lakes, which beyond doubt are bottomless, a storm will immediately
arise, just as when you thrust a straw into the ear or nose of a
ticklish animal, it shakes its head, or runs shudderingly away. What so
like breathing, especially of those fish who draw water into their
mouths and spout it out again through their gills, as that wonderful
tide! For although it is so regulated according to the course of the
moon, that, in the preface to my 'Commentaries on Mars,' I have
mentioned it as probable that the waters are attracted by the moon, as
iron by the loadstone, yet if anyone uphold that the earth regulates its
breathing according to the motion of the sun and moon, as animals have
daily and nightly alternations of sleep and waking, I shall not think
his philosophy unworthy of being listened to; especially if any flexible
parts should be discovered in the depths of the earth, to supply the
functions of lungs or gills."

In the same book Kepler enlarges again on his views in reference to the
basis of astrology as concerned with nativities and the importance of
planetary conjunctions. He gives particulars of his own nativity.
"Jupiter nearest the nonagesimal had passed by four degrees the trine of
Saturn; the Sun and Venus in conjunction were moving from the latter
towards the former, nearly in sextiles with both: they were also
removing from quadratures with Mars, to which Mercury was closely
approaching: the moon drew near to the trine of the same planet, close
to the Bull's Eye even in latitude. The 25th degree of Gemini was
rising, and the 22nd of Aquarius culminating. That there was this triple
configuration on that day--namely the sextile of Saturn and the Sun,
the sextile of Mars and Jupiter, and the quadrature of Mercury and Mars,
is proved by the change of weather; for after a frost of some days, that
very day became warmer, there was a thaw and a fall of rain." This
alleged "proof" is interesting as it relies on the same principle which
was held to justify the correction of an uncertain birth-time, by
reference to illnesses, etc., met with later. Kepler however goes on to
say, "If I am to speak of the results of my studies, what, I pray, can I
find in the sky, even remotely alluding to it? The learned confess that
several not despicable branches of philosophy have been newly extricated
or amended or brought to perfection by me: but here my constellations
were, not Mercury from the East in the angle of the seventh,