rT        I' U SE   O   AS TOI  A.    O NOV[ (O O Y
A.:N   O 1R'A TI OlN r0 N,dibe!~er   ait  [bunIq,  onl tlje 2't.1  of ~,)'ul[,  I8o[,
tE 1) N'   A V   1t )   I V  El7   R 1 TpT
ON'litI-I
OCCASION OF'li 11e JNAUGURAl'.T'ON OF  t1i 1)t[ DIlI)EY
AS'TONO MICA T OBSE38IRIVA'.'OIY,
WIT[ A
(0ONDEINSEl) REPORT OF TillE PItOC 1,EI)DINGS,
ANID AN ACCOUNI' OF' TIlE
I)EDICATIO0N OF NEW YORK GSTTE GEO,LGICAL HAT.111
iN E W.r    0 IY t 1RK:
UB 13 t  S      l Y R1 S).13 Y   UOS  & t  Y,
103 NASSAU STR}IET,
I 8   G 




A  NO'tIE (     l!;XP.I1'ANA fOR Y.
Tiu: undtorigned venture;s to pult fokrth thi.s report of Mr. E'i:}:re~.fs Oration, In Connecl tlo
with a condensed account of the Inaulguration of tthe Dtdley Observatory, and the Dedieation of
t(lo New Stato Geological [atll, at Altba:ny,-n thel lope that tho demand which thas  exhausted tht
newspaper el(ittons, miay exhaust this as speedily as p$osible; not that tie is particularly tlnaclous
of a reward for his own slight labors, but becautse he lelieves that the extensive circulatioll of the
record of two events so interestin, and important to) the cause of Scientce    ill exrcivse  a blenefilcial
influencle uon the o  te  ic 1iltt 1nd.  The tffort of tlhe distingulised lStatesmaln  \\twIto has investd.Astronomy with new beauties, Is the latest: anrd one of thle most  brilliant of his compositions, and
Ih alrealdy vholly out of print, though1.0l  scarcely a onth has tlapsed since the dato of its delivery.
Th'll  account of the proceedings at. Albany during the Ceremoni(s of Inauguration is ntcCsarilr
btrier, bttt aeeurato antl is respectfully submitted to the, consideration ( f the readler
A. 4I AYVF\t1RCK.
N:Wv YoaKi, Octobeer, 1856.




TWO NEW MIINSTITZUTONS O0 SCIIENCE;
AND'fT\l  lSCENES WHllHl ATTI. Ni)DI ) T11411t CIlr IS'NTI4ING.
Ix the month of Auguist last, two events took place itt the city of Albatny, which have more than alt  phemeral interest.  They occurred iln close
connection with the 1proceedinigs of a Scientific Convention, alnd the memory of
them deserves to be cherished as a  ecolleectionl of the easy way in whtihScienee
nmay be popularized and be rendered so generally acceptable that the pcople will
cry, like Oliver Twist, for more. It is tile putrpose of this small publication to
embody, iln a form more durable than that of the daily newspaper, t5he record of
proce'dings which have so near a relation to tthe progres-s of scieltific researcht
A marked feature in the ceremonies was tihe magnificent Oration of tte lIon.
EiwARn' EIv:n:-1rr, lnuguirating the ])udley Observatory of Alb)any; and it is
believed thti the rIeissut  of that speecel  in its present form  will be acceptable
to the admlirers of that distinguished gentlerian, not less than to the lovers of
Science, twho hung with delighlt itpon his \ords.
TI4lE  I)D1E)ICATlIOXN  OF  TIlE  GEOLOGICAl,I ZALI.
Oni Wednesday, August 2'I, 1860, tlhe State Geological Blall of New York was
dedicated wvith appropriate ceremonies. For the purpose of affordinlg accommtodatioln to the imml else crowds of pecople who, it was confide)ntly anlticipated,
would throng to tMhis demonstration and thlat of thle succeeding day, at. which Mr.
Ev}itE:avl spoke, a calacious Tent. wyas arra)nged with care in the center of Academ-y Park, on Capitol lill; ands under its shelter tlhe certtemonies of tlhe in\auguratioll of both institutions were conducted without accident or colnfwuion; attended
onl the first day by fully three thoutsand persons, and on the second by a number
which )may be safely computed at from live to seven thousand.
rithe announcement that l:tona. W    1st. I8t SwAlm would be present at the dedication of thle Gcological ltall, excited great interest among the citizens; but tlhe
hope of his appearance  >ro'Ved fallacious.  Ilis l)lace was occupied by sevenY
picked mlen of the American AK.ociation for the Advanleement of Science, one of
whom1 (1Prof'. I}N:t') declared his imiability to compute tile problem  why sfien
men of  ienlce were to be considered equal to one statesmanr  The result justified tile selections of thie committee, anxd although thle Senator was not present,




t        D) EIDIGATI ON   o0    G  1.  (  E0I  AL. it HALT.
the seven Commoner-s of Science made the occasion a most notable one by tlhe
flow of wit3 elegance of phrase, solidity and cogency of argumient, and rare discernment, of nattural trutths, with which their discourse was garnished.
The members of the Americanl An.sociation marched in procession to the Tent,
from their place of meeting in the State Capitol.  On the stage were assembled
many distingtuished gentlemen, and in t:he audience  were hundreds  of ladies.
Gov. CL.,ARK and Ex-Governor\ s  IusN  and 8SCYMoURa, of New York, Sir W\M. LOG(AN,,
of CanadaI, Io1t. Gsl:oRnG  Bs3ANROIr, and others  s awell known as these., were
among the numbter piresent.  The tent was profusely decorated.  Small banners
inll tricolor were distributed over the entire area covered,by the stage, aind
adorned the iwings.'1The following inscriptions were placed over the front of tlhec
rostrum,l...l. -that in honor of "'h/e IP'ess" ocecu)ying a central position1
(:EOLX OG Y.                        Titl t PRlIES.
ME;TE1ORO LOGY.                      M IN ERA.LO0Y,
ME5'fATI.UR(,GY, GEI'tINOLOGY.
ASTRONOMY.
The following were arranged in variou\s )positio1s oil the right and left;
Cm- Is!83 RaY.                     TEJLGRAIIIi.
PrIsuYOLO(rY.                         LEITIEtilS.
C'ONICt:iOOt Y,.                      IYIROI.OGY,
PALXtONTO.LOG Y. ~                   ZOOLO G Y,
MICROSCOPY,'lXCLTIIYOLOG:Y.
ART,                                 31ANI Atf CIU rR ES.
STHEAM.                               ARW;StICV11T URlE'.
COMM.ERCE                            11  I S I(s
SCI ECN E.                            ANATOM Y.
NAYI: AT ION,.                         OTAN Y.'The proceedings of the day were opened with prayer by  tev. E:o. WV,
];ilUN,}, 1). 3)., of Brooklyn.
0eon1. GARRIT Y. LANSING, of Albany, then  introduteed  Professor         Louis
AoGAssri, of Cambridge, Mass.,  who was the first of the "severt  men of science"
to entertain his audience, always with the aid of thle inevitable black-board,
NwitVhotut twhich the excellent Professor would be as rautc  at a loss ts a chetnist
without a laboratory. Professor AGoAsSW. spoke for an hour, giving his viemws of
a new theory of animal developm-ent,. lie began by saying. —We are here to inaugurate the Geological i[all, which ha-s grown out of tlhe
geological survey of the State. To make the occasionl memorable, a distilguished stateslman of your own State, anid Mr. FRANK C. CGRAY, were expeet:ed to
be l)resent and address you.  The p)ressure of public dtties has detained jMr.
SEWARD,t and severe sickne.ss lhas detained Ahi. (I^t.  I deeply lament that the
occasion is lost to you to hear my friend Mr. Gn^AY, who is a devotee to science,
anid as warnm-hearted a friend as ever I knew.  Nightbeforel'ast I was rcquested
to attist il taking their p)ace —I, who ami the most unfit of men for the post  I
never made a speech.  I have addressed learned bodies, but X lack that liberty
of speeelh —the ability to present in finisiecd style, and with tlhat rich imlagery
which characterize the words of the orator, t*he tlthoughts fitting to such an occasion ns this.  lie would limit himself, eto continued, to priesenting f0some motiv(s




)DE DIOATION  OF GOO(OOAG                        ItGALhAL,            5
why tle comnlmunity 1should patronize science, and foster such institutions as tlhis.
We scientific men regard this as an occasion of the highest  interest, and thuts do
not hesitate to give the sanction of the highest learned body of the country as
an indorsentent of the liberality of this Sta to.  The gological survey of New
York has given to thex world a n  w nomenclature..No geologist can, hereafter,
describe the soveral strata of the earth without referriing to it-.  Its results, as
recorded in your published volumes, are treasured in the mnost valuable libraries
of thile world.  They have made this city famous; and now, when thile scientific
geologist lauds on your shore, his first question is, " Which is the way to
Albany I  I want to see your fossils."  lint Paleontology is only one branch of
the subject, and many others your survey has equally fostered.
IIC next proceeded to show t t, orgaMtzed bi Jgs wxere organized with reference
to a plan, which the relations between diffirent animals, and between different
plants, and between animalfs and tplants, everywhere exhibit; —drew sections of
the body of a fish, and of the bird, and of retan, anid pointed out that in each
theore was the arno central back-bono, the cavity above and the ribbed cavity
below thile flesh on each side, and the kint  over all- —.sChowing that the raker of
each possessed the same thoulght- -followed the stame pIlan of structure.  And
upon' that it)lat Io had made all the kinds of qiutadrupeds, 2,000 in  nurttnber, all
the kintids of birds,'1,000 itn mtiunber, all of thile reptiles, 2,000 to 3,000 in nIlumber,
all the fish, 10,000 to 12,000 it niumber.  All t heir forms Imay be derived as
dilfrent; extressiotns of the same formula. There are only four of thcese great
types; or, said he, may I not call tiher  the four tunes on which J)ivinity has
Jiayedt the harmonies t]hat havy  peopled, in living and beautiful reality, the
whole  vorld?
P'ROr''sso  tt'IiiCOCK ON nitSO:sc;Ecrs.
EtAS-rus C. BtCYM:ns}m, E:sq, of New  York, introduced Prof. Ifnrrutcocx, of
Amhterst, as a genttleman wiose namne  wa.s very fatniliar, who  had laid aside,
voluntarily, the charge of one of the largest colleges iti New England, but who
could never lay  side the honors hle had earned in the literature and science of
geology.
After a few  itntroductory observationts, P'rof. Jtrretucocx said:..
Thiis, I believe, is the first exampnile in whmich a State  Govecrnment itt our
country has erected a mrnuscumn for tlhe exhibitioti of its natural resotturccs, its
minieral and rock, its planits antd ainiIals, living and fossil.  And this seems  to
tue the most alppropriate sp)ot in the conAttry for placing the fitst geological hall
elected by tht (G4overmnett; for the County  of Albany was tlhe district where
thile first geological survey was undertaken, ont this side of the Atlantic1 and,
perhlaps, the world. This was int 1820, antd ordered by that emuinetit philatnthropist, Steplhen Vati Rensselaer, who, three years later, appoitnted P'rof. Eaton
to survey, in like mannier, tie whole region tanversed by the lE'rie Catal.  This
was the commencementt  of a work, which, duil'ing thel last thirty years, has had
a wonderfull expansio,  reaching a large plart of thte States of tllhe iJon, as swell
as Cunada,  Nova Scotia, and  New  JBrunswick, oand, I might add, several
Euroceant coutitries, where tile mnagnitficent surveys now itt progress did not
comttamtice till after the survey of Albany tand  etiesselaer Coutitiv..  Itow glad
are we, thlterefore, to fintd on tifis spot the firt Museuan of Economical Geology
on tlhis side of the Atlmitic I  Nay, embracing as it does  all the depattument of
Natural Hlistory, I see in it more thant  a European  BMtsctum  of ecotormiceal
Gcology, 8pletdid though they are.  I fancy, rathei, that 1 see here thile germl  of
za Cis-Athnatie Brit4ish Mtuseum, or Garden of Plamtds.
North Carolina was the first State that ordered a geological survey; and I
have the pleasutre of seeing before mte the gentenman who executed it., and in
1824-6 )thblished a report of 140 pages.  I refer to'Professor Olmnsfead, who,
though hle has since won brighter laurels in another department of science,
w!ill always be honored as thte first comnititssioned   State geologist ii ottr land.




G        P)]'DIGATION OF GEOLOGICAI                        L  I ALL.
Of the New York State Survey he said:This sturve.y has developed the older fossiliferous rocks, with a fullness anl
distinctnes unkun2own aelsewhere. hience Eu11ropea, savaus study the New York
Reports with eang0ernes.  In 1850, as I entered the Woodwardlian Museum, in
tho University of Cambridge, in England, I found Professor McCoy hbusy with a
collection of Silurian  fossils before hint, which he was stludyiNng wtith Hall's first
vol1ume of I'aleontology as his guide; and in the splendid volumes, entitled
British P 0tl0ozoric Rocks and Fossils, which Appeared last year as the result of
those researches, I find Professor I tall denominated the grcat American Palcontologist.  I tell you Sir, that this survey has given New York a reputation
throughout the learned world, of which she may  well be protud.  Am I told that
it will, probably, cost half a million    Very well.  The larger the sumn, tlhe
higher will be the reputation of New York for liberality;     and what other half
million expended in our country, has developed so many nSew facts, or thrown so
mauclh light upont the history of the globe, or won so world-wide atid enviable  a
reputation I
And of Geological Surveys in general:.
In regard to this matter of geological surveys, I can hardly avoid imaking
a suggestion Ilcre.  So large a portion of our0 country has now  been exarnined,
rore'or ltes thoroughly, by thtre several State governments, that it does seem to,
me the tinie has com'e when tile Nattional goveri-nent should order a  survey —
geological, zoological, antd botanical...of the whole country, ontt such a liberal
and thorough llaln as the sur8veys in Great Britain aret now  conducted; in the
latter country it being understood that at leasts thirty years will be occupied in
the work.  Could not the distinguished New York statesman w ho was to have
addred"ed us to-day be induced, when the presclit great struggle in which he  i,
engaged shall have been brought to a close, by a merciful Providence, to introldute this subject, and urge it upon Congress?  And would it not be appropriate
for the American A.ssociation for the Advaincemtcnt of Sciene to throw a petition
before the governmecnt for such ani objeet?  Or might it not, with the conisent
of the eminenft gentlenman t who has cliartge of tleto Coast Survey, be connectedtc
therewith, as it is withl the Orditance Sutrvey in Great Britain.
The history of the Aeicrican A.sociation was theni given:Prof. Matither, I believe, thrloughl Prof. Erninots, firstI suggested to the New.
York Board of  Geologists in November, 1838, ii a letter proposing a mttinber of
pointtts for their consideration.   I quote froml  him  the following paragraph.
relnting to the meetitng.  As to the credit lie has here given me of htwitg pe.r.sortially suggested the subjet., I can say ontly thlat I had beent in thile hait for
sevelral cyats of imaking this mcetitig of scientiftce  men a sort of hobby in my
corrfCspondetuce with sutch.  Whethert others did the sare, I did not theti, and do
not now know.  Were this thte proper place, I could go mtore into detail O  titisl
point; but I will m erely qiote Proll Mathier's language to the Board:-.
*- * " * " Wotuld it ntot be well to suggest the propriety of a mIeeting of
Geologists and other scientific metn of outr country at some cetitral point itext
fall,.-....say at New-York or i'hiladelphtia?  There are mtany (questions in our
Geology fltha will irceive  iew light e fron  fiendly  discussion atid tte cottmbined
observations of various ittndividuals who have nioted thei in differentt parts of
our eountt.ry.  Such a meetinig has beeni suggested by Prof. IHithcock; and to ane
it seems desirable.  it woutld undottbtedly be an advanttage not only to science
tbut to the several surveys that are niow in progress And( that may  i fultur bei
authorized.  It would tend to mruake known our scientific mnci to each other
perottally, give themni miore confidence in each other, anid causo tItens to concentrate their obsetrvation on tltose questions, that are of interest in eitlter Av
scientific or econotmical poitt of view.  More qtuestionts may be satisfactorily




DE)DCiOATION   OF   ( 0IIOJI,0 IOAJ,   hALt,,.                            T
settled in a day by oral discussion inll such a body, than a year by writing and
pfu blic   atio."*a
Though the Board adopted the plan of a meeting, various  causes delayed the
first over till April, 1840, when we assemblcd in P'hiladelphia, and spent.   a week
in most profitableo and pleasant discussion, and the presentation of pape r:.  Our
number that year was only 18, because confined  almost exclusively to the
State geologists; but the next year, when we met again in Philadelphia, and a
more extended invitation was given, about eighty were present; and the members
have been increasing to the present time.  Blt, in falct, those first two tmeetings
proved the type, in all things essential, of all that have followed.  The prilneipal
changes have been those of expansion antd the consequent introduct.ion of many
otrher branches of science with their eminent cultivators. In 1842, we chang'ed
the name  to that of the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists; and
in 1847, to that of the American Association for the Adtvancem ent of Science.  I
trust. it has not Cyet reachedt its fullest tdevelopmecnt, as our country  ant  its
scientific men multi0 1 ply, andt new fields of d(liscovery open.
Prof. it. said of thlis particular occasion:. —...
We may be quite sutre t hat this ifall will be a center of dee1p interest to
coming generations.  long after we shall have passes   away will the men of
New-York, as they survey these imonmmrents, feel stimulated to engage in other
noble- enterprises by this work of their progenitors, andi fronm  many a distant
part of the civilized' world will men) comle here to solve their sietentific  quest1ion-,
antd to bring far-off regions into comparison with this.  New-York, then, by her
liberal patronage, has not only acquiretd an honorable name among those living
in all ei;vitized lantds, but has secured the voice of Hlistory to tranlsmit her fame
to far-off generations.
8sIR iVIILAMI LOOAN ASK8   11tI WAY'iTO ALBANY,.")
Sir WlrIasat  E. LOoAN, of Canada, in a brief speccli acknowledged the service.tenderedt by the New-York Survey to Canrada,  Ite should manifest ingratitude
if hie declined to unite in the joyfnl occasion of inaugurating the Museum which
was to hold forever the evidence of'the truth~  of its published results.  The
Survey of Canada had been ordered, and the Cormission of live years twice
reneved; and the last time, the provi ion for it wasv  more tlhan  doubledi.  It
happened to him, as Mr. Agassiz had said: after erossing the ocean first, the first
tiling lie asked ws, "IWhich is the way to Albany?' and when he arrived here,
he found that with the aid of Prof. [aflt's discoveiries, lie hlud only to take up the
different  formations as lie had left them on the boundary  tlne, aiid follow them
into Canada. It was both a convenience and a neee.sity to adopt the New-York
onomenclature,  which was thus extended over an area six times as laige as New-'York.  In Paris lie heard DC Verniei using the words Trenton and Niagara, as
if they were household words.  Ile was delightedt to witness the impatienee
with Whlich BIarron inquired when the remaining volumes  of the Palenontology of,New-York would be publisihed.   Your Palcontologleal repltation, saitd hle, has
madtl   New-York known, even amoing men not scienititic, all over Eurolpe. I hope
you will not stop here, but will go on anad give us in equally thorough, full, anti
magnificent style, the character of the )urassie ani Cretaceous for'latiotn.
Pr-oiiSSOR on iICNitY ON DMiUTfiMEN.
Profe  or I [ExiN  was at a loss to know by what process they had arrived at
the conclusion that seven men of scince must  be substitutei to fi:l te place of
one disitinguiisthed statesman  whom  they had expected to  tcear.  lie pridedt
Intt the letter lludcled to, on cxamiatinlon, we discove-r another passi-c beatring on the point,
which, owitlg to the Professor's iaodcsty we suspet, hIo fdil net read. Prof. Mather adds." In,,
fo rr as I kitnow, fAit suggestedt the matter of such an Assooaiatlon. I hld the mattter before the
hoard of Ocatigisas of Now-YorX-, specifying sonmc of the advaitaios thait vight iht explected to
result; and P'rof. Vantuxen probably trnha the motion before the IV0nrd in rng,{did to it"




8         Dl)EDIOATIO N   OF 0         GEOLOGIOAL,  i ALL,.
himself on ihis Albany nativity.  Itfe was proud of the old D)utceh claracter, that
was the substratum of the city.'TLie D)utch are hard to be lmoved, but when
they do start their momencltum is) not   other men's in 1)ropoi-tion to tile velocity,
but as the square of thle velocity,  So whlenl the  )utchmanll goes three time  as
fast, hie has nite times the force of another nman.'I'lTe )Dutcbhm an has at illmmense
potentia agency, but it wants a small spark of Yankec e enterprise to touch it off.
In this strain the'Profcssor continued,  making his audience very merry, and
giving them a line chance to express themselves with repeated explosions of
laughter.
rROFE&SOI DAViws ONS THY, PRiAcitAL N ATURN':  OF SciD;:xc:.
Prof. CHARLEs i)Av  1s was introduced by Ex-Covernor S:YmOURvt, and spoke
briefly, butt humorously annd very much to the point, i'i defetse of th-e practical
character of seicntil'e researlch s. lie said that to one accustomed to speak o.tly
on the abstract qtuantities of number and space, this was an unusual oceasiot,
and this anti umiusal  audience;  and  inquired  how  he  could  discuss the
abstract forms of geomretry, white  lie saw  before him, in such  profusion,
the most beautiful real forms tfat lProvidence has voutehsafed to the  life
of man.  lie a'op osed to introduce ad decvelop but a single train of thought. —.the unchangeable connection between what in comrnon language is called
the theoretical nid practical, but in more teelihical phraseology, the ideal
aid the actua!l.'thie actual, or trite 1)actical, consists in the Auses of the
forces of nature, according to the laws of nature; and here wve must distinguiksh  betw\een it and the emlirical, which  uses, or attempts to use, those
forcees, without a kitowlvedge of the laws.'Tie trite practical, therefore, is the
result, or actual, of an antecedent ideal.  The ideal, full and complete, must.exist in the mind before thte actual can be brought forth according to the laws of
scientce. Who, then, are the truly practical men of our age?  Are they not those
who are engaged most laboriously and successfully ill investigating thile great
laws?  Are tltey not those whto are pressing out the boundaries of kinowledge,
aid conducting tlhe mind into noew and unexplored regions, where there may yet
be discovered a California of undevevloped thought?  Is not thte gentlematinfrora
Massachusetts (Plrofesor Agassiz) the most practical maitn in our country in the
department of Natural history, niot because lie lins collected the greatest number
of specimens, but because lie has laid open to us till the laws of the animal king(1o01'?  Are the formitnilas written on the black-board by the gentleman frnom
Cambridge (l'rof. Pierce) of no practical value, because they cannot be read by
the ititistrueted eye?  A siingle line may contain the lccelents  of the motions of
all the hteavenly bodies; and tlte eye of science, taking its staid-p)oiitt at the
center of gravity of the system, will see in the cqation the Iurioharoiotus revolntionis of till the bodies which circle the lieavens,    It is such labors  and such.
generahizsations that have retndered his tname illustriolus in the history  of matheImatical seicience. I it of ito practiceal value that thle Chlief of the Coast Survey:(Prof Bachle), by a few characters written   upon paper, at Wafshington, lies determitined the exact time of high  and low  tide in tihe iharbor of Boston, atidd cam
determice, by a similtar  process, the exact times of high and low water at every
poimit on the'sur'face of the globe?  Are not these resultts, the highest efforts of
scietce, also of the greatest practical utility?  And may we not, theni, conclude
that Ithiere is olthidy truly practicel  which is 7iot hte cotseqncacc  of On anteccdnt
ideal?.
Science is to art what the great fly-wheel and governor of a stteam-engine
are to the working part of the mtachi n.ry-.-it guides, regulates, amid comtrols the
whole.  Scieince and art are itiseparably connected; like the Siamttese Twins,
they) cannot be htp'trated without,producing the death of bot1.
i |low, tltmi, nare we to regard the superb specimens of natural history, which
thie liberality, the munifieettee, antd the wisdom  of our S tate have collectced at
te Capitol?'T'hey are tie'clements frolm which we can here  determinie all that
bhlongs to the Natural IHistory of our State; and may we not itndulge  the hope,




INAUGURATION OF  T [  O BSE  RVATORY.   9
that; science and genius will comres here, and, striking them with a nmagic wvand,
cause tlhe title practical to spring into immlortal lifei
Remarks were also offered by Prof. C0r(innt J');w, President AnDitErso N, and
Rev. )Dr Cox.
And thus ended the Inauguration of thle State Geological IHall.
We turn to the O)bservatory, ill regular order of succesion.
INAUGURATION OF I)UDLEY OB3SEttVATORY.
The Inauguration of the ]Dudley Observatory took place under the same tenlt
Nwhich was appropriated to the dedication of the Geological Hall, and on th e
day following thtat event.  An immense audience was assembled,  drawn by tlhe
announlleement  of 0Mr. Ew:itwrxs Oration.
At a little past three o'clock the procession of satns arrived from the Asselmbly Chalnber, escorted by the Burgesses Corps.  1Directly in front of the speaker's
atand sat Mris. l)U)mE';Y, tlhe venera)le la)dy to -whose munitieence tihe world is
intdebted for this Observatory. Shte was dressed in an antique, olive-colored silk,
with a figure of a lighter color, a iheavy, red broch6 shawl, and her bonliet,
cap, &c., after the strictest style of tlhe old schlool.  I[er preselee added a na xw
pointt of interest.
Prayer having been offered by Rsev. D)r. SrtnAous, of Albany, T'tno^As W. O.cor1', ]<,sq., introduced to thle audienes ECx-Go0vrAor Wasit.N(nroox 1UNt, wvho spoke
briefly in hlonor of thte lmemory of CfslasRL  ]f. I)u:.Yx, wihose widow has founded
and in partt endowed this Obselrvatory with a liberality so remarkable.
Remlarks were ofifred by J)r. 1. A. AQ(ourn.D natd Plrof, A  1). wBanc, nlld.utdge I.ArVrs  read tlhe followintlg letter from  Mr.s. lDumsv, announcing anlother
munllllifilent donation in aid of th, new Observatoory........ $650000, in addition to the
$26,000 which hnad been already expenled in thle construction of tlh building.
The letter wvas received with shouts of appla.tusc, Prol. A.Asswz rising al d leading
thie vast ascemblage int three velloment cheers in honor of Mrs. J)uim,,E  1
Ai.^.ANY, Thursday, Aug. 14, 1t856.
To the i-ustftees of the Dudley Observatory:
GtsN'lRS  E.Ni,-.....I carcely need refer inl a letter to you to ttle jmodest Ibeginning
anrid gradual grlowth of the institution over which syou preside, and of whitch you
are the rep)onsible guardians.  Bu;tt we have arrived at a period in its history
when its inauguration gives to it and to votn sorme degree of protninence, anld
which must stiaml  our past efforts witll \vaknesk s and ilconside'{ration, or exalt
those of thle future to tihe metasure of liberality necessary to certain succes.
You have a building erected and instrumentts eongaged of unrivaled excellence;
and it now remains to carry out the suggestion of the Astronomer Rotnyal of England in giving perminanclG y to t}he estab2lishlmlnent.  The veryl distilgutished I'rofessors BAc1,R., I'te:sec, anl  Govro, state inl a letter, wxhich I have tbeen perm-itted
to see, tthat to expand this institution to the wants of American sciene nsaid the
honots of a national character, will require anl inveuistment whlich will yield annually not less than $10,000; and these gent lemen say, it the letter rteferrd  to, —..
"If tile gente.s of your giving can ris to this occasion, as it lmsa to all our
presvious augestiolont, wlth  suchl unflinchling maglnanimity, we )romise you our
earnest and heart   enop)eration, and stake our reputation that thle scientific sueccaS shall fill utI the imesure of your  hopes and anticipations."
For ththe attainliment of an object so rich ill sientitfic r'ward and national glory,
guaranteed by mein wiht reputations as exaltetd and enduring as the skies',pm
which they are written, cott ributions should be general, and not confined ta) a.,
individual or a place.




10  IN AGlGURiATION OFJ TIlEE OBSElRVATOR1Y.
For myself, I offer, as my part of the requird l endowlment th;e sumr of $60,000
int additionl to tile advances wthicll I: have  alrendy made; and, trusting that tthe
Inamle which'yout have given to the Observatory Imayv not be regarded as an 1undeserved compli-mente, aand that it will not di-miish ithe bltlic regard by giviXng
to the institution a seemintgly ildiviidual cltaracter,
I remain, Gentlemen, your obedient servant,
BLANI)iNA' 1'DUDLEY.
Judge lunis then iintroduced the Orator of the occasion, ion.  nwsEDWAR
ElievE:rr, NwVhose spechl is given verbattritm in these pages.
TrtMi  NIssCUMtM:CN15'i OF  ltH   1IXft::Y o i:ts010vATORt.
)Duritng thle Sessions of the Amrerican Association, the new  Astronomicfal
nstru'ments of Dudley  Observattory -\were described itl detail by Dr B.3, A. GoUmi,
who is the Astronomer iil chlargle.  We condense his staternents: -..
Thie Mleridintl Circle  an( Tranls' it instrument were ordered friom  Pistor A
Martins, the celebrated manufacturers of Berlin, by who0lll tfhe new instrumtent
at Ann Arbor was rmade.  A numttlber of improvelnents lhave been introdulced in
thel Albany instruments, not p)erhaps all  absolutely new, but an eclectic coinbinaltionl ofi late adaptations with new improvements.  D)r. (outld made a distinction of mlodern astfronomical ilst rumnents iinto tw o classes, tIle E:nglish an(d
t\te Germtan. The English is the mas ive type; tile Gemrman, light and airy.
The English instrumentl is tIte inistrument of the engineer; the (crmatll, tile
imlstrtument of the artist. Iti orderingl tthe instrtilirnelts for the A lbany Observatolry,
the Doctor preferred the German type and discarded the heax ier English.' lie
instanieed, as a specimen of the latter, tIhe new instiun11en at Gt reenwichl, recently
erected under the superintendeince of the Astronomer   Royal. Tflit instrimnent
registers observationil int ingl  seconlds; tehe l)udley instrument will register to
tenthls of seconds.''That has six or eiglt microscopes;  tlhis hnis fourl. Thl'tt asi a
gas latli), by the light of whlich the graduationls are c eand oftf; the Albany instru.
nmenlt has 110 lam, and t.he Doctor considered the lamtp  a bazardouis exseriment,
affecting the integrity' of tihe experimelAnt, not only by its radiant heat but by the
currelncts of heated air which it protduces,  The ditameter of the object-glass of the
Albany instrulment is j4- French inches clear aperture, or S English ilnchles, nnd
tihe lcngtl of the tube 8 feet.  lie would Iavel prefrrerd an instrrment in whlich
the facilities of manipulation  would have beein greater, hbut was hamptered by
one proviso, utponl wlhich th:e Trustees of the institution insisted-......tthat this shoutld
be t1he biggest instnirument of itsf kind; and the inAstruction wars ohbeyed.'the
gal  wass made by Challnce, and ground by i'istor himself,'ito eye-tl)cee is hitled
witt two micromerters, for vertical ald horizontal observations.  Anllother
apparatus provides for thle detection and nmeasurement of the flexure of tlhe tbe.
Mutch trouble was experiemneed in securing a good casting for the steel axis of
the instrument.t   Three were fouind implerfect under the lathe, and tte fourth
wa;s cthosen; but even then the pivots were made in separate pieces, whitlch w(re
set in very deeply and welded. Dl)r Gould scaid l  head been requested by the
-,,entlementt who hind thits enlterprise inl charge to suggest asn a narlk of rept)ect to
a gentlemain of Albany who was a muntl icetnt pattron of Seon1ce, that this instru-nmeat be known as the Olcott Meridian   Gircle.
WAffT TIHP DUDLE}?Y OBAS1ERVATOtRY 18.
It stands a mile from tile  apitol, int thie eity of Albany, upon the crest of a
tilt, so difficult of approach, as to be in reality a Huill of Science. There are two
ways of gettiing to it.  In both eases there are rail fenees to be clambered over,
oid  lonIg grass  to wade through, settlements to explore, and a clayey road
to trave;  but, ttese are minor tlroubles..t'e elevatioii of the hill nbove tide



INAUGURATION  OF  T 11,' f                 O   S ERVATO IRY.    ].i.
water is, perhaps, 200 feet; its distance from  the Capitol about a rdile and a
half. T'ile view for miles is unhnlpeded; and the Observatory is belted about'with woods and verdant lawns.  There could not be a finer location or 1a purer
air,'le )plateau contains some fifteen acres,'The Observatory is constructed il thle fornmt of a Latin cross,. Its eastern arm
is nlt apartment 22 by 21- feet, in which the meridian circle is to be lplaccd. Thle
western artm- is a room of thle sallme dimensions8, intended for thle transit instrument. From the north and south faces of both rooms are semlii-circular apsides,
projecting 6 feet 6 inches, containing the Collimator piers and the vertical openinigs for observation.  Thle entire length of each room10     is, therefore,? feet,.  In
the northern arm are placed thie library, 23 feet by 27 feet; two coalputing
rooms, 12 feet by 23 feet each; side entrance halls, staircases, &e. The southern
arm cont ains t.le principal entrance, consisting of an arched colonnade of four
tuscan collumns surrounded by a pediment:.  A broad flight of stone steps leads
to this colonade; and through thie entrance door beneath it to the maini central
ball, 28 feet square, il which are placed (in niches) the very beautifull electric
clock and penduluna preselnted by IErastus Corning, lsq. The center of this ball
is occupied by a tmassive plier of stone, 10 feet square, passing from the basemrent
into the dlotte  above, and intended for the stt)pport of thle great heliomrteter.
i)irectly opposite the entrance door is a large niche, in  which it is proposed to
plaee tlhe bust of thle late Mr. i)udley.  Irmediately above this hall is the equatorial room, a circular apartlment, 22 feet 6 inchls in diameter, and 2,4 feet high,l
covered by a low conical roof, in which and in the walls are t.he usual observing
slits.'lhe druml, or cylindrical portion, of this roomt is divided into two parts —
the lower one fixed, time upper, rcvolving oni cast-iron balls moving inl grooved
metal plates, can conmmland the entire horizonl.
The building is ill two stories —:- the upper of brick,'with freestone quoins,
impost. and'window and door dressings, rests upon a rusticated basement of freestone, six feet hi gh. The style adopted is the nmodern Italian, of which it is a
very excellent speciimen.  Thel building has been complcted some time; but, in
consequence of tihe size of tIle instrum-lents now procured being gteater ithan that
originally contemliplated, sundry alterations were required ii tihe  ranlsit   and
Meridian Circle rooms,'fhese consist of tihe semi-circular projections already
nmentioned, and which, by varying the outlines of the building, will add greatly
to its beauty and lict ursclquenest.
The piers for the M[eridian Circle and Transit have, after careful investigation, been procured from  the lockport quarries.  The great de-nsity anid unifortity of thie structure of tlhe stone, and the facility with which such large
mames as are required for this purpose can be procurled there, hfave indtuced
the selection of these quarria' The stonles will weighl fronm six and a half to
eight tons each.
Ttoe main building vwas erected fronl the drawings of Messr.   Woollett and
Ogden, Architects, Allbany; the additions and  the machinery  have been
designed by Mr. W. ltodgins, Civil En'giler; and tle latter is fnow  being constructed under his superintendenc e, in a very superior manner, at the iron works
of Messrs. Pruyn and Latnsing, bAll)any
The  entire building is a tasteful and elegaint structure, much superior in
architectural character to any other in Anetrica devoted to a simlilar purpose.








..... -4  4.......
EscLEOWr  CI.TIZENS or ALUnANvY:Assembled as we are, under your ausspices, inl this ancient and hospitablet
city, for an object indicative of a highly-advanced stage of scientific culture,
it is natural, in the first place, to cast a historical glance at the past  It
seems almost to surtpass belief, though an unquestioned fiact, that more than
a century sholiuld have passed away, after Cabot had discovered tile coast of
North America for England, before any knowledge was gained of the nobl)e
river on which your city' stands, and which was destined by Providence to
determline, in after times, tihe position of tlhe colmlmercial metropolis of tlhe
Continent.  It is true thlat Verazzano,,  an bold and sagacious Florentine navigator, in the service of F.'rance, had entered the Narrows iln 1624, which he
deseribes as a very large river, deep at its mouth, which forced its way
tlroughrli steep hills to the sea; but though hie, like all tlle naval adventurers
of that age, was sailing vwestward in search of a shorter passage to India,
lie left this l)art of tle colast without any attemlpt to ascend the river; nor
cann it be gatheredt friom his narrative that; he believed it to penetrate far into
the interior-.
voYv,-AM  or lE:NNIsCcK,unso.N,
Near a hundred years elapsed before that great thought acquired substanlce and formi.  In the spring of 1609, thle heroic but unfortulate lcldson,
one of the brig st                      y of Englt  t s toy of  ish maritime    denture,
but then in the employment of the Dutch E ast  India CompXanly, in a vessel
of eighty toiis, bearing the' very astronomical name of the l/alf Moon, having
been stopped by the ice in the Polar Sea, in thle attempt to reach the lEast
by the way of Nova Zemlbla, struck over to the coast of Amncrica in a high
northern latitude.  lie then stretched down southwardly to the entrance of
C(hesapeake Bay (of which lie had gained lca knowledge from  the charts and
desc~ription.s of his fr'iend, Captain Smiith), thence returning to the north,
enteredt Delawtare Bay, standing out again to sea, arrived onl the second of
Septemlber in sight of the "high hills" of Neversink) pronouncing it " a
good land to fiall in witlh, and a pleasant landl to see;" and, ol thle folloxwing
mnoring, sendling his boat before him to sound the way, passed Sandy HIook,




14                             Ol t tORATIO N.
anld there camo to anchor oin the third of Septembetr, 1609  two hundIred
anld forty-seven yearts ago next Wednesday.  Wlat an event, my firiends, ill
the history of American population, enterprise, commerce, intelligence, and
power........ the dropping of that anchor at Sandy Hook!
ISCO0VEIY OF'T'JHI lHuDsoN RIVtE.
Hiere hie lingerd a week, in fricndly intercourse with the natives of New
Jersey, while a boat's company explored the waters up to Newark Bay.
And now the great qilestion.  Shall lie turn back, like Verazzano, or ascend
the stream?  Ihldson \was of a race not prone  to turn back, by sea or lby
land.  On the eleventh of September lhe raised the anchor of thle  /lif bi ['oon,
passed through the 1Ntarrows, beholding on both sides " as beautiful a land
as one can tread on;" and floated cautiously and slowly tup) te itoble stream....... thle first shtilp that ever rested onl its bosomnt  ie l)assed the Palisades,
nature's dark ibasaltic MTalaakofg, forced the iron gateway of tile Ilighlands,
anchored, on tile fourteenth, near West Point; swept onward and upward,
the following day, by grassy meadows atnd ftangled slopes, 1hereafter to )be
covered with s-miling villages;. —-by elevated banlks and woody heights, tlhe
des'fined site of towns and cities — of Newburg, Ploughkleepsie, Catskill;......on
tlhe  vening of the fifteenth arrived opposite   the mountains whlich lie froll
the river side," wheroe lhe found "a very loving people and very old men;"
and the day following sailed by tile spot hereafter to be honored by Xhis owns1
illustrious  amel.  1On1e ml-ore (day wafts him  up betw'tenli Sellodcac atlnd C(ttstleton  and here lie landed and passed a day wNith the lnatiNves,-.-greeitd with
all sorts of barbarous hospitality,-   the land " the finest for cultivation lie
ever set foot onl" the natives so kind anld gentle, that wlhen they found iet
would nlot remtain with theim over nighft, and  alarced that  1e left them. —poor
chiildren of nature [. —<.because lte was afrtaid of their weapoIis, — -lIe, wYhose
quarter —deck w asheavy with ordnance, — -they " broke thllir arros in pieces,
and threw themi in the fire,"  On the following morning, with the carly
flood-tide, on thle I 9th of September, 1609, the IftIf' A0oon " rant higher itl),
two leaguces above the Shoals," and came to anchor in deep water, near the
site of the present city of Albany.  Hfap)y if lie could have closed his
gallant career on thle blalnks of the streatnm whichi so justly bears his nanlie,
and thuls have escaped thle sorrowful land mysterious catastrophe whlich
awaited  ilm thle next year!
(tCiAMPLAIN'S VOYAGE AND) TlE O1OWT0\'   OP COLOfNIES.
But the discovery of your great river and of the site of your ancient city,
is not tile only cvent whichll renders thie yearl 1609 memorable    in the annals
of America and the wtorld.  It was one of those year.s in which a sort of
sympl, athietic   miovement toward great resultss unlconsciously perv)CIde-s t-he,
races and thle minds of men.  While Hiudson discovered this migllty river




O RA TI O IO N5
and this vast region forl thle D1utch East India Company, Champlain, iln the
same year, carried the lilies of France to the beautiful lake which bears his
name oni your northern limits; the languishing establishments of England
in Virginia were strengthened by the second charter granted to that colony;
the little church of Robinson removed fiom  Amsterdam  to Icytln, friom
whicll  in a few  years, they wtent forth, to lay the founbdations of New
England on Plymouth Rock; the seven United'Provinces of the NetherJlands, after that terrific struggle of forty years (the commilelncemellt of which
bhas just been embatlted in a record worthy of the great ev8ent by  an
Amlerican hlistorial) wrested f'om Splain tIle virtual acknowl\dgment of their
independelce, in tlle Twelve Yearts' Truce; and Jamels tile First, ill the
samte year, granlted to tile British East tIndia Companlny their first permanent
charltttr, -o..ilcorner-stone of an emtpire destcl d iin two centuries to overslhadow
the East.
GATLIAEO'S T3IStN)\'lS ITER1J,
0110e more inlci(enlt is wanting to colmpllcte thle ist of thle memlorable
occurrences which signallize tile year 1-609, and one most Wi-orthly to be
remembered 1by us oin tllis occasion.  Cotemporl'aneously with thle events
which I ha)ve cllulerated.....-.. eras of history, (lates of empire, tle startingpoillt ill 8so01t  of tile greatest political, social, and lroralo revoltutiollns i  outr
i:tnals an Italian  astrontomler, who hIcd heard of the mllagnifying gtasses
whict  hadl been made illn ioland, by which (listanlt objects could )be briott
sieeminlgly near, calught at tile idea, constructed a telescope, andlt  pointed it
to tile heavens.  Yes, Ilmy friendsi, in the same year in whichl 1Htudson discovcrctd your river lanl tle site of your ancient town, in wlhich Robinlson
made htis melancholy lhegira fr'om  Amsterdamll to Leyden, (tGalileo Galilci,
w\ith a telscope, tIle Fvwork of his own hands, discovered tle phases of Vetlts
anld the satellites of Jupiter; and now, after the lapse of less than two ccntuites and a hlalf, oiln a spot then emtlbosomed in the wilderness.....-tlhe covert
of tile least civilized of all the races of men tl —- --— \we are asselbled   descendant s
of the Ilollandeirs, descendlants of the Pilgrimls, ill this ancientt and prosperoust city, to inaugurate the  establisllenlt of a first-class Astronomlical
Observatorly.
1EAltJY I)AYS Ot ALIANT.
One0 more glance at 3your early hlistory..Thllrce years after tIle landling of
the Pilgrinlsl at Plynmouth, Fort Oralnge was erected, in tle center of wv)hat is
0now tIle business 1)art of thle city of Albany; fand, a few  years later, the
little ihamnlet of Beverswyck b)egacl to ilestlle lnder its wvalls.  Two centuries
ago, lmy Albanian friendls, this very year, aild I believe this veryr month of
August, your forefathers assemnbled, not to inaugurate  an observatory, b)ut
to lay tlhe foundations of a new church, in the pilace of thle rude cabinl which
had hitherto served them in that capacity.  It Nwas built at tlhe itersection




10tG                  3ORATI' ON.
of Yonker's and lfiandelaar's, better klnown to yout as State and Market
streets.  Ptublic and private liberality codperated in the ilmplortant work.
Thse authorities at the Fort gave fifteen hundred gutilders; the patroon of thatcarl.y day, with the liberality co/.~val with tte name and the race, contributed
a thousand; while tihe inhl1abitants, for whose benefit it was erected, whose
numbers were small aind their resources smaller, contributed twenty beavers
" for the purchase of an oaSken pul)pit ill {olland."  Whet hertl  the largest part
of this subscription was bestowed by so-me liberal benefactress, tradition has.
not informed uts.
iNV AMSTERDA.M.
Nor is the year.t656 memorable in thle amnnals of Albany alone.  In that
same year your imuperial nmetropolis, thein numbering aRout three huntdred
inthabitant-s, was first laid out as a city', Iby) the name of New  Amsterdamt.
In eight years more, New Netherland becomes New York;  Fort Orange land
its (depenent hamlet assumes the name of Albany.  A century of various
fortlle succeeds; the scourge of Frlenchl and Indtlan wiar is rarely absent
from  the hlind; every  shock of European policy  vibrates with electric
rapidity across the Atlantic; but thle year 1756 findls a population of
300,000 in your growing province.  Albany, however, rmay still be regarded
almhost as a frontier settlement.  Of thte twelve counties into which the province was divided a hundred years ago, tile coomity of Albany comlprehended
all that lay north and west of the city; and the city itself contained but.
about three hundrdtt     and fiftyt houses.
T'wO ItHUSN'o)  YIA:l:s.
One more century; another act in thle great  drattma of empire; alnothelr
Fprench and Indian War beneath the banners of Eingland; a successftil flevolution, of which some of the most momelltous events occurred within your
limits; a unlioll of States; a Constitution of Federal (Gover nllnent; your pop1ulation carried to thle St. Lawrence and the great Lamkes, and their watcrs
piouredl into t(le fudlson; yiour territory covered with a net-work of canals
anti railroads, filled with life and acetion, and po1wer, with all thle Nworkws of
peaceful art and prosperous entelrprise with all tihe institutions which constitute and advance the civilization of the age; its population exceeding that
of the Union at the (late of t(le Revolution; your own numbers twice as
large as those of the largest city' of that day, you have met together, my
Friends, just two hutndre  years since thle erection of tlie little church of
BeverIswyck, to dediicate  a noble temple of science and to take a becoming
public notice of thle establishment of an institution, destined, as we tirust,
to exert a beneficial influence on the progress of useful knowledge at home
anud atbroad, and through that o01 the genemra cause  of civilization.
*'lhese h11storical notices are, for tihe moAst part, abridged frcrm  Mr. lirodlhcad's excellent
h:istory of New York,




o RA t      T  o.                        -.SCtiN''irIC PROGRE'SS.
Vol1 will observe that I am carefiul to say the progress ofsciencet  homelt
and abroad;" for tile study of Astronomy in this country hlas lotg silee, I
am lhappy to addt, 1)passed that point N1where it, is content to repeat. the obseryations and vervify the results of European researclh.  It htas boldly and sutccessfully entered tlhe field of originanl investigation, d(isco-very, atl d spculation;
and there is not now a singl e  (lcpartmtent of thle science ill which the names
of American obs.e8-rvers' and maltltmaticiant's are not. cited by our brethren
across the water, side by side with the most eminent of their lEurtopean contemporaries.
This stato of things is certainly recent.  l)uring the colonial period and
in the first generation after the Revolution, no depar'tltent of sciencei was, for
obvious causes, v\ey extensively cultivated illn Americ a —.astronomy perhaps
as 1muchtl as the kindr'cd brancthes.  The improvement int tlhe quadrant, conminonly known as  tladley's, had already been made at Philadelphia by
(odfrey, inl the etarly p)art of the last century; and the beautifil inventlion of
ttle collimating teles;cope was ilde  at  a later period by Ritltenhousc,  ar
astronomer of distinguisled repute. The transits  of'Venus of 1761 and 1769t
were  observed, andl orrcries  w-?ere constructed in difi'rcnt larts of t e country;
and some respectable sCientific essays (are contlained and valuable observations are recordted in the early volumes of the'tlransatctiolns of thle Philosophical Society, at Philadeltphia, and the Americatn Academy of Arts and
Scienccs at IBoston <and CGambridg e. ]hit inl tlhe absence of af numterouls class
of )rmen  of science to cneourage    and aid c lch other, without observattories
and withoutt valuable instrlum   ts, little of importanc, could be expected in
the higlher wals of asttronomical life.
AMEittCAN OBSERVATIONlS.
The greater tIte credit dute for the achiecvement of an enterprise cor11mme1nced in the early part of the present century), and which would reflect honor
eol the science of anlly countlry and any age; I mean the translation and commentary   on inalace's Iltcaniqute Cleste, by Jlovwditch; a work of whose
mcerit I am )my:self wholly ttlnable to tlrm  all opinioln, but whlich   sllppIose places the learned translator ald  commentator on a level with thIe iablest
astronome1rs and geomleters of the (lay.'This wvork may be considered as
opening a lew era in the history Of American science. Thec country wacs still
almost wholly deficient i in nstrumental power; but the want was generally
felt by men of science, and the public mindl in vYariouls lparts of the country
beigan to lbe turned towards thie mleans of supplying it.  In 1825, P residelit
John Quincey Adams brough't t the sutlject of a National Observwatory before
Conlgress. Politicatl con.sierations prevented its being favorably entertained
at that time; and it was lnot till 1842, and as an incident of the exploring
expedition, tlhat an appropriation wtas made for a d6p6t for the charts and




-t.8             o                    It A  rTON.
illstlruments of thile Navy. On this modest basis has been reared tlhe National
Observatolry  at Washington; anlt institution which has alreuady takent  and
fully sustaills an holorable position amtlong the scientific eCta)blishi1ments of
thle ago.
Besides tlhe institution at Washinllgton, fifteen or twenty observatories have
wvithin thte last few years, been established ill difbrent partlst of the country,
sollec of them oiln a modest scale, for the gratification of the scientific taste alnd
z.eal of ildividttuals, others on a  broad foundation of expense anld lusefufless.
In these establislenllnts, public and private, the means are providedl for tthe
highest order of astronomical observation, research, and ilnstruction..lter
is tlready iln tihe country an amount of instruinenital poxweri (to which additioln is constlantly making), land of mathelnatical skill on tile part of our mene}
of sciencel, adtequate to a manly competition with their European contemllporlaries. The fruits are already before the world, in the triangulationl of severalt,of the States, in the great work of the Coast Survey, il the numerous. scieintific sulrveys of the interior of thle Contilnent, in the astronomical delartment
oftthe gExploring Es.xpedition, iln the scintific texpe(lit ion to Chili, inl thle brilliant
htydrographical laborls of the O)bservatory a;t W'ashington,   in the published,observations of Washilgton and 0tIllbrildre, in the Journal condtlcted by thle
Nestor of American Science, now in its eighth ulstrumt; int the Sideeatl l.esenarg,  thie Alstrono mdticr al Joral, andl the ANtioz al.lthitemcrs i;n thle great
chrollomett'ical expetditions to determine the longitnde of (nbtlmdrtdg e,  better
ascertained than thatit of Paris wast till wvithiitl the last year; in tIhe promupt
rectification of the crrori  in the predicted clements of Neptune; in its iden-.ifitcation with Lalandtt s misisitng star, and inl the calculation of its cphemeris;
i;n thie discovery1 of the satellite of Neptutle, of the eighthl satllite of Sattt1urn,
iand of the innrmost of its rings; i)n tthe establisltlent, both by observ ation
and theoury, of tihe 1nonR-solid clharacter of St turn's rings; in the sel aratiot l anid
measurement of miany double and triple stars, ametnable  only to superior
stiruimetntalt powet,  in thle immense labor already p)erformie(d il prleparing
st-ar catalogtues, anld in  minmuerouss accurate observations of standard stars; in\
the diligent and successful observation of the meteoric showers;   in ani exsteisive se ries of mllaglletic observatiomns; ill tle discovery of an afsteroid andl tenl
or twelv tvelescopic comets; i n the resolution of inelbukla ivicll had defied
every tOhing in ]E:urop)o   but lord tosse'.s g2reat reflector; ill tlhe applicatiol.of electricity to te tmeaslurement of dtifferelnces in longittude; in the ascetainmiernt of tie velocity of of tle electromnagnetic ftluid, and its truly  wonderfid
luses in recordiing astronlomical  obscrv'Itions.  Tl.hese are )but; a portion of tlhe
tachlievementlls of AmerlicalI astt'lrolnomical science withill fifteeit or twenty yetrs,
antd filly justity the most sanguinel anticipations of its ffurther progress-.
Iow  far our astronoml ers may be able to p)ursue their researlchies, will
(depenid utponl tthe resources of our public iinstitutiomns, and the liblerality of
Nwealthy illtdividuals in fil'rlishming thle requisite    mtealis.  Wtith tihe exception
of the observatories at Wt ashington and West Point, little cal be done, or be




o  t'r x ION.                             19'xpectcd to be dione, by the govelrmnt 11t of the Union or tlte States; but
inr this, as in evey other department clof  liberal t anrd science, tlhe great
duelndence,....... -an  may I not add, the safe dependence?-........ as it ever has ceeln,
must continue to be upon ttle bounty of enlightened, liberal, and publicspirite(l individlals.'Il, D)UD)LtEY OSXUSti)WAtTORY,
It is by a siglrnal exercise  of this bounty, mly Friends, that we are callCed
together to-day.  The munificence of several'  citizens of this ancient city,
amo-ng whon1 the first place is duel to the generous lady whose name has
with great prol)riety been given to the institution, has furnnished the means
for tle foundlation of the Dudley  )bserltory  t Albany. O n a commanding
elevatioll onl tthe northern edge of tile city, liber>ally given for that pnurpose
by thle heade of a family ien  Which thte p)atronage of science is hereditary, a
building of ample dimensions has been ereccted, upon a )lan which cormbines
aMll the requisites of solidity, convenience, anid taste.  A large portion of the
cxpen lse of tle structure has been defirayed by Mrs. I and(ina Dudley; to
ywhose generosity, and that of severtal other ptublic-spirited individuals, the
institution is also indebtce  for thle provision which lhas been made for an
atlequate supply of fir'st-class instruments, to be executed by the most eminent makers in Europe and Amerticta; and which, it is confidently expected,
will yield to nonet of their class i;n any observatory in tihe world.*
AWith   libe-al sipply of instrumenttal power; established inl a con-lmun1ity
to whot.se intellfigotnce and generosity its support may be safely confi(ed, rand
whose educational institutionts are raapidly realizing the concelption of a un\iversity; counlte{anc(l:   by tl e gentleman who conducts the United States
(Coast Survey with such scientific skill and administrative energy; committed
to thle immendiate supjervision of an  astronomer to whose. distinguished talent
had been tadded the advatntage of a thorough l scientific education in thte most:
renownes   unliversities of Elurope, land who, as thle editor of thle A.meriecat?
Astronormicl   dJournal, has shown himself to be fully qualified for tihe high
trust;-..unlder these favorable eircumtstalces, the l)udley Observatory at
Allbany takes its place among the scientific foundatiolns of thle country and
tle tvorld.,
NvONDsuxS'OF AS'ltItO0OM~,
It is no afVctecd mnodesty which leads ine to express the regret that this
interesting occasion could not have taken place under somewhat different
auspices., I feel that thle duty of aIddressing this gcreat and enlightened as-,
sembly, comprising so much of the intelligence of the community and of the
science of the country, ought to have been elsewhere assigned; that it should
have devolved )upon some one of the eminent lpersoas, many of whomn  I. see
before me, to whom you have been listening the past week, who, as observers
* Prof, J.oontls, in!!atrpc "s fogocitn for Jane, 1). 49.




20                             O ItLATION.
and geomreters, could have treatel tlhe subject with a maslter's power; astrolnl
oerlet, whose telescopes have penetrated the depths of thCe heavens, or
mathelmc aticia ns,   whose aInalysis 1un1threalds the maze of their wonthrous
mcechatnism. If, instead of comm anding, as you easily could Ihave tone, qualifications of this kind, your choice has rather1 fialle1    on 1ne making no  pretelnsions to tle Ihontorable name of era manl of science,...... but whose delilght it
lhas; always been to turn aside tfiom the (ltusty paths of active life, for an intcrval of recreation in the greeln fields of sacred nature in all her kingdoms,. — it is, I presurte, becat'.use you have de.sired oin anl occansion of this kind, neccessarily of a popularl: clharactr, that those views of tlhe subject should be
presented which address themlselve's to tihe general inltlcligence of the co-tl
mulillty, and not to its stelect scientific circles.   Thlere is, plerhlsips, no branlch
of science which to the same extent  as astrolnomny exhibits plhc tolcnleta which,
while they task the lighest plowers of p)hilosophlical research, are also well
adapted to arrest t-he attention of minlds barely tincttured Nwith scientific cultuire, ald even to tefach the sensibilities of (tle whlolly ul1ninlstructed obslerver.'The lro'fotund investigations of tlte chtcist into thle tltitmate constitution of
material nature, t(le minute researches of thie physiologist into t(le secrets of
animal life, tlite transcendental logic of the geomecter, clothed ii   a notation,
tile very sight of which terrifies tle uninitiattedt-....are lost onl tle conlllto
understatdingi. But the unspeakable glories of thle rising and the setting sun;
thle scertie mlajestAy of thle tloon, as she walks in fiull-orbed brighltness through
thte heavens; thie soft witctelry of tite morning and the eveningl star; the itlerial splendors of tile firimament on a bight, uncloudeltd night; tlhe comet,
whose strearming banner flo;ats over half t(le sky,- -tlhese are okeccts which
charm and astonish alike tlle phhilosophler and t(he peasant, t(lte mathematician
who weighs thle masses tand dlefines tile orbits of t(he heavenlly bodies,  and
the untutored ob1server who sees nothing beyond the images paintetl  upon
the eye.
WIrAT,    s AN ASTRONOMWAl,  O[StiRVAtoR'Y?
An astronomical observatory, in thlie general "acceptation of t:le word, is a
building erected for t(le reception and  )approplriate use of astronomical
instrultients,   ai(d t(tie accoimmod10 ation of tlhe rmen of science employed in
making atttd reducing  observatiolns of tile heavenly bodies.  Tl1hese instiru1ients are mailly of three classes, to which I believe all others of a strictly
astrononmic.al character may lie refe'tred.
1. The instruments by which ttlet heavens are inspected, witth a view to
(iscover thie existence of those celestial bodies wiichi  are  nlot visible to lthe
naked eye (beyond all comparisorn more  numerous thaln those which are),
ansd the maglitiudle, shapes,  and other sensible qualities, both of those which
are and those which are not thus visible to tle unaided sight, The instruments of this class are designated by the general iame of Telescope, and are
of two kinds, -(lthe refitacting telescope, whlich dlerives its magnify3iin g power




t       I   N.                             21
fiom a systeml of convex lenses;   and the reflecting telescope, which re-ceives
the image of thle heavenly body upon a coneave mirror,
2d. The seconld class of instruments consists of those which are designed
principtally to mlleasure tihe angular distances of the heavcnly blodies from
each other, and their time of passing the meridianl.  l'he tranlsit instrument,
the meridian circle, the mural circlet, the helioleter, and tlhe sextant, belong
to thlis class.  The brilliant discoveries of astrolomy are, for tlhe most p art,
made wvithl tlhe first class of instlarmlnlts; its practical results wroutght out
by thle second.
3d. Thle third class contains the clock, with its subsidiary apparatus,) for
measuring the time anld making its subdivisions with the greatest possible
accuracy; indispe-nsable auxiliary of all the instruments, by whichl the position)s anlld motions of thle heavenly bodies are observed, and measutred, and
recorded.
TilEl" TLEASCOPt,
Thie telescope may be, likened to a wonldrous cycopeanl eye, endlued with
supelrhman lpo\wer, by which theastronomt er extends the reachl of his vision
to the ftilther lheavels, and survt ys galaxies antl d universes comp)ared with
which the solar system is but, an atom floating in the aiar. The transit Imay
Ibe compared to thle measuring rod which lie lays from planet to pltllt, and
from st-ar to star), to ascert<aitl and mark otff t:le heavenly space.s, and tral'sfer
t.lhem to his note-book; the  loct k is that ma rvelo0s apparatus by which he,
equalizes and divides into nicely lmeaslurld parts a portion of that unconccived infinity of duration, without bcgqinningt and v ithout end, ill which call
existenice floats as o  a shloreless and bottomnless sea.
In the contrtivanc  antd the execution of these instruments, the utmostt
stretch of inventive skill and mechanical ingenuity has been  put forth.'o
such perfectionl have they been carried, thatt a singlte  scond of magnitude or
space is rendered a distinctly visible andi appreciable quanltity.  "I'tlce arc of
fa circle," s.ays Sir J. I lerscthell, " subtended by 1one se0coind, is less thaln tlhe
200,000tlh part of the radius, so that onl a circle of six feet in diameter, it
would occupy no greater line.ar extent than 1-5700 part of an inch, a quantity
requiring a powertful tic0roscolpe to be fliscerne( at all."   The largest body
itl our system, the sull, )whlose real diameter is 882,,000 miles, subtends, att ta
distance of 95,000,000 mIiles, but al anglte of little more thanll 32; while so
admirably are thle best ilnstruments constructed that both il Elurope and
Amrerica a satellite of Neptune, an object of comparatively inconsiderable
diameterl, has b)een discovered at a distance of 2,850 milliolns of miles.
Uillr' or AiSTRONO.tMCAJ OaStitvlOxS.
1The ob.ject of an observatoiry, ercted t and supplied Nwith instrumenlwts of
this admliirable construction,   and att lproporionate   expetsc,  is, as I have
* Ontrti,,cgj, ~ 131.




22                             O{tATrION.
alrerdy intimated, to provide for an accurtate ad systematic survey of the
heavenly bodies, with a view to a more  corrcct  and extensive  acquaintanc e
with those already knoin, anld as instumetnttal power Eand skill in using it
increase, to the discovery of bodlies hitherto invisible, and inl both classes to
the determination of their distances, their relations to each other, and tlhe
laws which govern their movements.
Why should we,wishl to obtaiin this ktnowledge?  What inducement is
there to expend large sums of molney in tile erection of observatories, and in
fiurnishinl, them with costly instmtruments, and in the support of the men of
science employed in making, discussing, and recording, for successive gcnerations, these minute observations of the heavenly bodies?
In anl exclusively scientific treatment of this subject-, an inquiry into its
utilitarian relations would be superfluous-...even weari-some..  But on an
occasion like the present, you will n)ot, perhaps, thinlk it out of place if I
briefly ansver tlhe question, What is the use of an observatory, and what
benefit may be expected froml the operations of sulch an establislhment in a
community like ours?
I. In the first place, then, we derlive fi'om  the observations of the heavenly bodies which are made at anl observatory, our only adequate measures
of titme, and our only means of comparing  tlhe time of one place with tlhe
tilmet of another. Our artificial time-keepers........ clocks, vwatches, and chrqnometers — however ingeniously contrived aid admirably falbricated, are but a.
transcript, so to say, of the celestial tmotions, andtl would be of no value w\ithout thle means of regulating them by observation.  It is impossible for thenm,
ulnd1er anly circumstances, to escape the imperfection of all machinery the
work of humarn hands;  and the momentt we remove  with our time-keeper
east or Nwest, it fails us.  It will keel) home time alone, like the fond traveler
who loeaves his heart behind him.  The artificial instrument is of incalculable utility, but must itself be regulated by the eternal clock-work of tlhe
skies.
lI-:ATION5S BimrWmtWN  SNA'TURAL P11'iTiNOMEtiA AND DAILY mlrEI.
This single con-1Sideration is sufficient to shomw howlv completely tlhe (llaily
business of life is affected and controlled by thte heavenly bodies, It is they
-and not our main-spring s, our expaansion balallnces, and our compensation
pendulums-....... which give us our time.'To reverse  tlte line of Pope:
"'is with our wvatcles as our judgmentst;- -. one
(o jtust ali;ke, but each ielieves hlis ownt1."
But for nll the kindreds and tribes and tongues of men- -each upo t1o  their
own mneridianl- - -friol tihe Aretic pole to the equator, firom  the equator to the
Antarctic pole, thie eternal t slun strikes twelve at ntoon, and the glorious coiistCllatiois, fiar up in tlhe everlastilng belf'ies of te skies, chlime twelve.'at
mlidnlit;.t.-. - -.tw\elve for the pale tttudent over his flickering lamp; twelve




Ot  TICON.                                  23
amild the flaming glories of Orionl's belt, if he crosses the merittlan at that
fated hour; twelve by the weary couclt of languishling lhumanllity; twelve inl
thle star-pavedl courts of the Enpl)yrean; twelve for the heaving tides of the
oceanl; twelve for the wteary arm  of labor; twelve  for tlhe toiling  brain l;
twelve for thte watching,'waking, broken heart; twelve for the meteor whichl
blazes for a moment and expires; twelve, for tlhe comet whose period is measured by centuries; twelve for every substantial, for every imaginary thing,
wyhicehl exists ill the sense, thle intellect, or the fantcy, and which thle speech
or thought of ISman, at thle given meridian, refers to the lapse of time.
Not only do we resort. to thle observation of the heavenly bodies for the
means of regulating and rectifying our clocks, butt the great divisions of (lay
and month and year are derived f'rol tlhe same source.  lly thle constitution
of our nature, the celements of our existence are closely connected with celestial titles.  Partly by his physical organization, partly by the experience of
thie race firom the dawn of creation, man as lie is, and the times anlt seasons
of the heavenly bodies, are part and parcel of one,ystem.  The first greatt
division of tilme, the day-night (nyclithemeruim), for which we have no tpre
cise synoitymn  it our language, with its primal alternation of waking andl:;leepiig, of labor and rest, is a vital condition of the existence of such a
creature as man.  T'l he revolution of thte year, with its variious incidents  of
sulcmmer and winter, and  seed-tine and harvest, is not less involved in our;ocial, material, and moral progress.  It is true that at tihe poles, and on tlhe
equator, the efiects of these revolutions are variously modified or wholly dtis —
appeal; btt as the necessary consequience, htumtan li if  is extinguished at the
poles, anti on the equator attails only a languid or feverish development.
Th]lose latitudes only in which the great mottiosl anid cardinal positions of
thte earth exert a meanca influenee, exhtibit itan in the hartonious expansion
of hlis peowers.'he lunar pleriod, whicih i  lies at thle founldatioi of the mtotnth,
is less vitally connected wvith lhuman existence anld develop)ment;  but is
iproved by the experience of every fage antd iace to be emilently conducive:
to the  progress of civilization anid culture.
]lutt indispoensable. as are these theaveitly measures of tile to ourt life ati'
)'rogress, atnd obviouts aS al'Cre the pltCictiomna. Onl which they rest., yet o\w9ing
to tile circumstancet that, inl the economy of nature, the (lay, the monltl, mlund
the year are not exactly cortmlensurable, some of the ntost difficullt quclstions.il prlactical astronomy are those by which anl accurate division of timet
appllicable to the various uses of life, is derived fiomll tite observation of thYe
iteavently bodies.  I have io doubt.lthtt, to tile Supreme itIntelliglence  lthich
cre<ated and rutles tihe untiverse  tlhere iS't Itharllmony hmiddein  to uts il the
numterical itela'tion to each other of ldays, m1onths,  mand years; bult il otur
ignorance of that harmon y, their practical' adjustment to each other is a
work of ificutltty.  The gretat embalrrassslent which attended thte reformntation} of the calendal, after tle, error of the Jutlianl period had, in thte lapse  of
cotittlric, reached tenl (oi rather twelve) day'  Sttufficiently illutstraites this




24'                            (i t A T' I  IN.
retlmark.  It is most true that scientific diffliculties (lid not form the chief
obstacle.  Ivlsing beent  proposed under the auspices of thie Romtttan pontlifi,
thle Protestant t world, for a century and more, rqjected the new style.  It
wa\\s in variouM s iplaces the subject of controversy, collision,,anid bloodslhed.t
It. was not aR(opted in England till neartly two centuries after its introdtuction.at Rome; and in the country of St'truve and the Pulllova equatorial, they
pelrlsist  at the pre-sent day in adding eleven minutes and twelve seconds to
thle lenglth of the tropical year.
tGEOGtAPHJICAT, SCIF}:Sc.
2. 1'The second great practical use of lan Astronomical Observatory is connected vwith thte scitence of geoorlaphy..'}The first page of the history of our
Colntinlent declares this truth.  Profound medlitation onl the sphericity of the
earth was one of tile 11ai  reasons w'hich led Columbus to undertake his
10momen11tous voyage; and his thorough acquaintance with the astronomical
science of t)at d(lay was, inl his ownvI jud(gment,  what enabled him to ovrcomeO
the alll st innu1erable obstacles which attended its pro.secution.f  In return1l,
I find that Copernicus in tle very commlenceiment0 of his immortal work.De'Re.
*vobttionibut  Orb/urm C~~.elstimt, fol. 2, appeals to the discovery of Amerlica as
completing tile demonstration of tlhe sphericity of thle earth.  IMuch of ourt
knowledge of the figure, size, density, and position of the earth, as a member
of the solar system, is derived firom  this science; and it fiurnislhes us tlhe
1m1ealns of pelr-formin  te most important operationts of practical geography.
Latitude and longitude, whlicth lie at the lbasis of all tdescriptive geography,
are determined by observation.  No 1nmap deserves th;e name, oin which tile
positiont of imnportnt points has i ot been aIstronomically (etelrminecd.  Some
even of our most imlpor'tanlt political anid adminiistrative arrangements depend
upotl tlhe codperation of this science.  Amon g these I may mrlention thle land
SyStyln of t1te United Statesl, and t   (ltt:etermnnation of thle boundarices of ith(e
country. I believe that till it Nwas done by the Federal Government, a uniform system of mathelmatical survey had neover lin alny country been {applied
to an extensive  territory.  Large gr  lts  and  sales of public land took place
before tihe Revolution, and in the interval between tle peace and thte adoltion
of the Constitution; iut thte limits of these grants tand s<ales were ascertaitned
by sensible objcects, by     s, streams,  rocks, hills, and by referesnce to adjacent plortions of territory, previously surveyed.  The uncetailnty of bouln(taies thus defined, was a uIever-failing source of litigation.   large tractGs of
land in the Western country, gr-anted by Virginia under this 01ld System of
special anld local slurtv5y,  were ceovered with conflicting claims; alnd tlte controvelrsies to xhicl thley gave rise formed no sumall part of the business of the
Federal Court aftert its organization. uilt the adoption of the lpresenlt landsystem brought orlder olut of chaos. Th'lie entirl pubhlic domain is now \scien* SItels u " m Ildlms t(l m arl$ a;e,  le" 1p. 72.
f Iit iiboldit, HIisA,'e (d!e  Qeograp to)ie. &ke., Ton. 1, jago IT"




o lR A,T IO  N.                          925
tifically surveyed before it is offered for sale; it is ltid, off into ranlges, towlnships, sections, and smaller divisions, with unerring accu racy, cesting on tile
foundation of blase and meridial lines; and I have been informed that under
this "syfstem, scarce a cans  of contested location and boundary has ever
pre'sented itself in court.  The General Land Office contalins maps and plans,
in which every quarter-sc.tion of the public landl is laid (lown) with mathematical precision.  The' superficies of halfat continent is thus transferred in
miniatture to the bureaus of \ashington; \vwhile tlhe local tLandl Oflices contaill transcripts of these plans, copies of which are fiurnished to the individual
purchaser.  IWhen Nwe consider the tide of population annually flowing  into
the public domain, and the illmmense ilmportance of its efficient and econoictal
admillistration, tlhe utility of this alpplication of Astrolnomy Nwill be duly estimated.
I Nwill lhere venttre to repeat an anecdote, which I hieard lately firol a son
of tlhe late  lt lon.'Timothy Pickering.  Mr. Octavius Pickerinlg, onl behalf of
his tiather, hlad applied to Mr. David Putnam of Marietta, to act as his legal
advi.ser, wvith respect to certain land claillms in tile Virginia Military disttrict,
ill the State of )Ohio.  Mr. Putnam declined tle agency.  lie had had much
to do with business of that kind, and found it beset with endless litigation.' I have never," lie added, "stucceeded but in a silllte  case, and that \was a
location and survey made by (tGeneral Washington before thie Revolution; and
I amn not acquainted with any surveys, except those made by ]him, but ywhat
have been litigated."
At tlfis momlent, a most important survey of the coast of thle United
St"ates is in progri ess, anl operationl of the iutmost consequence, in reference to
t~h comimerce,  navigation, ald  htydrogralhy of the conntry.'The entire
work, I need scaree say, is oe ne of practical astronomy.'.ifhe scientifie establishment which Nwe this tlay inaugurate is looked to for imjportant cooperation
iln this; great undertakitng, and will no doubt contribute efficiently to its
prosecution.
Astronomical observation frlrnishe's by fill the best 1mIeaIns of defining tlle
boundaries of State, especially when th  lines are of great length and rt1unt
through unsettled countries.  Natural indications, like riivers lead mountatlins,
howeveer indistinct inl appearance, are in plractice subject to unavoidable
error. IBy the treaty of 1783, a boundary was establi shed betweel tlhe
United States and Gr eat Britain, depending chiefly on tle cour.se of rivers and
highlands dividing the waters  which flow int:o tile Atlantic Ocant friom those
which flow into the St. Lawrence.  It took twenty years to finld out wviceh
river waNVts tle true St. Croix, that being tile starting, poiInt.  Enigland then
having made, thle extrt'ordinlary  discovery that tile Bay of Fundy is not a
part of tilhe Atlantic Ocealn, forty years more wcere passe(d in thle unscccssfil attempt to r1e-ea-ctae thle highlands whicll this stranige theory had annihilated; and1 just as tile two Countries Nwere oil the verge of a war, tile controversy wvas settled by comlromise.  lHad the boundary  )een accurately




26                             ORATOT3 IO N
described by lines of latitude and longritude, no dispute could thatve arisen.
No disputo arose as to thie boundary between tile United States and Spain,
and her successorl, Mexico, where it runs through untroddeln deserts and
over pathless.lmountains along the 42d degree of latitude.  Thle identity of
rivelrs may be (lisputed, as in tlhe case of the St. Croix; thle course of mountain chains is too broad for a dividing line; tle division of streams, as experience 1has shown, is uncertain; but a degree of latitude is written on the
heavenly sphlere, and nothing but an observation is required to read the
record.
QUESTIONS OF JIOUNI)ARTY,
BIut scientific  elelments, like sharp instrumenllk-T1ts, must 1)e handled with
s;cientifte accuracy.  A part of our boundary between the JBritishl Provinces
ratn utpon tlhe forty-fifth degree of latitude; and about forty years ago, 1an
expen.sive fortress Nwas commenced by the governmient of t(le United States, at
Rouse's Point, oin Lake Champlailn, oin a spot intended to be just within
our limits.  When a line came to be more calrefilly surveyed, tile fortress
ttunred out to be on the wrong side of the line; we had been building ran
expensive fortification for olur neighbor.  But in the gener al compromises of
tile Treaty of Washington by tile Webster and Ashtburton T, eaty in 1842,
tlie fortification was left Nwithin our limits.*
Errors still more serious lrad nearly resulted, a few years since, in a wlar
with Mexico. By tle treaty of Guadalupe tlidlalgo, in 1,848, thle boulndary
line between the UnIited States and that country vwas in part described by
referenco to thie town of El Paso, as laid d(own oil a specified map of the'United States, of wlhich a copy Nwas appended to the treaty.  This boundary
was to be surveyd and run by a joint commtission o1f men of science.  it
soon aIpeared tlhat errors of two orl threle degrees existed in the projection of
tihe 11map.  Its lines of latitude anld longitude did not conform  to thte toPographt y of tlie region; so tlhat it became impossible to execute: the text of
the treaty.  The famous Mesilla Valley vwas a part of tile debatable ground;
land the sumtt  of $10,000,000, paid to the Mexican ~Government for tlhat and
for art aadditional strip of territory on tlle southwtfest, was tflie srlnart.mLoney
hichll expiated tile ina11ccuracy of ttle,tlmaptAlite necessary result, perlhaps, of
tile want of good imaterials for its cons'truction.
It,became mly official duaty in London, a few years ago, to apply to t(le'British (Government for an authentic statement of their claim to jurisdictiont
over New Zeafland. The official Gamette for the 2d of October, 1840, was
sent mne from  le t   Foreign Oflice, as 1ffording t(le desired information.'This
nlumber of the (/a.zette contained t(lie proclamnations issued by the,ieuateuant
Governlor0 of New Zealanid, 1"ii  pursuance of tihe instructions lie received
froom thle AMarquis of Normnanby, one of l [er'Majesty's prllincipal Secretaries of
* Webster's Works. Vol. V., 10, 115.




ORt AT ION.                                27
State," asserting the jurisdiction of his governmenl/tt over the islands of New
Zealand, and declaring them to extendl  " fron 34~ 830' North to 4i7~ 10' South
latitude."  It. is scarcely necessary to say that south latitudte  was intended
in both instances'.  This error of 690 of latitude, whicht would have extended
the claim of British jurisdiction over the whole breadth of the Pacific, had,
apparently, escaped the notice of that government.
COWMMERCE' AND NAVIGATION,
it would be easy to multiply illustrations int proof of the great practic<al
importance of accurate scientific designations, (Irawn from  astronomical
obs-ervations, in various relations   conneeted wtith botmdariess, survey.s, and
other geographical pturposes; but I tmust bhasten to
3. A  third important department, in which the services rendered by
astronomy arc cqually conspicuous.  I re fer to commerce and naviga-tion.
It is mainly owing to tilhe results of astronomical observation, that modern
commerce 2has attained such a vast expansion, comlpared with that of the
ancient world.  I  thave talretady reminded you that accurate ideas iln this
respect contributed materially to thle conception iln the mind of Columbus of
his immortal enterprise, alnd to thle plractical success with which it wvas conducted.  It swas mainly his skill in the use of astronomical instrumtents- -
implerfect as they were.. —which enabled him, il spite of the bewildering
variation of the compzass, to finld his way across thle oceean.
WXith thle progress of tle true system  of the universe toward generalt
adoption, tile problem of finding tlhe longittde at sea presellted itself.  This
was the avowed object of the foundation of tlhe observatory at Greenwich; *
anrd no one sultlbect lhas received mIore of tehe attention of astronomers, thant
those investigations of tile lmlar theoryf  oln which the requisite tables of the
navigator are founded.'{The pathways of the oceanl arle marked out int tlte
sky above.  The eternal lights of the lheavens are the only Pharos whose
beam"s never fail, whlich no tempest can shake from its foundation,  Withlin
mty recollection, it was deemCed a necessary qualification for the master and
the mate of a merchant-ship, and even for a prie hand, to be able to "work
a utn1al," as it was called. The implrovements iin the chronometer have in
practice, to a great extent, superseded this laborious operation; but observation remainsl, and unquestionably will for ever remaint, the only dtel)tenltec
for ascertaining tlhe ship)'s time  and deducting the longitude fr'om  the
colmlparisoln of that time with tihe chrolnometelicr.
It may,  erhanps, be thought that astronomical science is brought already
to such a state of perfection that nothing more  is to be tdesiredl or at least
that nothing Xmore is attainlable, in reference to such plracticable appl)ications
as I have described.  Tlhis, however, is anl idea which gelnel-rous minlIds wvill
reject, inl thlis, as in every other department of lmlan knowledge.  IT  astronomy, as ill every thing else, the discoveries already Imaide, theoretical or
* (rant's P'hysixt Als!ro'onony, p. 460,




28 $, It iA T I O N.
practical, instead of exhausting the sciece, or puttingl  a limit to its advancemeint, do but ftrnishl the means and instruments of flr'ther progress.  I have
no doutbt we live on the verge of discoveries andl inventions,  in every departmentl, as brilliant as any that ]lave ever beenll 1made; that there are new
truths, new facts, ready to start into recognition oin every side; and it seems
to 11me there nvecr vwas an age, sinlce thXe dawn of time, whelln men oughtlt to
6e less (lisposed to rest satisfited with the progress already made, than tIhe
age illn which we live; for there never Nvwas  n age mnole odistinguishe d for
ingenious research, for novel resultt,   andbold 1)01  ener-lization.'That lo fiurther improvement is desirable in thie means and methods of
ascertaining the ship's place at sea, no one I think wvill from  experience be
disposed to assert.  The last tine I crossed the Atlantic, I walked the
quarter-deck with the officer in charge of the noble vcssel, on one occasioln,
when we were driving along before a leadling btreeze and under a ]head of
steam, bceneath a starless sky at midnight, at tile rate certainly of tenl or
eleven miles an lour.  There is sometihing sublime, but alaproaching the terible, ill such a scene;... tfh thlee rayless gloom, tile midnight chill,-.-tite awful
swell of the deep!, -— the dismal moan of the wind through the rigging, tihe all
but volcanic fires wvithin the hold of the shil).  I scarlce know an occasion in
ordinary life ill which a reflecting mind feels more keenly its hopeless delpendence onl irrational forces beyond its own control.  I askcd my compalnion
how nearly lie could determinle lhis shlip's )lace at sea under favorable cirsc1umstances.  1Tlloretica113y, he an1swered, I think<, within a. mile;- -.ptactical ly
and usuially wtithin three or four.  My next question %was, how  near (1O you
think wce may be to C(ape Race;. —that (dange-rous headland \'hich plishes its
iron-bound unlighted bastions friom the shlore of Newfoundland far into tihe
Atlantic, —-first landfall to thle homeward-bound American vessel.  We must,
said he, by our last observations and reckoning,l1 be within three or four miles
of CGape Race.  A comparison of these two relmarks, untder thle circumstances
in which we we re llaced at the moment, lbrought my mintld to the concllusion,
that it is greatly to be wished that the means should be discover-ed of finding
the shlip's place more accurately, or tlhat lnavigators wvould give (ape Race a
little wider berth.  But I do not remember that one of the steam  packets
between England and America was ever lost onl that, formidable point.
Tt appears to me by no means unlikely that, with tlhe improvement of instrumental power, and of thte mleans of ascertaining thle shlip's time with exactnless, as great an advance b)cyondl the present state of alrt and science in
finding a ship's place at sea may take place, as was effected by the invention
of the reflecting quadrant, tlhe calculation of lunar tables, land the improved
construction of clhronometers.,
AJIBiA(GES DIXFEtI:;rNX}XcN MACHI SE.
Inl the wonderfil versatility of tlhe human mind, tlle improvement., whenlt
made, will very probably be made by tpaths wlhere it is least expected.  The




o It  T I   No.                          29
great inducemeint to Mr:. ilabbage to attempt the construction of an en gino
by whtich astronomical tables could be calculated, and even printed, by
llechanical means andi with entire accuracy, was thle erronrs in thie requifsite
tables.  Nineteen sttch errors, ill point of fact, were discovered in an edition
of.aylor's Logaritullss printed in 1796; some of which might have led to the
most dangerous results in calculating a ship's place.  These nineteen errors,'
(of which one only was an error of the pres),   ere poinlt:ed out in' tho A".ucat ial Aittif ac for 1832.  In one of these crrata.f tlhe seat of thle error Nwas
stated to be in cosine of 14~ 1:8' 3X. Subsequent examination showed thfat
there was an error of one second in this correction; and, accordingly, in the
mutweail Almanae of the next year a netw correction whs necessary.  )hit il
making the lnew correction of one second, a neow errior was committe(d of ten
degrees.  Instead of cosine t14  18' 2~ the correction was printed cosine 4L:18' Ps making itf still lnecessary, iln somlt  future editionl of th-e A'aliftieat
Almatzae to insert an errattum  in  an erratum  of the errata in Taylor's
logarith ms.*
In the,hop)e of obviating tile possibility of such errors, Mr. Bablhage projected hids calculatinlg, or, as hei prefers to call it, his diffelrencl   machine.  Althiough this extraordinary 1lundertaking has been arrested, in consequence of
thle enormnlous expense attending its execution, enough has been achieved to
shlow the 11mechanicall   possibility of constructing an engine of this kind, annd
even olne oft far higher powers, of which tMr. Babbage has matured the colnccptioni, devised tile notation,  and executed  the drawingsthemselves  ltan
imperishalble mlllument of tile geniu.s of the author.
It happenild on one occasion to be ill compally with this highly distiltguitshed manl of science, whose social qualities are as pleasiing as his constructive talent is marvelous, when another eminent savant, Count Strzelecki,
just returnedl friom his Oriental and Australian tour, observed that he found
among the Chinese a great tdesire to kntlow  somXething more of Mr. B:abbage's calculating machine, and especially whether, liket their own Is.wtam-pan,
it could be made to go into the p)Ocket.  tMr'. 13abbage good-humiouredly
observed that, thutls fil', lie had been very   ucth out of pocket wvith it.
INXCIASEi)   COMM~fAND OP JINTRUMENTAL PS'1'OV E'it.
Whatever advances may be made in astronomical science, theoretical or
applied, I am strongly inclined to think that they villt be made iln connectionl with anl increased colltmmandl of instrumental power.'le natural order
in whichiel the hum\ia  mind proceeds in the acquisition of astronomical knowledge is minute and accurate observation of the phllenomelat of the hleavens,
the skillful dliscussionl and analysis of these observations, alnd sound plilosophy in generalizing the results.
* Editnbtgh Review, Vol. LXTX, 252.




30                             ORA'TION.
In pur'suing this cour1se, however, a difficulty presented itself, which for
agc s provel  insuperabl.lc.ltl - anl wlich to the, same extent ihas existed in no
other science, viz.: tlat all thle leading p)lIellomlna art in their cappearance
delusive.  It is indeed true that iln all sciences superficial observatiorn   canl
only lead, except by ciance, to superficial ktnowledge; but I know of no branch
inl which, to the same e deree as in astronomy, the great leading phenomena
are the reverxse of true; while they yet appealt  so strongly to the senses, that
men who couild foretell eclipses, anld who (discovered  thle lprecessioll of tlhe
equinoxes, still believed that the enartih wAvas at rest in the center of the univele$, and that all the hlost of iheaven performed ia (laily  revolution about it
as a cenlter.
It usually happens in scientiffic progress, that when a great fact is at lengltt
discotvcred, it approves itself at once to tall competent jtudges.,   t fiurnisihes a
solution to so Imalny problems, and harmonizes with so many other facts, - — that
al! the other dratao as it w\ere crystallize at once about it.  In modernl timest,
wte have often witlnessed sucht anl impatience," so to say, of great trutlvhs, to be
(liscoverled, that it haws  frequently happened tlhat they  ihave Ibeen found out
simultanleously by lmore than oe inldividal; and a disputed question of pliority is an event of very common occurrence.  Not; so with the true theory of
the heavens.  So co:mplete is t:lhe deception practicel onl the senses, that it filcd
imore thanll once to yield to tlhe suggestion of the truthl; aud it was onlly wheln
ilhe visual organt s wNere armeltd Awith  ani ahllmost preternatural instrumlental
powver, that the great fact found adtmission to the human mind.
TlEiH  COP>EIINIUAN SYSETZI.
It is stpposed thftt il the very dtawn of science, P)ythagoras or his discipies explained the apparent ttotion of the hellavenly bodies about the earth by
thie diurnal revolution of the earth oi its axis. But this tlheorSy, though bearing so deeply iimnpresseCd upon it the great seal of truith, simplicity,  was in
such glaring contrast with  the evidetnce of the senses, that it failed of acceptance in antiquity or thle middle ages. It found no favor with iinds like those
of Aristotle, Archimedes,  llipparclhu, Pltolemy, or tany of the racute  and
learned Arlabian or me(tliteval astronomers.  All their ingenuity and all their
mathemllatical skil \were exhausted in the dteveloplnent of a wonderfully complicated and ingenious, but erroneous history.  The great master truth,
rejected for its sitmplicity, lay (lisregalded at their fect.
At the second dawn of science, thte great fiact agnain b-)earmed into the mind
of Copernicus.  Now, at least, in that glorious; age which witnessed tlhe illnventioln of j)rinting, the great mecltanical engine of itellectual progress, andll
the discovery of America, \e limay, expect that this long-hidden revelation, a
seond timle proclaimned, wvill command the assent of mankind. But tlhe sensiblo phenomenlea were still too strong for thle theory; tile glorious delusiol of
the rising and the setting sun could not be overcome.  Tycho do Bralhe fiurnished his ObservatoryS  with instruments suplerior in tnumber and quality to




O  t A T I O N                                31
all tihat lhad been collectted before; but tile great instlrumcent of discovery,
wfichl, by augmenting tilhe optic power of thle eye, enables it to penctriato beyond the apparent phenomena, and to discern t(le true constitution of the heavenly bodies, was wanting at Ulranienburg.   ht1e  o)servations of Tyecho as
discussed by l(epler, conducted tlhat mlost ferlvid, powerftl, and sagaciouts mind
to t(le discover'y of sonlle of tile ml0ost ilnplortal It Iaws of the celestial motions;
but it itwas not till Galileo, at Florence, hlad pointed hlis telescope  to tlie sky,
that tle Copernican  system  could 1be said to be firmly established inll te
scientific world.
T'l:  1e03fM1 OF'ALiLf,EO.
011 this greatt natme, lty Friends, assemblled as we are to dedicate a temple
to instrmlental Atronomly, we may well pause for a. moment.''l1c re is  tImuc    iln every wVay, iln tile city of Florence to excite t(le curiosity, to kindle tile imagination, and to gratify  lthe taste. Shelttered on the
north by tile vilnc-clad hills of Fiesoli, whlose cyclopean walls carry back the
antiquary to ages before the Roman, beftore the Etruscan power, t(le flowery
city (Fiorcntza) covers t(ie sunny banks of t(le Arno with its stately palsaces.
D)lark and friowning piles of ineditevatl structure; a majestic dolme, thle prototylpe of St. Peter's;  basilicals which enshrlline the ashes of sonic of the mniglitiest of thle (dead; (the stone whVere D)ante stood to gaze onl tle Campanile; tle
hloluse of Michael  Anlgelo,  still occupied by a deIscendanllfllit of his linleage and
name, his li  hmmei, Ills chisel, Ilis dividelt s, shis iasllnuscript 1poemts, all as if it e
had left themlt but yesterday; airy bridges, which  seemt   not so much to rest
on tlhe earth as to hover over tle waters tiley shan;  (lte lovteiest creations of
ancient art, rescued friom the grave  of ages again to enchant the world; tile
breatling marbles of AMiclhael Angelo, tlte gloNwNing canvas of Rapttlal alnd
Titial,  museumls filled. witlh medals and coins of every-age fiol-m Cyrus (lie
yoiuigctr, and gems alnd aniullet's and vwses fiom  thle selpulclhers of Egyptian
Ph1artaoh1s cou bval witih Joseph,  and Etruscan lucultmons. that swayed Italy before t(le itheoRans,-. ibrar les stored with thIe choicest texts of lancient lhiterattt,........gardels of rose tand orange, and pomegranate, nltl myrtle, -dth-lie very!air you breathe lhanguid with Muisic atld perftllle;:- — such iS Florence.  But
among all its flsecinations, addressed to thle sense, tie imemory, and thle heart,
theret wias lnone to whichll I 1iore frequently gave a meditative hour durilng a
year's residence, than to tlie spot where (G;     }alileo Gailei sleCeps beneath  t(le
marble floor of Santa Croce; no building on iwhlich I gazed with  greater
reverelnce, thin I did upont the modest miansion at Arcetri, vilia at once and
prison), in wvhichl tlhat vtterable sage, by comlmand of thle Inquisitioln, 1passed
the& sad closing yearns of lhis life.'lThe beloved dauglter on whiton lie had depientede  to smoothi his passtage to  lie\  grave, laid there before hi  int he eyet s
with which lie had (discovered worlds before unknown, quenched in blindnesi: ~
Ahltie I qlueglt occht1 si son fAtti oseurl,
C'he t-ider pig di( tutt i i tempi anltic,
E NtCeo fur dte secolt futttri.




32                               0 RI ATIO 0 N.
t')hat was the houtse, " where," says AMilton (another of tltose of whoml t1het
world was not wort-hiy), "I found land( viited tlhe fitnous Glllc, grownt old.at plrisoner to thle inquisition, for thinking on astronominy otherwise   than as
the l)olinican land Flnranciscat   licensers thoughtl."    (xreat Iteavens{ wlat
a tribunal, what a culprit, wlat    time    i ect tts thalnk (Godt, mly Friellnds,
thlat we live in tile nineteelth century.  Of all the wondeils of ancient and
modern lart, st'tlrues and )aintigs, lr and jewels a}nd  tanuscriptsjt, —.the amlniration a:nd the delight of ages,-'.-...there was nothing which I beheld with more
aftectionate awe thall that poor, rotgh tube, a f.ew feet in lengt..tl...... thte work
of his own hands, —that very " optic glaw%,"  through whicfh ile "rTuscan
Artist" viewted the moott,
"At evenilg, from  the top) of fsot6,
Or il Valatnro, to descey new laints,
li-ive., or tountatilins;, i her spotty globe.f"
that poor little spy-glass (for it is scarcely' utore) through  which the letlltat
eye flirst distinctly beheld thle  surface of tlte mloon-..fir"st Adiscovered t(le
phases of Venlis, tlhe satellites of Jlupiter, and tle sceeting handles of Saturtx
-..-f.irst penetrated the dlus)ky  depths of th(e llteavens-.. —. fist- pierced the clouds
of visual error, which, firon the creation of t(te world, involved t(le systemt  of
tile Universe.
Thlere Iare occasions in life in which  a great mind lives years of ral)t
tenjoyment inl a nom1ent.. carn fancy the elmotions of (:Galileo, when, first.
raising thle newly-con'structed telescope to ftle heavens, lie saw  futlfilled tle
grand prophecy of Copernticus, \and beielt, i the planet Vexnurs crscetent like the
moon,  It was sutch another miomlent as lhat whell thle imltmortal l)rinte-s~ of
Mehltz and Strasburg receiveld lthe first copy of thle Bible into their l1atds, the.
work of their divine art; like that wheni Columtbus, throutgl the gray dawnt
of t:he 12th2 of October, 1492 (Copernicus, at t(le age of eighteen, was then a
sttudent at Cracow), beheld li\e shlores of San Salvador; like that whent tlhe
law of gravitation first revealed itself to tlie intellect of Newton; like that
when lranklin Xsawv by ty(le stifiening fibens of the hempent cord of his kite,
that h:e held t(le ligltning in his glrasp; like  tlkhat whenf  Lev erier received(
back firomt Berlin ithe tidings that thle pr1edicted planet wa.s fotilud.
Yes, noble Galileo, thou art right-,.i pu  Si waove.  "It (does move."
Bigots  lmay  -lmake thee recant it;  buttt it moves, tneverthceless.  Yes, t(le
earth mioves, and thle hplantets move, al(ld the mighty waters miove, and the
great sweeping tides of air ltove, and thte emlpires of menl move, and thle.
world of thought tmoves, vetr onward and upwar't     to highlter fiets and bolder
theorieas. tihe Itlquisition tma2y seal thy lips, but they can no moroe 0stop t(le
progress of tile great truth proplounded by Copernicus, andl( demonlstrated by
tlice, t()han  they can stop the revolving earth,
Close now\St, venerable sage, that sightless, tearful eye; it thas seen what
tnan ntever before saw-........ it has seen eltotugh    I ang tlup that poor little spyglass -it has done its s work.  Not HIerseliell tnor  OItsse have, comparatively,
* Prose Works, ol., 1. 213.




O 1A A T I oN.                               33
done more.  iranciscans and Dominicans., deride thy discoveries now; but
tile time wNill colm-e wheln, friom  two hundred observatorieQ s in Eluropte  and
America,  tlhe glorious artillery of science  shall nightly assatlnt the skies, but
they shall gain no  conquests int those glittering fields before which thline
shall be forgotten.  Rest in peace, great Columbusl of tihe lheavens. —.  like him
scorlned, persecuted,  broken-heartedl!. —. int othert aes, inl distant hemispheres,
when the votaries of science, wVith solemni acts of consecration, shall dedicate
their stately edifices to the cause of knowledge  and truthl, thy nwame shall be
mnentiolned with honor.
NEw'ERIOD)S IN AS\itONOMI CA   i SCI(IENCE,
It is not mlly intention, in dwelling with sutch emllphasis uIpo0l the invention
of tihe telesco)pe, to ascrite ullndu  iimportance, ill promoting tile advancement
of science, to tile incrtease of instrumental power.  Too muchl, indeed, cailot
ibe said of the service rendered by its firsst applictationl il conlfirming and
bringing into generatl repute the Copernllica1n system;   but fo, a, considerable
time, little more was efilctcd by tlte w\ondrous instriment than tile gratification of cturiosity anld taste, by tile inspection of the planletary phases, antt the
adltdition of the rings antd  atellites of Saturn to thle solar family.  Newton,
premlaturely despairing of any fiurthler improvement iln   e t    refitaettlg telescope), appllied( the principle of reflection t   andl tite nicer obserlltio s nowt
altt(de, no doubt, hastened the }maturity  of his grteat discovery of thle laxt of
gravitation; but) that dtiscovery wtas the work of his transcendent genius tland
cot)lnsi,,,ate skill.
With 1Bradlltey, in 1:41, a new pleriotd coltencellt  iln instrumental l astrtono0mty,  ot so muIch of discovery as of measuillremllent.  The superior aclcuracy
and minuteness witlt which tlhe motiotns and distances of t le heavenly bodtlies
wtere now observed, resulted ii the acctumulation of a mass; of new lmaterit~als,
hotei for  tabular comparison and theoretical speculation'ithese materitals
folrmcti tIe, enlarged blasis of astronomical science bletwveen Newton and Sir
\illiati  lers.tcell.  Hlis gigantic reflectors introdiuced the astirolomloer to
regtions of space before iunvisited. extended ibeyond all previous conceptiton
thte range of the obserlved pthenomena, alltd with it proportiotnably   enlarged
thle range of1 constructive ttheory.'.lhe discoveryt ofl  a new  primary planet
tand its attendalnt satellites was bhut the first step of his progress into the
hlabyrinth of tile heavens.  Coteml)oraneously with his observations,  the
French  astronomers, and  especially  la Ptlace, with a geomletr-ical skill
scarcely, if at all, iniferior to that of its great antthor, retsumelltd the  i0hole
system of Newton, and bought every illelho iimenon observed since his time
withinmi his 1 laws.  )iffictiltles of fact, wvith whiclh lie struggled iln vlai, gave.
Say to more accuratett observatiomls; alld plrobileims that defied the power of
lhis analysis, yielded to the modern imprll ovemenemts of the calculus.
3




3-.                                 t'r I o YN.
itI:ittSctl',usI8 NfNtUIAt     ittEOlY,
Butt there is no  flttimta l'f/t    in the progress of science.  W\ ith the recent
taugmenOitations of telescopic power, tile details of the 1Cnebular theory3, proposed
by Sirt \V. ]cerscehcll witht such courage  and ingenuity, have been drawn in
question.  Many.y -. ilost- -of those milky patclhes in which lIe beheld what the
regarded as cosinlical lmatter, as yet in all ttformed  satel,- -the rudimental
material of NwoldlIs not yet condensled,.-l-have beel res-olved into stars,  as
briglt and dtistinct as any in the firmamient.  I well recall tilhe glow of satisfaction with which, on tl:e 22d of September, 1841,   beting tthen conntected
withl the Univenrsity  at Cambridge, I received a- letter froml  the venerable
lirector of tile Obselrvatory there, m        1beginning with these memorable words:.-...
" You will rejoice with me that the great nebula in Orion has yieldced to the
l)OWetr of our intomit)arable telescopI e I       *   It should )be borne in mind
that this nebula, andl tlhat of Andromeda lhc ich hs been also  resolved at
Cambridge], are the last stronghol ds of tlhe nebular theory."
Butt if some of tlhe adventurous speculations built by Sir William   Icrschell on the bewildering revelations of his telescope. have beetn si;ince questioned, the vast progless  hich thas beeni  made ill sidereal astronoly, to
vhich, as I understand,   the Dufdley Observatory will be particular-ly devoted,
thte discovery of the parallax of the fixed stalrs, the investigation of the
interior relations of binary atid triple systems of sttars,  tile theories for tlhe
exptlanation of tlhe extraordinary, not to say fantastic, shapes dliscerncd inl
soene of thle  ebulous sys-telms. — whirls and spirals radiating through sp)aces
as vast as tile orbit of Neptlune;t the glimpses at systemls beyond that to
which our sun belong;s...... these are all splendid results, which mnay fairly be
attributed to the school of  Ierschetllt and will for ever insure ino seconlary
place to that name in the aml als of science.'llEtAT'ONSXliP O' Tmls, iitltRAi, ARTTS.
Int the remtarks which I have hitherto }m)ade, I have  had mainly ill view
the direct contnection of astronomical science \witah te tuses of' life and tihe
service of mall.  But a genlerous philosophl    y  Contemplates tile sullject ill
higher  elCatlions,   t is    a  remark as 0o1(, at least,  as Plato, and is repeated
from hi  more11    than once, by Cicero, that all the liberal arls  thave a comlmon
lonld and n relationsltipl.  The ditferemtt sciences coltemuplate a.s theit  ilmme(diate object thie d(ifferent departments of animate andl inlllimate nature; but
thlis great system itself is but ott, and its plarts are so interwovenll  ith eaclt
othler, that thIe most extraordinary relations andl  unexpected analogiecs are
Antiat cfi Of, lt Obsaeivalo-y odf olrvard Col<lege, iit 1t21,
f Seo the remarkable me:moir of P'rotVesor Alexandl(r,;On  tie orig  of lthe fo:sll  and the
prese-nt; condition of some: of the clusters of stalrs, andl severtal of the nebnla:."  (Gtould's
A..slrtnoorttli Jonrttt!, Vol. iii,, p. S5). Arel-as, i.; )Do Oratere, iii, 21,




Olt A T I   N.                              35
constantly  )rcstenting themselves; antld arts and sciences seemingly the lea.st
conlnected, render to each other th1e most effective assistance.
The history of electricity, galvanism, and magnetismi, furnlishe-s thle mosit
striking illustration of this remarlk.  Commencing with the meteorological
phenomenlla of our own atmlosphere, and terminating with tile observation of
the t0remlotest he]avents, it rmay  \vell be adduced, oln anl  occasion like the
Xresent..  Franklin demonstrated the identity of lightning and the electric
1ltlid.  I'bhis discovery gave a great imll)lse to electrical reslacrde, with little
else in view but: the meanlls of protection fromn the thunder-cloud.  A purely
accidental cirtculmstance led the lphysicial Galvani, at Bologna, to trace the
mysterious clement., under conditions entirely novel, bothl of development
and application.,  il this new form  it became, in the hands of D)avy, the
instrmlltenr t of thet most extraordinary chemical operations; altd eCartts and
alkalis, touched by the creative  wire, started uip into metals that float onl
water, and kindle in t he air.  At a later period, thfe closest affintifes are obelrved between electricity and magnetism, oin the one hand;  while, onl the
other1, the relations of polarity'are detectedt  between acids and alkalis.
Plating awd gilding henceforth befome electrical processes.  Ill the last
applications of the same saubtle meldium, it has become thle messenger of
intelligence across the land and beneath tlhe sea; and is now  eCmployed by
th1e astronomer to ascertain ttte difft'ence of longitudes, to transfer the beats
of the clock from one station to another, and to record' tile lmotment of his
observations witt aultolmatic accurancy.   ow large a slhare has been borntoe by
Amllerica. inl these magilticent discoveriens and applications, among tihe most
brilliant achievements of lmodert   science,  ill sufficiently appear friom  the
repetition of the names of Franklin, lHenry,  orse, Wo lker,  icalk  ell, Loclk,
and Bond.
vER'SsnTslvtv OF tsENIUJS.
It has sometilmes happenedt, whether from the harmonious relations to each
other of everyel  department of science, or from rare felicity of individual ge)nius,
that tihe most extraordlinary intellectual versatility has been ilanifested by
the same person.  Although Newvton's transcendnt talent ldid not blaze out
in childhood, yet as a boy lie discovered great al)titutlde for mechanical coitrivance.  h]is \vwater-clock, self-moving vehicle, ald mill, were the wonder of
the village;  tle latter l)ropellcd by a living mouse.  Sir David Brtewster
representlts tlhe accounts as (liftering,  whether the mouse owas mde to Itad vance
by a string attacelld to its tlai," or by "it. unavailing attempts to reach a
portion of corn placed above the wheel."  it; seelnS more reasonable to conclude tlhat tle youthfiul discoverer of the law of gravitation intended by tlhe
combination of thetse  pposite attractions to I)roduce a balanced movement.
it is consoling to t         e average mediocrity of the race to perceive iln thes sleortive assays, that tile mindl of Newton passed througlt the stage of boyhood. 3lit
emerging, firom  boyhood, w%'hat a bound it made, as from  earth to heftvetl I




36                             n It. A T I O N.
Hardly commentcing bachelor of arts, at the ato of twenty-four, lhe untwisted
the golden and silver threads of tihe solar spectrum, simultal neIously3 or soon
after conceived tile method of luxitosll, and arrivd  at thi elemental idet  of
univelrsal gravity before lhe had passed to hlis mlaster's depgrce. Ma'ster of
Arts indeed I Th'liat degree, if no othler, was well bestowed. Universities are
unljustly accutsed of fixing science inl strecotype.'That (liplomtr  is enough of
itself to redccm  tile honors of academical parlchment from centuries of learned
dullne.ss and scholastic dogmatislm.
1But tlhe great ob1ject of all knowledge is to enlarge and p)urify the isoul, to
fill the mind with noble contemplations, to ftilish a refined pleasure, and to
lead our feeble reason firom  tile w1or'ks of nature lup to its great Author l and
Sustainer.  Considering this as the xultimate end of science, no branch of it
canll surely claim p)recedence of Astronomy. No other science fituristhes sutch
a palpable embodiment of the abstractions which lie at the foundation of oure
intellectual system; the great ideas of time, and space, and extension, and
magnitude, and number, anid motion,  and power. Hliow grand the conception
of the ages on ages required for several of the secular equaations of the solar
system;  of distances fiom wlich the light of a fixed star would not reach us
il t  lwenty millions of years, of tagnitutles compared with whlichl the eart is
but a foot-ball; of starry hosts -.sullns like ourll own... -num-lllberless3 as tlhe sandsll
on the shore'; of workls and systems shooting through tle infinlite spacems,
with a velocity complared with which the canron-ball  is a w\'ay-worn, heavypaced traveler t*
t'uing 81UtC'rTACtzl  or'THf: n iT'~SS.
Much, however, as we are indebted to our obstervatories for elevating our'
colnceptionls of the heavenly bodies, they present, even to thle tnaitded sight,
scenes of glory which iwords are too feeble to describe. I had occasion, a few
seeks si nce, to take the early train firon Providence to Boston; and for this
purpose rose at 2 o'clock iln the morning.  Every thing around was wrapped
inl darlkness and lhushed in silence, broken only by what seeImed at that hour
the unearthly clank,and rush of the train. It was a mild, seretle midsunmier's
night; thle sky was without a cloud.t.the winm s were  whist. The  oon, thelln
inl tile last quarter, had j'ust risen, -land the stars shone with a spectral luster
but little afficted by her presence; Jupiter, two hours high, wtas thie herald of
lthe dflay; tlhe Pleiades, just above the horizon,  shed their sweet influtence inl
the east;  I3yra sparkled near thle zenith; Andromeda, veiled her newly
discovered glories from tihe naked eye ill the southt; the steady Pointers, fair
beneath tlhe pole, looked rmeekly up) fri'o    tle depthts of tlhe north to their
sovereig n.
Such was the glorious spectacle.as   entered tlhe. train.  As we proceede(d,
thle timid approach of twilight became mnore l)ercep)tible; tlhe intelnse blue of
the sky beganl to soften, the smaller stars,  like little children,  went first to
rest; thie sister-beams of the Plciades soon melited together; but lthe bright
* Niclhl's Arcdilte! qf te  If t ae ]e s p. 1C0.




o   At  f  lo N.                           37
constellations of the west and  north remained unchanged. Steadily the
wondrous transfituration wtent on. Htands of angels hidden from mortal  eyes
shifted the scenery of..th1e heavens; the glorie's of night dissolved into tile
glories of the ldawnvt.  the blue sky now turned more softly'ay; tile great
watc1h-stars shut up their holy eyes; the east began to kindle. Faint streaks
of lurple soon b)lushed along the sky; the whole celestial concave vwas filled
with the inflowingi tides of tle mornin  light, which cnle polg down frome
above in one great ocean of radiance; till at tlength, as we reached the Bltle
liills, a flash of p)urple fire blazed out from above the horizon, al}nd turned the
dewy teardrops of flower and leaf into rubies and dtiamlonds. In a few seconds
thle everlasting gates of thle,morning were thrown Nwide open, and thle lord of
tday, atrayed int glorics too severe for tilhe gaze of manl, begall his course
I do  ot vwonder at the superstition of thie anucient Maigians, who ill the
lorning of the world went up to the hiill-tol)s of Central Asia, and ignolant
of tile true Cod, adored thle most glorious work of his hand. But I am filled
with amazelacnt, when I m told that in tlhis enlightened age, and in the heart,
of tlhe Christian world, tlere are persons wNho canl  itness this (daily maniifestation of tihe power and wisdom of tlhe Creator, and yet say in their heawrts,
"'there is no God."
USNDICOVEtIRD B1O11-5.
Numerous as are the heavenly bodiics visible to he naked eye, and glorious
as are their manifestations,   it is lprobable that in our own system  there are
great n1numbers as yet undliscovered. Just two ltthundred years ago thtis year,
I tuyglens annouled tile discovery of one satellite of Saturn, and elxpressed
the opinion that thle six planets and six satellites then known, and making1 lup
the perfect number of telve, composed the vwhole of our planetary system. Il
1729 an astronomical writer expressed the opinion that there might be other
bodies in ourl system, nbu at the limit of telescopic power had been reached,
and nllo fi tter discoveries were likely to be nltde.'the orbit of one comet
only had been definitively calculated.  Since that time the potwer of the telescope 1has been indlefiltely itlcreaseld; two pr'imary ilanects of the first class,
ten satellites, and forty-three small planets revolving between Marhs and
Jupiter, have been discovered, the orbits of six or seven  nlldred comets,
s.ome of brief period,' have bctn ascert dainedt..-.. nd it has been com)utetd,
that htulnrdredls of thousands of these mysterious bodies wander through our
s.ystem.'there is no reasoln to think that all tile iXlnary pllanets, ]whichi rcvolve about the sunt have beentl discovered.  Ali ndefinite ilere'ase  in tile
number of Iasteriods ~lmay be anticipated;  while outside of Neptune, betveeln
our sunt and the nearest fixed star, suptposing thie attraction of tile sun to
prevail through  lhalf tlhe distanlce, there is room  for teln more primary
planets succeeding eachl other at distances increasing in a geomlletrical ratio.
"I'tle first of these w\ill, unquestionably, be discovered as soon as the perturbattions of Neptutle shall havo bccn accurately observed; ant with maps
M esAmoirs of A. A.., vol. ill. 2765




38                             V' A T f 0 PN 
of thle heave1ns, on which tlle smallest telescopic stars are 1aid (dow, it may
be discovered mutch sooner.
TrH  vAStNrx:sl     01o' OtrATfION.
But it is when  we turn our observation and our thoughts from our own
system, to tile systelmls *wh}ich lie beyond it inll the heavenly spaces, that Nwe
approach a more adequate conception of the vastness of creation. All analoyv
teaches Ius that the suntl which gives light to xus is but one of those countless
stellar fires which dleck tlme firmament, and that every glitteringl: star in that
shintitng lhost is the center of a system as vast and as full of subordinate lumilnalies as our own.  Of these suns —-centers of plaletary systems -thous ands
are visible to the naked eye, mllionls are discovered 1)3' tihe telescope.  Sir
John I[ersehell, in the account of his operations at thile Cape of Cood 1topie
(p. 381) calculates thlat about five anld a half millions of stars are visible tenoughl
to be dUistinctly counted1 iln a tweinty-foot reflector, ill both hemislpheres.  lie
adds, that "ttie actual numlber is much greater, there canl be little doulbt."
His illustrious fither, estimated oil one occasion that 125,000 stars passed
th:rough the fitld of his forty foot reflector in a (quarter of an hour. This
would give 12,000,000 for the entire circuit of the heavens,  il a single  telescopic zone; and this estimate  was made under tihe atssumption tthat the
nebukl  were masses of luminous matter not yet condensed into sunts.
These stupendolus calculations, hlowever, forml but thle first colilumn of tilhe
inventolrT of thle universe.  Paint lwhite spckls are visible, even to the nalked
eye of a practiced observer in ditfferent; parts of the heavens.  Under hitg
mamtnifying powers, several thousanllds of such spots are visible,-.lno longer
lhowever,  faint, \white specks, but many of them resolved by piowerfulf telescopes
into vast aggre'ations of star's,  achLe  of thlich  mlay, with p)ropriety, be co0mpared with the milky Nwavy.  Mantly of these nebullme, lhowvever, resisted the
powetr of Sir Win, liersehell's great refltector, and wterei, atcordingly, still regarded by him as masses of unformed matter, not yet condenlsel into stns.
This, till a fxew years since, wa s, perhaps, the prevailing opinion; antld tihe
nebular theory filled a large space in moderin astronomlictal science. lintt wNith
thle increase of instrumental powe r, eslcpecially unlder the mighty grasp of L[ord
Rosse's gigantic r1etllector, anid the genat refractors at Pulkoya and Camlbridge,
thie most irresolvable of these nebuulm    ha11  ve givent way; and( the better opltnion
n1ow is,  that oevry  One of them is a galaxy, like our own milly \vway, compos-ed
of millions of suns.  In other vords, we are lbrought o tvhe bewildering   conclusion that tholusands of these misty s)eclsthe greater part of them too faint
to be seen with the naked eye, are, not each a universe like our solar systemi,
but achtt a "'sw\fa1llm" of untliverses of unalppreciable magnitude.*  The mind
sinks, ov.erpowered by the contemplation.'We repeat the words, but they
no longcr convey distinct ideas to the understanding.
Xtlitmboldt\'ci Gsmst Iii, 4:1.




()tR AT t o  N.                            39
tCOSNei'TO S OF1 Tiltl UNIVEfSt.
Butt these conclusions, however vast their col)lclrehension, carry  us but
anotiher step forwaInrd in the  realms of sidereal astrolomy.  A   proper motion
in space of our sun, and of the fixed stars as we call them, has long been believed to exist..  ltheir vast distances oly l plrevent its being more appllarent.'['lit  great improvement of instutitents of lleasuremelt within the last generation has not only establislhed thle existence of this 1mot1iot, but has pointed
to tile region in tile starry vault around which our whtole solar and stellar sy
tem, with its mltyriad of attentdaint planletary w\torlds, appears to be p)erforming
a mighty revolution. If, t}lbnl, Nwe assutme that outside of the s3ystem to whliclh
we belong andl in wvhich  ouir sun is but a star like Aldebaranl o  Sirius, the
diflcrent nebu}la) of which we hayve spokelln, -t..oth sands of which spot the
theavelns -- constitute a distinct family of univllerses, we must, followilng  the
guide of analogy, atttribute to each of them also, beyyond all thte revolutiolns of
tirtt individual attendant planetarT systems, a great revolution, complre'ending tlhe whole; while tlhe samet course of analogical reasoning wvould lead us
still furtlier onward, and int the last analysis, require tus to assumett   a It'ranscenlenltal colnection bctween all these mighty svystems.- -a un ivlerse of universes,
circling round in the infinity of sI)ace, and l)reservillt  its equilibrium by the
same laws of mutttal attraction  which bind the lower worlds together.
It may be thoughlt that concep>tions like thes  l' are calculated rather to depress tlhan to elevate us in thie scale of beingl; that, banlishied as he is by these
contenmplations to a corner of creation, and there reduced toan atom, m   sinks
to nothinglness ill this infinity of worlds.  But a secolnd thlought corrects the
impress-ion.  The.se vast contemplations are well calculated to ins.pire awtte,
but not abasement.  Mind and matter are incom-imensurlable.  Anl iltnortal
soul, even vlwhile clothled i n  " this muddy vesture of dlecay," is in the eye of
God and reasol, ta purer essence thall thle brig}ihtest sun that liglhts the deipths
of theavenl.  1The orgalnizedl  lman c.Sye, instinct with l)ife and soul, wVichl
gatizing thlrouglh the telescope, travels upl to tile cloudy speck in tihe  nltdalle of
Orion's swtvord,  lnd bids it blaze fortl into a galaxy -as vast as ours, stands
higiher intlb t}  orde  of being than all that ost of einag  all tt o l ries.  The intellect of
Newtolln whichl discovered tlhe la  that holds t1he revolvilng worls( together,
is a nobler Nwork of (God than a universe of universli'es of untthinkintlg matter.
If, still treading the loftiest pathlts of analogy, weN adopt the.tsupposition,-..
to )me [ own tite  grateful sulpposition,l. - that thle countless ipaIltitary worlds
whicl attend these countlesst, sulns, are the abodes of rational beings like man,
instead of briinging l)ack fonom this exalted conception a feeling of insignificance, as if tlhe individuals of our rae  wer e  but poor atoms in thle infinity of
being, [ regar(l it, on the conttrary, as a glof  of o' humaln nature, that it
belot'ngs to a fnimily \whltiech no mall  can   n imbtt1l)erl of ratioal natures' like itself.
tll the order of beiilg  they tmay tat'   t   beneatlh us, or tlhey may nysttand above\
11us; hei' may Cwell be content with his l)htce, who is made " a little lowert tltat
the angecs."




40                                  O  ^  T iON, 
CO'NTEX'iPfiTON OF'OF TH  1i:AVENS.
Finally, my Friends, I believe there is ito contemplattion better adapted to
awaken  dev out itleas than that of the heavenly bodies,......... no branch of natural
science which bears clearer testimtony  to the power and wisdom  of God thain
that to which you this day consecrate a temple.  Thil   heart of the ancient
world,  witih all  s prevailing ignorance of the truenttre          and nmotions of tile
heavenly orbs, was reli ously  itnl)ressced by their survey.   TheI re is a passage in  one of those admirabtle philosophical treatises of Cicero composed
in the decline of lifei, as a solace un1der dtoimestic bereavement and patriotic
concern at t he impending  convulsions of the state, in wth-iel, quoting firom
seome lost work  of Aristotle, lIe treats the topic in a manner which almost
puts to shame the teachingg of Christian wisdom.
Prmelare ergo Aristoteles,'Si  essetit,' inquit,'lqui siub terra semper hiabita.
vicent, bonis et illustribus domiicilis q cum essenrt oriata sigtis aiquo  pieturis,
instruetaque  rebus iis omtnibhus qutibls abundait ii quil beati pultaniur, nce
tamnen exlssent mnquarn sujpra terrain; accepissent autens famna et aliditione, caes
quoddat  inumaen et virm  )eorum; —.. deinde  aliquo  temipore, patefactis termta
faucibs%, ex illis abditis sedibtus evadere in lite e   oca    e nos ineolimnus, atqlue
exire potaissenLt;  aen- repente terrain et maria coeluinAque, vidissent;  nubiunt
i-nagnitudineni, ventornique viiii, cognovissent; aspexissenitque siolern, jusqie
tamn m0agnitudinem, plclhritudiineique;  tun etina iefflicientimi eoglnov issentl., quad
is diern efflret:oc    toto cOo  tluce difflsa; cuinm anltern  tertras nox opaeasset, ttlut
cohlini totir    corneorent astris dditincturn  et oriantusrn,  lan-equpe l1umnin nll varicetaters tn-i crescentis bntus senesCentis, cormntque oimniun ort'us et oceasus, atque
in totetmuiate rates ininitabilesque cCmrss;......ee can  vidcreonts profecto et esso
i)eea, et lihe tanta opera l)eorum ealse,  aitrarentur." *
There is much by  day  to engage the attention of the Observatory;                 the
sun1, Ihis apparent motions, his dime0nsions,  the spots oil his disc (to  us the
fausnt indications of movemients of uniniagined grrandeur il his hIninous atisoesplhere), a solar eclipse, a traissit of tie inferior plassets, the mysteries  of
the spectrumn;-....all phenomiena of vast importanc e and interest.  Blit ltight is
the  astronomer's accepted  timei;   he goes to his delightfti labors whent the
"' obly does Aristotle observ, tha st if  there cere bilngs wo ihd -lwys ii aied iiler groiili,
in convsoient, a-iy, in inagintlcvi.t    dwellinlgs, adorned with statucs  and puictures, ald everyls thilng
which belongs to prosperous life, but who had noever cerme sbove grounil; Ni ho ha)d heard, lhowever, by tiet mid report, of the being andS powler of the giods; it; at Ma certain timte, the portalis of
the earth being thrown open, tle). iadi ibcena aible to  licrge lie.m those hidditen abodes to the
regions inhabited by us; when sddenly  they had seen til earth,  te "eas, and tle sky; isait
perceived the vasltc.ss of the clouds and the force of thei wiiis; had coniteinplated thie suan, his
inagnitude and hils bhomity, and still more his etifctual poer, thlait it hs lie whon makes the day, by
the diliffusion of his light tthrouh the whole sky; and, when tigt litd ldarkened the eartb, shouldn
then beholt the whole iiactv:is stuadded and adrorined with sitar., andl the varileous lighlts of the
waening alt waniiig 1moron, Mhe rlsings   nid the settings of allt these heavenly bodlies, and the
cours.es fixed and inimitable. it all eternity; whenm, I say, they shoithl see thttese iliis, tu'ly
they wvoald believe that thcire wero gods, and tohese so great thIngs are their works2-. Cicet
Ds N2,aturae Itrlom,  libi, ii~ 80.




o tR A'J 1 o N.                           4.
butsy world goes to its rest.  A  dlark pall splreads over tlle resorts of active
life; terrestrial  objects, hill and valley, Land rock anl stream, and the abodes
of men disapl)pl: ear; but the curttain is drawn utlp which concealed the heavenly
hlosts.:thtere thlc  shine and thlere t-hey move, "as they 1m1ovd and sholne to
the e yes of New ton l d Galileo, of Klepler and Copernicus, of P tolemy and
ip)parchulls; yes, as they moved and slhone wihen the iMori gll   stars sang together, ald all 1tkc sons of God slhouted fbrjoy.  All has chanlged oi earth
but tile gloriouls heavrttls remailnl tlunchant1gcd.l  Tihe plow  pIasses ov\er tilhe
site of mighty citics,..- -Athe 1homtes of >powertfl nations are desolate,  te l1anglages they spol.e are foigottent; tbt (thle stalrs that shone for them are
shining folr tus; the same ecilpses run their steady cycle; the same equintoxes call out. thle ftowcr;.s of sptring, and send the husbandmtan to the harv'est; tlhe sln pauses at eitlher tropic ats lhe did when his course begaln; land
sun and moon, and phnet and satellite, andl star  and constellation and galaxy,
still bear witness to the power, tlte wisdom,  lnd the love, wh\ich plaed  lthe
il tlte hleavens and uphold themtli thers('e.
4