194 THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



glory of the discovery of the new planet, and that 

 history would confirm this definite judgment. Arago 

 named the new planet after the French discoverer, 

 but soon acquiesced in the name Neptune, which has 

 since prevailed. 



Airy, in whose possession Adams's results had re- 

 mained for months unpublished and unheeded, wrote 

 Leverrier: " You are to be recognized beyond doubt 

 as the predictor of the planet's place." A vigorous 

 official himself, Airy was deeply impressed by the 

 calm decisiveness and definite directions of the French 

 mathematician. " It is here, if I mistake not, that we 

 see a character far superior to that of the able, or 

 enterprising, or industrious mathematician ; it is here 

 that we see the philosopher." This explains, if any- 

 thing could, his view that a distant mathematical re- 

 sult is the subject of ethical rather than of mathe- 

 matical evidence. 



Adams's friends felt that he had not received from 

 either of the astronomers, to whom he confided his 

 results, the kind of help or advice he should have re- 

 ceived. Challis was kindly, but wanting in initiative. 

 Although he had command of the great Northumber- 

 land telescope, he had no thought of commencing the 

 search in 184 5, for, without mistrusting the evidence 

 which the theory gave of the existence of the planet, 

 it might be reasonable to suppose that its position 

 was determined but roughly, and that a search for it 

 must necessarily be long and laborious. In the view 

 of Simon Newcomb, 1 Adams's results, which were 

 delivered at the Greenwich Observatory October 21, 

 1845, were so near to the mark that a few hours' 



1 See article " Neptune," Encyc. Brit. 



