodying an epitaph which he
had written for himself, was engraven on his tombstone.

IN HOC QUIESCIT VIR NOBILISSIMUS, DOCTISSIMUS ET CELEBERRIMUS DOM.
JOHANNES KEPLERUS, TRIUM IMPERATORUM RUDOLPHI II., MATHIAE, ET
FERDINANDI II., PER ANNOS XXX, ANTEA VERO PROCERUM STYRIAE AB ANNO
1594 USQUE 1600, POSTEA QUOQUE ASTRIACORUM ORDINUM AB ANNO 1612
USQUE AD ANNUM 1628, MATHEMATICUS TOTI ORBI CHRISTIANI, PER
MONUMENTA PUBLICA COGNITUS, AB OMNIBUS DOCTIS, INTER PRINCIPES
ASTRONOMIAE NUMERATUS, QUI PROPRIA MANU ASSIGNATUM POST SE RELIQUIT
TALE EPITAPHIUM.

Men