io INTRODUCTION 



the achievements of French civilization are honored or 

 offered for public service. 



Beyond the pond, the garden extends toward the south 

 in the long rectangle of the Avenue de 1'Observatoire. 

 Crossing the Rue Auguste Comte, we leave the children's 

 area behind, and watch the vista down the long rows of 

 clipped horse-chestnuts. In May they are superb in 

 their white wealth of blossoms, and now in early Sep- 

 tember, though their leaves are rusting, the effect of 

 skilful massing is still retained. Beyond the Rue Herschell 

 and the Rue Cassini rises the great stone structure of the 

 Observatory, the domes at its two extremities coaxial 

 with the alleys of trees. Built under Louis XIV by 

 Claude Perrault, physician and architect, its lofty 

 facade speaks eloquently of the enlightened appreciation 

 of pure science which France has always shown. Here, 

 during its early years, was housed the Academy of 

 Sciences, and Leclerc has recorded for us in one of his 

 engravings a visit of Louis XIV to the members assembled 

 in the Observatory. 



Four generations of the house of Cassini succeeded to 

 the directorate of the Observatory, first held in 1671 by 

 Giovanni Domenico Cassini, discoverer of the four 

 Saturnian satellites and of the well-known division in 

 Saturn's ring. Among their successors were Arago, the 

 brilliant Perpetual Secretary of the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences, and Le Verrier, Senator of France, whose immor- 

 tal researches on the irregular motions of Uranus led 

 in 1846 to the discovery of Neptune. The statue of 

 Le Verrier before the Observatory, and that of Arago in 

 the Boulevard Arago, were erected by national sub- 

 scription. 



The same fine sense of fitness which has given the 

 streets about the Observatory the names of great astron- 

 omers is repeatedly illustrated in adjoining regions of 



