SKETCH OF MARIA MITCHELL. 545 



tucket Atbeneeum. In the library she found Dr. Bowditcb's 

 translation of La Place's Mecaniqiie celeste and Gauss's Theoria 

 Motus, in Latin, and read them. She also read voraciously on 

 all subjects ; and, as librarian, saw that the boys and girls got 

 good books, while she skillfully kept the unwholesome ones out 

 of their sight. While enjoying in her home all advantages for the 

 cultivation of her scientific tastes. Miss Mitchell took her part in 

 all the household work, knew how everything was to be done, and 

 did what she did thoroughly. On one occasion, when the " help" 

 had gone, she took charge, and made a record of how she spent 

 the day. It was late in October. She arose at six, having been 

 half asleep only for some hours, fearing she might not be up in 

 time to get breakfast. " It was but half light, and I made a hasty 

 toilet. I made a fire very quickly, prepared the coffee, baked the 

 Graham bread, toasted white bread, trimmed the solar lamp, and 

 made another fire in the dining room before seven o'clock. ... I 

 really found an hour too long for all this, and when I rang the 

 bell at seven for breakfast, I had been waiting fifteen minutes for 

 the clock to strike. I went to the Athenaeum at 9.30, and, hav- 

 ing decided that I would take the Newark and Cambridge places 

 of the comet and work them up, did so, getting to the three equa- 

 tions before I went home to dinner at 12.30. I omitted the correc- 

 tions for parallax and aberration, not intending to get more than 

 a rough approximation. I find to my sorrow that they do not 

 agree with those from my own observations. I shall look them 

 over again next week. At noon I ran around and did several 

 errands, dined, and was back again at my post by 1.30. Then I 

 looked over my morning's work I can find no mistake. I have 

 worn myself thin trying to find out about this comet, and I know 

 very little now in the matter. I saw, in looking over Cooper, ele- 

 ments of a comet of -1825 which resemble what I get out for this 

 from my own observations, but I can not rely upon my own. I 

 saw also to-day in Monthly Notices a plan for measuring the light 

 of stars by degrees of illumination an idea which occurred to me 

 long ago, but which I have not practiced." The next day she got 

 breakfast again, and varied her astronomical computation with 

 tatting, reading in Humboldt's Cosmos for rest when she was 

 tired ; and in the evening, it being stormy and no observing, 

 made a loaf of bread, worked at tatting and gave a lesson in it, 

 and completed sixteen hours of steady work. 



The discovery of a comet by Miss Mitchell, which first made 

 her known to the world as an astronomer, is thus described in 

 Mrs. Kendall's Life, Letters, and Journals : " Miss Mitchell spent 

 every clear evening on the housetop 'sweeping' the heavens. No 

 matter how many guests there might be in the parlor. Miss 

 Mitchell would slip out, don her regimentals, as she called them, 



VOL. L. 4rO 



