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Les diagrammes suivants lllustrent la m6thode. rata D telure, id D 32X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 I. j I i *yi- Reprinted from The Astropkysical Journal, Vol. VI, No. 4, November 1897 ASPECTS OF AMERICAPf ASTRONOMY © SIMON NEWCOMB k -• CHICAGO CT^e Qtnfbtrsftfi of .\(>A/\ ^9^ look upon a comet as .suinftliiiiL,^ vitv interesting;, ol wliieli tlu' sij,rht alTords us a pleasure uninixed witli tear of war, pestilence, or other ealaniitv, and of wliicli we tliereforc wish tin- return, is a ,i,^ain we cannot measure b\ nionev. In all a^es astronomy lias been an index to the civilization of the people who cultivated it. It has l)cen crude or exact, cnlij,dUened or mingled with superstition, according to the current mode of thought. When once men understand the relation of the planet 0,1 which thev dwell to the universe at large, su|)erstition is iloomed to speedv extinction. This alone is an object worth more than money. Astronomy may fairly claim to be that science which transcends all others in its demands upon the practical applica- tion of our reasoning powers. Look at the stars that stud the heavens on a clear evening. What more hopeless problem to one confined to earth than that of determining their varying dis- tances, their motions, and their physical constitution ? Every- thing on earth we can handle and investigate. But how investi- gate that which is ever beyond our reach, on which we can never make an experiment ? On certain occasions we see the Moon pass in front of the Sun and hide it from our eyes. To an observer a few miles away the Sun was not entirely hidden, for the shadow of the Moon in a total eclipse is rarely one hundred miles wide. On another continent no eclipse at all may have been visible. Who shall take a map of the world and mark upon it the line on which the Moon's shadow will travel during some eclipse a hundred years hence ? Who shall map out the orbits of the heavenly bodies as they are going to appear in a hundred thousand years? How shall we ever know of what chemical ele- ments the Sun and the stars are made? All this has been done, but not by the intellect of any one man. The road to the stars has been opened only by the efforts of many generations of mathematicians and observers, each of whom began where his predecessor had left off. We have reached a certain stage where we know much about the heavenly bodies. We have mapped out our solar system with great precision. But how with that great universe of millions of stars in which 'I ( 294 S/AfON NKWCOMIi our solar system is only a speck of star dust, a speck which a traveler through the vvilils of s|)ace might pass a hundred times without notice ? We have learned much about this universe, though our knowledge of it is still dim. We sec it as a traveler on a mountain top sees a distant city in a cloud of mist, by a few specks of glimmering light from steeples or roofs. We want to know more about it, its origin and its destiny ; its limits in time and space, if it has any ; what function it serves in the uni- versal economy. The journey is U)ng, yet we want, in knowl- edge at least, to reach the stars. Hence we build observatories and train observers and investigators. Slow indeed is |)rogress in the solution of the greatest of problems, when measured by what we want to know. Some (juestions may renuire centuries, others thousands of years for their answer. And yet never was progress more ra|)id than during our time. In some direction* our astronomers of today are out of sight of those cf fifty \ cars ago ; we are even gaining heights which, twenty years ago, looked hopeless. Never before had the .astronomer so much work, good, hard, yet hopeful work before him as today. He who is leaving the stage feels that he has only begun, and must leave his successors with more to do than his j)redecessors left him. To us an interesting feai.irc of this progress is the part taken in it by our own country. The science of our day, it is true, is of no country. Yet. vvc very appropriately speak of American science from the fact that our traditional reputation has not been that of a people deej)ly interested in the higher branches of intellectual work. Men yet living can remember when in the eyes of the universal church of learning all cisat- lantic countries, our own incluciv ., vi ere partes infidelium. Yet American astronomy is not entirely of our generation. In the middle of the last century Professor Winthrop, of Har- vard, was an industrious observer of eclipses and kindred phe- nomena, whose work was recorded in the transactions of learned societies. But the greatest astronomical activity during our colonial period was that called out by the transit of Venus in 1769, which was visible in this country. A committee of the ASJ>KC'IS DF AA/J:RIC.L\ ASIh'OXOMV 295 Ami-rican l'hilosn|)Iucal Society, at lMiilaclcl|)liia, orgaiiizccl an excellent system ui ubservatioiis, wliicli we now know to have been fully as successful, perhaps more so, than the majority of those made on other continents, uwinjr mainly to the advantages of air and climate. Anions the observers was the celebrated Rittenhouse, to whom is due the distinction of having been the first American astronomer whose work has an important place in the history of the science. In addition to the observations which he has left us, he was the first inventor or proposer of the collimating telescope, an instrument whitli has become almost a necessity wherever accurate observations are made. The fact that the subsetpient invention bv Bessel was ([uite independent, does not detract from the merits ot ithcr. Shortly after the transit of Veniia, which 1 have mentioned, the War of the Revolution commenced. The srcneration which carried on that war, and tli loUowing nii j which formed our constitution and laid the buses of oui political institutions, were naturally too much occupied wit); these yreat problems to pay much attention to prre science. While the great mathf;matical i stronomers of Europe were laying Uie foundation of celestial mechanics their meetings were a sealed book to cvervone on this side of the Atlantic, and so remained until Howditch appeared, early in the present century. His translation of the Mecanique Ci'lestc made an epoch in American science by bringing the great work of Laplace down to the reach of the best American stu- dents of his time. American astronomers must always honor the names of Rittenhouse and Bowditch. And yet, in one respect, their work was disi ppointing of results. Neither of them was the founder of a school. Rittenhouse left no successor to carry on his work. The help which Bowditch afforded his generation was invaluable to isolated students who, here and there, dived alone and unaided into the mysteries of the celestial motions. His work was not mainly in the field of observational astronomy, and therefore did not materially influence that branch of the science. In 1832 Professor Airy, afterward Astronomer Royal of England, made a -"SB" mmmtmmmmitlmmm u m ig6 SrMOX NEirCOMB report to the British Association on the condition of practical astronomy in various countries. In this report he remarked that he was unahle to say anything about American astronomy because, so nir as he knew, no public observatory existed in the United States. William C. Bond, afterward famous as the first director of Harvard Observatory, was at that time making observations with a small telescope, first near Boston, and afterward at Cam- bridge. But with so meager an outfit, his establishment could scarcely lay claim to being an astronomical observatory, and it was not surprising if Airy did not know anything of his modest efforts. If at this time Professor Airy had extended his investigations into yet another field, with a view of determining the prospects for a great city at the site of Fort Dearborn, on the southern shore of Lake Michigan, he would have seen as little prospect of civic growth in that region as of a great development of astronomy in the United States at large. A plat of the proposed town of Chicago had been i)repared two years before, when the place contained perhaps half a dozen families. In the same month in which Professor Airy made his report, August 1832, the people of that place, then numbering twenty-eight voters, decided to become incorporated, and selected five trustees to carry on their government. In 1837 a city charter was obtained from the legislature of Illinois. The growth of this infant city, then small even for an infant, into the great commercial metropolis of the West, has been the just'pride of its people and the wonder of the world. 1 mention it now because of a remarkable coincidence. With this civic growth has quietly gone on another, little noted by the great world, and yet in its way equally wonderful and equally gratifying to the pride of those who measure greatness by intellectual progress. If it be true that in nature nothing is great but man ; in man nothing is great but mind ; then may knowledge of the universe be regarded as the true measure of progress. I therefore invite attention to the fact that American i tli i Wr i nrt i ii ASPECrS OF AMERICAN ASTROXOMV '■97 as'.rononiy began with your city, and has slowly but surely kept pace with it until today our country stands second only to Ger- many in the number of researches being j)rosecuted, and second to none in the number of men who have gained the highest recognition by their labors. In 1836 Professor Albert Hopkins, of Williams College, and Professor PLiias Loomis, of Western Reserve College, Ohio, both commenced little obser\atories. Professor Loomis went to Murope for all his instruments, but Hopkins was able even then to get some of his in this country. Shortly afterward a little wooden structure was erected by Captain (iilliss on Capitol Hill at Wasnington, and supplied with a transit instrument for observ- ing Moon culminations in conjunction with Ca|)tain Wilkes, who was then setting out on his exploring expedition to the southern hemisphere. The date of these observatories was jjractically the same as that on which a charter for the city of Chicago was obtained from the legislature. With their establishment the population of your city had increased to 703. The next decade, 1840 to 1850, was that in which our prac- tical astronomy seriously commenced. The little observatory of Captain Gilliss was replaced by the Naval Observatory, erected at Washington during the years 1843-4 and fitted out with what were then the most approved instruments. About the same time the apjjearance of the great comet of 1S43 '"-"tl the citizens of Boston to erect the Observatory of Harvard College. Thus it is little more than a half century since the two principal observa- tories in tlie United States were established. But we must not for a moment suj^pose that the mere erection of an observatory can mark an epoch in scientific history. What must have made the decade of which I speak ever memorable in American astron- omy was not merely the erection of buildings, but the character of the work done by astronomers away from them as well as in them. The Naval Observatory very soon became famous by two remarkable steps which raised our country to an important posi- tion among those applying modern science to practical uses. One -. M. • iWiifsST-ymmt\'\\»m«mitmtmmmm mmlmt nttwmriit wmammm I 298 SIM ox NEWCOMIi of these consisted of the researches of Sears Cook Walker on the motion of the newly discovered planet Nej>tune. He was the first astronomer to determine fairly good elements of the orbit of that planet, and, what is yet more remarkable, he was able to trace back the movement of the planet in the heavens for half a century, and to show that it had been observed as a fixed star by Lalande in 1795, without the observer having any suspicion of the true character of the object. The other work to which I refer was the application to astron- omy and to the determination of longitudes of the chronographic method of registering transits of stars or other phenomena rc(]uiring an exact record of the instant of their occurrence. It is to be regretted that the history of this application has not been fully written. In some points there seems to be as much obscurity as with the discovery of ether as an anaesthetic, which took place about the same time. Happily no such contest has been fought over the astronomical as over the surgical discovery — the fact being that all who were engaged in the application of the new method were more anxious to perfect it than they were to get credit for themselves. We know that Saxton of the Coast Survey, Mitchell and Locke, of Cincinnati, Bond at Cambridge, as well as Walker and other astronomers at the Naval Observatory, all worked at the apparatus, that Maury sec- onded their efforts with untiring zeal, that it was used to deter- mine the longitude of Baltimore as early as 1844 by Captain Wilkes, and that it was put into practical use in recording observations at the Naval Observatory as early as 1846. At the Cambridge Observatory the two Bonds, father and son, speedily began to show the stuff of which the astronomer is made. A well -devised system of observations was put in operation. The discovery of the dark ring of Saturn and of a new satellite to that planet gave additional fame to the estab- lishment. Nor was activity confined to the observational side of the science. The same decade of which I speak was marked by the beginning of Professor Pierce's mathematical work, especially ASPECTS OF AMERICAN ASTRONOMY 299 his determination of the perturbations of Uranus and Neptune. At this time commenced the work of Dr. H. A. Gould, who soon became the leading figure in American astronomy. Immediately on graduating at Harvard in 1845, h<= determined to devote all the energies of his life to the prosecution of his favorite science. Me studied in Europe for three years, took the doctor's degree at Gottingen. came home, founded the Astronomical Journal, and took an active part in that branch of the work of the Coast Sur- vey which included the determination of longitudes by astro- nomical methods. An episode which may not belong to the history of astronomy must be acknowledged to have had a powerful influence in exciting public interest in that science. Professor O. M. Mitchell, the founder and first director of the Cincinnati Observatory, made the masses of our intelligent people accpiainted with the leading facts of astronomy by courses of lectures which, in lucidity and ekKjuence, have never been excelled. The imme- diate object of the lectures was to raise funds for establishing his ob.servatorv and fitting it out with a fine telescope. The po|)ular interest thus excited in the science had an important effect in leading the public to support astronomical research. If jjublic support, based on public interest, is what has made the present fabric of American astronomy possible, then should we honor the name of a man whose enthusiasm leavened the masses of his countrymen with interest in our science. The Civil War naturally exerted a depressing influence upon our scientific activity. The cultivator of knowledge is no less patriotic than his fellow-citizens, and vies with them in devotion to the public welfare. The active interest which such cultivators took, first in the prosecution of the war and then in the restora- tion of the unioi), naturally distracted their attention from their favorite pursuits. But no sooner was political stability reached than a wave of intellectual activity set in, which has gone on increasing up to the present time. If it be true that never before in our history has so much attention been given to education as now ; that never before did so many men devote 300 SIMON NEIVCOMB % themselves to the diffusion of knowledge, it is no less true that never was astronomical work so energetically pursued among us as now. One deplorable result of the Civil War was that Gould's Astro- nomical Jounuil had to be suspended. Shortly after the restora- tion of j)cacc, instead of reestablishing the journal, its founder conceived the project of cx|)loring the southern heavens. The northern hemisphere being the seat of civilization, that portion of the sky which could not be seen from our latitudes was com- paratively neglected. What had been done in the southern hem- isj)here was mostly the occasional work of individuals and of one or two permanent obscr\atories. The latter were so few in number and so meager in their outfit that a splendid field was open to the incpiirer. Gould found the patron which he desired in the government of the Argentine Republic, on whose territory he erected what must rank in the future as one of the memorable astronomical establishments of the world. His work affords a most striking exami)le of the princijile that the astronomer is more important than his instruments. Not only were the means at the command of the Argentine Observatory slender in the extreme when compared with those of the favored institutions of the North, but, from the very nature of the case, the Argentine Republic could not sup])lv trained astronomers. The difficulties thus growing out of the administration cannot be overestimated. And vet the sixteen great volumes in which the work of the institution has been published will rank in the future among the classics of astronomv. Another wonderful focus of activity, in which one hardly knows whether he ought most to admire the exhaustless energy or the admirable ingenuity which he finds displayed, is the Har- vard Observatory. Its work has been aided by gifts which have no parallel in the liberality that prompted them. Yet without energy and skill such gifts would have been useless. The activity of the establishment includes both hemispheres. Time would fail to tell how it has not only mapped out important regions of the heavens from the north to the south pole, but I I I m^k ASPECTS OF AMERICAN ASTRONOMY 301 I analyzed the rays of light which come from hundreds of thou- sands of stars by recording their spectra in permanence on pho- tographic plates. The work of the establishment is so organized that a new star cannot appear in any part of the heavens, nor a known star undergo any noteworthy change, without immediate detection by the photographic eye of one or more little telescopes, all seeing and never sleeping policemen, that scan the heavens unceasingly while the astronomer may sleep, and report in the morning every case of irregularity in the proceedings of the heavenly bodies. Yet another example, showing what great results may be obtained with limited means is afforded by the Lick Observatory, on Mount Hamilton, California. During the ten years of its activity its astronomers have made it known the world over by works and discoveries too varied and numerous to be even men- tioned at the moment. The astronomical work of which 1 have thus far spoken has been almost entirely that done at observatories. I tear that I mav in this way have strengthened an erroneous impression that the seat of important astronomical work is necessarily connected with an observatorv. In must be admitted that an institution which has a local habitation and a magnificent building com- mands public attention so strongly that valuable work done elsewhere may be overlooked. A very imj)ortant j)art of astro- nomical work is done away from telescopes and meridian circles, and requires nothing but a good library for its i)rosecut:on. One who is devoted to this side of the subject may often feel that the public does not a])preciate his work at its true relative \alue, from the very fact that he has no great buildings or fine instru- ments to show. I may, therefore, be allowed to claim as an important factor in the American astronomy of the last half century an institution of which few have heard and which has been overlooked because there was nothing about it to excite attention. In 1849 the American Nnuticol Almanac office was estab- 30^ S/AfOA' N Ely COMB lished by a congressional appropriation. The title of this pub- lication is somewhat misleading in suggesting a simple enlarge- ment of the family almanac which the sailor is to hang up in his cabin for daily use. The fact is that what started more than a century ago as a nautical almanac has since grown into an astronomical ephemcris for the publication of everything per- taining to times, seasons, eclipses and the motions of the heav- enly bodies. It is the work in which astronomical observations made in all the great observatories of the world are ultimately utilized for scientific and public purposes. Each of the leading nations of western Europe issues such a publication. When the preparation and publication of the American ephemeris was decided upon the office was first established in Cambridge, the seat of Harvard University, because there could most readily be secured the technical knowledge of mathematics and theoretical astronomy necessary for the work. A field of activity was thus opened, of which a number of able young men who have since earned distinction in various walks of life availed themselves. The head of the office, Commander Davis, adopted a policy well fitted to promote their develop- ment. He translated the classic work of Gauss, Thcoria Motus Corporum Ccclestium, and made the office a sort of informal school, not, indeed, of the modern type, but rather more like the classic grove of Hellas, where philosophers conducted their discussions and profited by mutual attrition. When, after a few years of experience, methods were well established and a routine adopted, the office was removed to Washington, where it has since remained. The work of preparing the ephemeris has, with experience, been reduced to a matter of routine which may be continued indefinitely, with occasional changes in meth- ods and data and improvements to meet the increasing wants of investigators. The mere preparation of the ephemeris includes but a small part of the work of mathematical calculation and investigation required in astronomy. One of the great wants of the science today is the re-reduction of the observations made during the ASPECTS OF AMERICAN ASVA'OAVJ/y 303 first half of the present century, and even during the last half of the preceding one. The labor which could profitably be devoted to this v/ork would be more than that required in any one astro- nomical observatory. It is unfortunate for this work that a great building is not required for its prosecution because its needfulness is thus very generally overlooked by that portion of the public interested in the progress of science. An organi- zation especially devoted to it is one of the scientific needs of our time. In such an epoch-making age as the present it is dangerous to cite any one step as making a new epoch. Yet it may be that when the historian of the future reviews the science of our day he will find the most remarkable feature of the astronomy of the last twenty years of our century to be the discovery that this steadfast P3arth of which the poets have told us is not after all quite steadfast ; that the north and south |)oles move about a very little, describing curves so complicated that they have not yet been fully marked out. The periodic variations of latitude thus brought about were first suspected about 1880, and announced with some modest assurance by Kiistner, of Berlin, a few years later. The progress of the views of astronomical opinion from incredulity to confidence was extremely slow until, about 1890, Chandler, of the United States, by an exhaustive discussion of innumerable results of observations showed that the latitude of every point on the Earth was subject to a double oscillation, one having a period of a year, the other of 427 days. Notwithstanding the remarkable parallel between the growth of American astronomy and that of your city, one cannot but fear that if a foreign observer had been asked only half a dozen years ago at what point in the United States a great school of theoretical and practical astronomy, aided by an establishment for the exploration of the heavens, was likely to be established by the munificence of private citizens, he would have been wiser than mosl foreigners had he guessed Chicago. Had this place been suggested to him I fear he would have replied that were 304 S/MOy NKWCOMR '■ it possible to utili/c celestial knowledge in acquiring earthly wealth here would be the most promising seat for such a school. But he would need to have been a little wiser than his generation to reflect that wealth is at the base of all progress in knowledge and the liberal arts, that it is only when men are relieved from the necessity of devoting all their energies to the immediate wants of life that they can lead intellectual lives, and that we should therefore look to the most enterprising commercial cen- ter as the likeliest seat for a great scientific institution. Now we have the school, and we have the Observatory, which we hope will in the near future do work that will cast luster on the name of its founder as well as on the astronomers who may be associated with it. You will, I am sure, pardon me if I make some suggestions on the subject of the future needs of the establishment. VVc want this newly founded institution to be a great success, to do work which shall show that the intellectual productiveness of your community will not be allowed to lag behind its material growth. The public is very apt to feel that when some munificent patron of science has mounted a great telescope under a suitable dome and sujjplied all the apparatus which the astronomer wants to use success is assured. But such is not the case. The most important requis- ite, one more difificult to command than telescopes or observa- tories, may still be wanting. A great telescope is of no use without a man at the end of it, and what the telescope may do depends more upon this appendage than upon the instrument itself. The place which telescopes and observatories have taken in astronomical history are by no means proportional to their dimensions. Many a great instrument has been a mere toy in the hands of its owner. Many a small one has become famous. Twenty years ago there was here in your own city a modest little instrument which, judged by its size, could not hold up its head with the great ones even of that day. It was the private property of a young man holding no scientific position and scarcely known to the public. And yet that little telescope \h today among the famous ones of the world, i J *i ASPKCTS OF AMERICA A ASIROA'OMY 305 having made memorable advances in the astronomy of doul)le stars, and siiown its owner to be a worthy successor of tlie Hcr- schels and tlie Stnives in that Hne of work. A hundred observers migiit liave used the appliances of the Lick Observatory for a whole generation without finding the fifth satellite of Jupiter ; without successfuliv photographing the cloud forms of the Milky Wav ; without discovering the extraordinary jjatches of nebu- lous light, nearlv or cpiite invisible to the human eye, which fill some regions of the heavens. When I was in Zurich last year I paid a visit to the little but not unknown observatory of its famous polytechnic school. The professor of astronomy was especially interested in the observations of the Sun with the aid of the spectroscope, and among the ingenious devices which he described, not the least interesting was the method of photographing the Sun by special rays of the spectruni which had been worked out at the Kenwood Observatorv in Chicago. The Kenwood Observatory is not, 1 believe, in the eye of the public one of the noteworthy institutions of your citv which every visitor is taken to see, and yet this inven- tion has given it an important place in the science of our day. Should you ask me what are the most hopeful features in the great establishment which you are now dedicating I would say that they are not alone to be found in the size of your unetjualed telescope, nor in the cost of the outfit, but in the fact that your authorities have shown their appreciation of the recjuirements of success by adding to the material outfit of the establishment the three men whose works I have described. Gentlemen of the trustees, allow me to commend to your fostering care the men at the end of the telescope. The consti- tution of the astronomer shows curious and interesting features. If he is destined to advance the science by works of real genius he must, like the poet, be born, not made. The born astrono- mer, when placed in command of a telescope, goes about using it as naturally and effectively as the babe avails itself of its mother's breast. He sees intuitively what less gifted men have to learn by long study and tedious experiment. He is moved 3o6 s/.v/ox X/:iVCOA/ff to celestial knowledjre by a passion which dominates his nature. He can no more avoid doinj;- astronomical work, whether in the line of observations o" research, than the poet can chain his Pegasus to earth. I do not mean by this that education and training will be no use to him. They will certainly accelerate his early progress. If he is to become great on the mathemati- cal side, not only must his genius have a bend in that direction, but he must have the means of pursuing his studies. And yet I have seen so many failures of men who had the best instruction, and so many successes of men who scarcely learned anything of their teachers, that I sometimes ask whether the great American celestial mechanician of the twentieth century will be a graduate of a university or of the backwoods. Is the man thus moved to the exploration of nature by an uncontiuerable passion more to be envied or pitied ? In no other pursuit does success come with such certainty ^o him who deserves it. No life is so enjoyable as that whose energies are devoted to following out the inborn impulses of one's nature. The investigator of truth is little subject to the disappoint- ments which await the ainbitous man in other fields of activ- ity. It is pleasant to be one of a brotherhood extending over the world, in which no rivalry exists except that which comes out of trying to do better work than anyone else, while mutual admiration stifles jealousy. And yet, with all these advantages, the experience of the astronomer may have its dark side. As he sees his field widening faster than he can advance he is impressed with the littleness of all that can be done in one short life. He feels the same want of successors to pursue his work that the founder of a dynasty may feel for heirs to occupy his throne. He has no desire to figure in history as a Napoleon of science whose conquests must terminate with his life. Even during his active career his work may be of such a kind as to require the cooperation of others and the active sup- . port of the public. If he is disappointed in commanding these requirements, if he finds neither cooperation nor support, if some great scheme to which he may have devoted much of his life ASI'KCrS OF AM ERIC AX ASTROSOMY 307 tlius proves to l)e only a castle in the air, he may feel that nature has dealt hardly witli him in not endowing liim with passions like to those of other men. In treating a theme of |)erennial interest one naturally tries to fancy what the future may have in store. If the traveler con- templating the ruins of some ancient city which in the long ago teemed with the life and activities of generations of men sees every stone instinct with emotion and the dust alive with memo- ries of the past, may he not be similarly impressed when he feels that he is looking around upon a seat of future empire ; a region where generations yet unborn may take a leading part in mold- ing the history of the v/orld ? What may we not expect of that energv which in sixty years has transformed a straggling village into one of the world's great centers of commerce? May it not exercise a powerful influence on the destiny not only of the coun- try but of the world? If so, shall the power thus to be exercised prove an agent of beneficence, diffusing light and life among nations, or shall it be the opposite? The time must come ere long when wealth shall outgrow the field in which it can be profitably employed. In what direction shall its possessors then look ? Shall they train a posterity which will so use its power as to make the world belter that it has lived in it? Will the future heir to great wealth prefer the intellectual life to the life of pleasure ? We can have no more hopeful answer to these questions than the establishment of this great University in the very focus of the commercial activity of the West. Its connection with the insti- tution we have been dedicating suggests some thoughts on science as a factor in that scheme of education best adapted to make the power of a wealthy community a benefit to the race at large. When we see what a factor science has been in our pres- ent civilization, how it has transformed the world and increased the means of human enjoyment by enabling men to apply the l)owers of nature to their own uses, it is not wonderful that it should claim the place in education hitherto held by classical studies. In the contest which has thus arisen I take no part but .{JV- I 30S S/.UOX NEWCOMH tliat ol a |>c;ucmakcr. lioldiiiLr that it is as important to us to keep in touch with tlic traditions of our race and to cherish tlic thouj,dits which have conic down to us throuj^h the centuries as it is to enjoy and utilize what the present has to offer us. Speak- in^f from this point of view. I would point out the error of mak- ing the utilitarian applications of knowledjre the main object in its pursuit. It is a historic fact th.lt abstract science, science pursued without any utilita -ian end, has been at the basis of our progress in the ap|)lication of knowl'.-dge. If in the la.st century such men as Galvani and Volta had been moved by any other motive tiian love of penetrating the secrets of nature they would never have pursued the seemingly useless experiments they did, and the foundation of electrical science would not have been laid. Our present applications of electricity did not become possible until Ohm's mathematical laws of the electric current, which when first made known seemed little more than mathematical curiosi- ties, hail become the common property of inventors. Profes- sional pride on the part of our own Henry led him, after making the discoveries which rendered the telegraph possible, to go no further in their application, and to live and die without receiving a dollar of the millions which the country has won through his agcncv. In the spirit of scientific progres" thus shown, we have patri- otism in its highest form : a sentiment which does not seek to benefit the country at the exiJcnse of the world, but to benefit the world by means of one's country. Science has its competi- tion, as keen as that which is the life of commerce. But its rivalries are over the qucsdon who shall contribute the most and the best to the sum total of knowledgc^who shall give the most, not who shall take the most. Its animating spirit is love of truth. Its pride is to do the greatest good to the greatest number. It embraces not only the whole human race, but all nature in its scope. The public spirit of which this city is the focus has made the desert blossom as Hie rose, and benefited humanity by the diffusion of the material products of the earth. Should vou ask me how it is in the future to use its influence for the . ^ V AS/'KCrS OF AMERICAN ASTKONOAfV 309 benefit of humanity at larj,a-, 1 would say, look at the work- now ^inn\r on in these precincts, and study its spirit. Here are the agencies which will make "the voice of law »»4 harmonv of the world." Here is the love of country blended with the love of the race. Here the love of knowledge is as unconfined as your commercial enterprise. Let not your youth come hither merely to learn the forms of vertebrates and the properties of oxides, but rather toimuibe that catholic spirit which, animating their ever grftntrMW energies, shall make the power they shall wield an agent of beneficence to all mankind. ^ f^^^vd^ 302 S/A/OA NEll'COMB lished by a congressional ajjpropriation. The title of this pub- lication is somewhat misleading in suggesting a simple enlarge- ment of the family almanac which the sailor is to hang up in his cabin for daily use. The fact is that what started more than a century ago as a nautical almanac has since grown into an astronomical ephemcris for the publication of everything per- taining to times, seasons, eclipses and the motions of the heav- enly bodies. It is the work in which astronomical observations made in all the great observatories of the world are ultimately utilized for scientific and public purposes. Each of the leading nations of western Europe issues such a publication. When the preparation and publication of the American ephemeris was decided upon the office was first established in Cambridge, the seat of Harvard Universit}-, because there could most readily be secured the technical knowledge of mathematics and theoretical astronomy necessary for the work. A field of activity was thus opened, of which a number of able young men who have since earned distinction in various walks of life availed themselves. The head of the office. Commander Davis, adopted a policy well fitted to promote their develop- ment. He translated the classic work of Gauss, Theoria Motus Corporum Ccclestium, and made the office a sort of informal school, not, indeed, of the modern type, but rather more like the classic grove of Hellas, where philosophers conducted their discussions and profited by mutual attrition. When, after a few years of experience, methods were well established and a routine adopted, the office was removed to Washington, where it has since remained. The work of preparing the ephemeris has, with experience, been reduced to a matter of routine which may be continued indefinitely, with occasional changes in meth- ods and data and improvements to meet the increasing wants of investigators. The mere preparation of the ephemeris includes but a small part of the work of mathematical calculation and investigation required in astronomy. One of the great wants of the science today is the re-reduction of the observations made during the