DEDICATION.

...providence to move slowly, but the span of our individual lives to fly swiftly by. I was indeed taught by the sacred oracles referring to Holy Scripture that all things are destined by God for certain and beneficial uses: even these dissonant things, intended to illuminate and recommend the sweetness of Harmony. Why my desires commanded me to expect some beginning of restored harmony specifically from your Davidic Harp, original: "Harpe Dauidica"; Kepler likens King James to the biblical King David, a musician and unifier Illustrious King—although this is not the place to explain at length, lest I seem to disregard the warnings of the prudent—yet no one should prevent me from touching upon this part of your glory, long acknowledged by the whole world: that having obtained the kingdom of England by inheritance and the consent of the people, you shortly gave it the name of Great Britain common with the Kingdom of Scotland. From both provinces you tempered together one Kingdom and one Harmony (for what else is a kingdom, if not Harmony?); you most happily removed the hereditary discord of the most hostile nations; you utterly extinguished the memory of the frequent and bloodiest slaughters, which, like certain markers, punctuated the sequence of centuries.

This domestic work of yours seemed to me to contain a reliable omen (among other weightier matters) that even abroad, as a King among Kings, and as Defender of the Faith Defender of the Faith (Fidei Defensor): A title held by the British monarch, here suggesting James's role as a peacemaker in Christendom among Christ’s faithful, you would perform some greater and more excellent, and even more lasting work. This is what I pursued both with my silent prayers and with a public prophecy in my book on the New Star Kepler refers to his 1606 work De Stella Nova, which discussed the supernova of 1604, which burned like a Carbuncle (a well-known Scottish verse original: "notus Scotiæ versiculus"; likely a reference to a poem or heraldic motto familiar to the King’s court). Therefore, as if what I hoped for and predicted were already accomplished, I proposed all the more firmly to myself to eventually sing my World Harmonies to so praiseworthy an Organizer of Harmony Harmost (Harmoste): from the Greek harmostēs, a term for a regulator or governor who brings order.

I could wish here that the public Dissonance, consisting of three-fold clamoring voices Kepler is likely referring to the religious strife between Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists during the early stages of the Thirty Years' War, were a little milder toward me, so that I might be heard publicly according to my heart’s desire: in which matter, what outcome might have seemed to favor my prayers? What wounds of the head, what...