OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 165 



ican science there is no more memorable epoch. An Observatory was 

 finally established, — that natural and almost necessary centre and 

 nucleus of science. The mathematicians must thenceforth concentrate 

 upon it, the physicists must gather upon the geometers, and then the 

 chemists, geologists, physiologists, and the whole sphere of the sciences, 

 must condense and organize around it, by a law as certain as that by 

 which the stone tends to the centre of the earth, as organic as that by 

 which the homogeneous egg grows into a living being, with all its 

 system of vital organs and intricate machinery, and as comprehensive 

 as that by which the nebulaj are condensed, through spirals, rings, and 

 spheroids, into astral and solar systems. The habitations of the other 

 sciences are free to move from place to place, but the temple of astron- 

 omy is fixed in its position ; with its towers and piers, it stands immov- 

 able, and the wise men who would worship in it must seek it beneath 

 the star which" stands above it. The observatory is immovable, with 

 its foundations deeply imbedded in the solid earth, but its telescope 

 ever points in that direction where all science must begin and end, — 

 toward God's throne, toward the perpetually moving and infinitely 

 deep ocean of the stars, — and ever raises us neai*er and nearer to the 

 lessons which the Creator has written upon the firmament. Is it not, 

 then, the truest type of eternal progress founded upon immutable prin- 

 ciple ? 



" The astronomical researches of Mr. Bond while at the Observatory 

 are so recent, that I need only allude to them. By the habits of his life 

 his attention was especially drawn toward the improvement of the in- 

 strumental means of observation. Hence we have from him, and under 

 his administration, — 1st. The ingenious Observing-Chair of the great 

 equatorial ; 2d. The Spring- Governor, which, whatever may be the 

 rival claims as to the invention of the admirable telegraphic method of 

 observation, which is replacing all other methods, has even been intro- 

 duced into the Observatory of Greenwich, and is everywhere known as 

 the American method, is generally admitted to be much the finest con- 

 trivance yet invented for the making and preserving of its records, and 

 which has also been recently adopted, with extraordinary success, for 

 the sustenance of a most exquisite form of uniform rotation ; and 

 3d. The application of photography to the sun, moon, and stars. 



" In his original investigations, he naturally restrained himself to 

 those forms of observation which were fully within the reach of his 



