SKETCH OF MARIA MITCHELL. 547 



witli which she was not familiar and which repaid her for her 

 time; and on September 18th, observing the two nebulae in Ursa 

 Major, which she had known " for many a year," but which to 

 her surprise now appeared to be three. " The bright part of this 

 object was clearly the old nebula, but what was the appendage ? 

 Had the nebula suddenly changed ? Was it a comet, or was it 

 merely a very fine night ? Father decided at once for the comet ; 

 I hesitated, with my usual cowardice, and forbade his giving it a 

 notice in the newspaper." Flying clouds prevented more satis- 

 factory observations that evening and the next two, but "on the 

 2l8t came a circular, and behold Mr. Van Arsdale had seen it on 

 the 13th, but had not been sure of it until the 15th on account 

 of the clouds. I was too well pleased with having really made 

 the discovery to care because I was not the first. Let the Dutch- 

 man have the reward of his sturdier frame and steadier nerves! " 

 She consoled herself, further, by reflecting that the 13th was 

 cloudy, and that she had evaded the task of making the computa- 

 tions, which she would have had to do to call the discovery hers. 

 She seems, however, to have tried her hand at the computations, 

 and was despondent because she had to renounce her own obser- 

 vations as too rough for use. " The best that can be said of my 

 life so far is that it has been industrious, and the best that can be 

 said of me is that I have not pretended to be what I was not." 



The diary for 1857 tells of an extensive tour through the 

 South, the many striking incidents of which are recorded with 

 keen humor, and the first journey in Europe, in which Miss 

 Mitchell took her almanac work with her. 



On this her first visit to Europe, in 1857-'58, Miss Mitchell took 

 letters from eminent scientific men in the United States to dis- 

 tinguished astronomers and mathematicians, and other persons, 

 abroad. She was cordially received, and the astronomers opened 

 their observatories to her and entertained her at their homes. To 

 mention the names of all the notable persons whose acquaintance 

 she thus made would be like making a list of the men of the time 

 distinguished in science, literature, and art. Her observations, 

 very freely given in her private journal but always kindly, con- 

 tain much about the instruments and furnishings of the scientific 

 establishments and the methods of carrying on the work. She 

 found Mr. Airy, at Greenwich, not favorable to the multiplication 

 of observatories ; and to his remark that he would gladly destro}*- 

 one half of the meridian instruments of the world by way of 

 reform, she replied that her reform movement would be to bring 

 together the astronomers who had no instruments and the instru- 

 ments which had no astronomers. At Greenwich she met Herr 

 Struve, the famous astronomer of Pulkova, visiting England on 

 a scientific mission " a magnificent-looking fellow, very large 



