in accordance with the school regulations, he passed at the end of his
first year the examination for the bachelor's degree at Tübingen,
returning for two more years as a "veteran" to Maulbronn before being
admitted as a resident student at Tübingen. The three years thus spent
at Maulbronn were marked by recurrences of several of the diseases from
which he had suffered in childhood, and also by family troubles at his
home. His father went away after a quarrel with his wife Catherine, and
died abroad. Catherine herself, who seems to have been of a very
unamiable disposition, next quarrelled with her own relatives. It is not
surprising therefore that Kepler after taking his M.A. degree in August,
1591, coming out second in the examination lists, was ready to accept
the first appointment offered him, even if it should involve leaving
home. This happened to be the lectureship in astronomy at Gratz, the
chief town in Styria. Kepler's knowledge of astronomy was limited to the
compulsory school course, nor had he as yet any particular leaning
towards the science; the post, moreover, was a meagre and unimportant
one. On the other hand he had frequently expressed disgust at the way in
which one after another of his companions had refused "foreign"
appointments which had been arranged for them under the Duke's scheme of
education. His tutors also strongly urged him to accept the lectureship,
and he had not the usual reluctance to leave home. He therefore
proceeded to Gratz, protesting that he did not thereby forfeit his claim
to a more promising opening, when such should appear. His astronomical
tutor, Maestlin, encouraged him to devote himself to his newly adopted
science, and the first result of this advice appeared before very long
in Kepler's "Mysterium Cosmographicum". The bent of his mind was towards
philosophical speculation, to which he had been attracted in his
youthful studies of Scaliger's "Exoteric Exercises". He says he devoted
much time "to the examination of the nature of heaven, of souls, of
genii, of the elements, of the essence of fire, of the cause of