[Illustration: FIG. 61.—Diagram used by Kepler to establish his laws of planetary motion. From the _Commentaries on Mars_.]
142. Although the two laws of planetary motion just given were only fully established for the case of Mars, Kepler stated that the earth’s path also must be an oval of some kind, and was evidently already convinced—aided by his firm belief in the harmony of Nature—that all the planets moved in accordance with the same laws. This view is indicated in the dedication of the book to the Emperor Rudolph, which gives a fanciful account of the work as a struggle against the rebellious War-God Mars, as the result of which he is finally brought captive to the feet of the Emperor and undertakes to live for the future as a loyal subject. As, however, he has many relations in the ethereal spaces—his father Jupiter, his grandfather Saturn, his dear sister Venus, his faithful brother Mercury—and he yearns for them and they for him _on account of the similarity of their habits_, he entreats the Emperor to send out an expedition as soon as possible to capture them also, and with that object to provide Kepler with the “sinews of war” in order that he may equip a suitable army.
Although the money thus delicately asked for was only supplied very irregularly, Kepler kept steadily in view the expedition for which it was to be used, or, in plainer words, he worked steadily at the problem of extending his elliptic theory to the other planets, and constructing the tables of the planetary motions, based on Tycho’s observations, at which he had so long been engaged.
143. In 1611 his patron Rudolph was forced to abdicate the imperial crown in favour of his brother Matthias, who had little interest in astronomy, or even in astrology; and as Kepler’s position was thus rendered more insecure than ever, he opened negotiations with the Estates of Upper Austria, as the result of which he was promised a small salary, on condition of undertaking the somewhat varied duties of teaching mathematics at the high school of Linz, the capital, of constructing a new map of the province, and of completing his planetary tables. For the present, however, he decided to stay with Rudolph.
In the same year Kepler lost his wife, who had long been in weak bodily and mental health.