46 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ambition and equal excitement to exertion, the white will surely sur- 

 pass the black in any and every condition of life, and in the exercise 

 of every function of mind and muscle ; and there can be no political 

 chain strong enough to bind the white in a subordinate position, pro- 

 vided he will avail himself of the advantages which Nature has given 

 him in the division of the races of humanity. 



■♦ » »■ 



PENDING PROBLEMS OF ASTRONOMY.* 



By Pbofessoe CHAELES A. YOUNG. 



MR. PRESIDENT, Fellows and Members op the Associa- 

 tion, Ladies and Gentlemen : Thirty-six years ago this 

 very month, in this city, and near the place where we are now assem- 

 bled, the American Association for the Advancement of Science was 

 organized, and held its first meeting. Now, for the first time, it re- 

 visits its honored birthplace. 



Few of those present this evening were, I suppose, in attendance 

 upon that first meeting. Here and there, among the members of the 

 Association, I see, indeed, the venerable faces of one and another, 

 who, at that time in the flush and vigor of early manhood, partici- 

 pated in its proceedings and discussions ; and there are others, who, 

 as boys or youths, looked on in silence, and listening to the words of. 

 Agassiz and Peirce, of Bache and Henry, and the Rogers brothers 

 and their associates, drank in that inspiring love of truth and science 

 which ever since has guided and impelled their lives. Probably 

 enough, too, there may be among our hosts in the audience a few who 

 remember that occasion, and were present as spectators. 



But, substantially, we who meet here to-day are a new generation, 

 more numerous certainly, and in some respects unquestionably better 

 equipped for our work, than our predecessors were ; though we might 

 not care to challenge comparisons as regards native ability, or clear- 

 ness of insight, or lofty purpose. 



And the face of Science has greatly changed in the mean time — as 

 much, perhaps, as this great city and the nation. One might almost 

 say that, since 1848, "all things have become new" in the scientific 

 world. There is a new mathematics and a new astronomy, a new 

 chemistry and a new electricity, a new geology and a new biology. 

 Great voices have spoken, and have transformed the world of thought 

 and research as much as the material products of science have altered 

 the aspects of external life. The telegraph and dynamo-machine have 



* Address of the retiring President of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, delivered at Philadelphia, September 5, 1884. 



