18643 Love of Astronomy 



whole chromatic scale. Five years later I once more 

 raised the question. Again he immediately replied 

 that "A" was red, and repeated in substance the 

 same series as before. He, moreover, seemed slightly 

 surprised that any one should fail to see the difference 

 between red "A" and yellow "E." 



One of my nieces also has similar color associations 

 with letters, but her vowels are mostly colorless, 

 blue "G" and green "S" being brightest, while with 

 Eric the reverse is true. 



My earliest scientific interest was in the stars. Mapping 

 While husking corn on autumn evenings I became the 

 curious as to the names and significance of the 

 celestial bodies. At the age of thirteen I had com- 

 pleted a series of maps of all the visible stars, indi- 

 cating their magnitudes and the boundaries of the 

 constellations. Going out from the house, I would 

 measure roughly with a pencil the position of four or 

 five stars at a time, and then return inside to plot them 

 on my chart. To block out the constellations, I had 

 recourse to Burritt's "Geography of the Heavens." 



That passion of mine persists curiously in the 

 middle name I have ever since borne, and which I 

 myself chose for two reasons. The one sprang 

 from my love of astronomy, the other had to do with 

 my mother's great admiration for the writings of 

 Thomas Starr King and her profound respect for his 

 personality. I ought also to say that while the name 

 Starr does not appear in my ancestry, the descendants 

 of the noted Comfort Starr have formally adopted 

 me as one of the "tribe." 



With astronomy I turned toward terrestrial ge- 

 ography. This has really been my main passion in 



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