Sky's Dark Labyrinth Read Online Free PDF Page B

be drinking from glass rather than pewter. The cut crystal felt so much cleaner on his lips. One day, he thought, Barbara and I will have a small set just like these.
    â€˜My dear friend, I trust the book is to your liking.’
    There was no mistaking the voice of Hans Georg Hewart von Hohenburg.
    â€˜Hans, how good to see you again,’ said Kepler.
    The Bavarian Chancellor was a short man, no taller than Kepler, but carried himself much straighter to give the illusion of height. As always, he was in the best of clothes; this evening clad in an exquisite jacket in maroon velvet and brilliant white hose. Every blond hair on his head had been brushed strictly into place. But when Hewart thought no one was looking, he was in the habit of sucking on his bottom lip, as if chewing over some conundrum.
    Kepler noticed how delicately Hewart held his glass by the stem, and readjusted his own ham-fisted grip. ‘The book is a revelation and an inspiration all in one. I can scarcely set it down. And what of the book I recommended to you?’
    Hewart smiled. ‘Ah … I’m afraid I’ve let you down. I can understand so little of what Copernicus writes that I’ve given up. He puts in so many epicycles that I just cannot picture the convoluted motions – all the planets whirling through the heavens so. To my thinking, it is scarce improvement on Ptolemy.’
    â€˜Copernicus over-complicates his system but his basic idea is sound.’
    â€˜Can the Sun truly be at the centre of everything?’
    Kepler drew closer. ‘A growing number of us think so. There is an astronomer in Italy named Galileo …’
    â€˜A Catholic?’ Hewart’s voice rang with pride.
    â€˜An astronomer,’ said Kepler by way of refusing the distinction. ‘He writes to me, signing himself one Copernican to another. Yet he will not speak out in favour of the system as I’ve urged him to do.’
    Hewart tugged at his goatee. ‘What holds him back?’
    â€˜We cannot yet prove that Earth moves. Until we can, I fear there will always be support for the old ideas.’
    â€˜But how could you measure such a thing?’
    â€˜Simply. If the Earth orbits the Sun, the North Star will appear to move during the year.’
    Hewart looked at him blankly.
    â€˜Here, hold your finger in front of your face and close one eye. Where’s your finger against the background.’
    â€˜In front of the lute player.’
    â€˜Now look through the other eye.’
    â€˜It’s moved; it is to the left of him now, but I haven’t moved my finger.’ He swapped eyes again, testing the new discovery.
    â€˜Precisely, it’s called parallax. Your finger has remained stationary but it appears to have moved against the more distant objects because you have changed your vantage point. The same will happen to Earth. Every six months we look out from the other side of our orbit. All someone needs to do is measure the position of the North Star at six-monthly intervals and see it change.’
    â€˜You say that Copernicus complicates his system … Can it be simplified?’ Hewart asked.
    Kepler nodded, setting off miniature waves in his wine. ‘The key is beauty. Ptolemy and Copernicus both present ugly systems of motion that no man can keep in his head. The true movement of the planets will be a simple elegant dance – beautiful even. How could the heavens be otherwise?’
    â€˜You look flushed. Has the wine disagreed with you?’
    â€˜I am fighting a poor humour, that is all.’ Kepler raised his free hand. His forehead was clammy again. His vision started to blur. ‘We travelled through so much country on the way here, there is no telling what miasmas we encountered.’
    â€˜My dear friend, let us sit you down.’ But Hewart’s eyes were drawn away.
    Kepler followed the gaze and saw Jessenius approaching. ‘I’ll be alright.’ He