At the first moment, the reappearance of the number 0.00429 in this unexpected context must have appeared as a miracle to Kepler. But he realized in a flash that the apparent miracle must be due to a fixed relation between the angle at M and the distance to S, a relation which must hold true for any point of the orbit; only the manner in which he had stumbled on that relation was due to chance. ‘The roads that lead man to knowledge are as wondrous as that knowledge itself.’
