362 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



which the photographic instrument is made thus to 

 serve the work of man I had heard from Mrs. Fleming 

 before. It is impossible to reproduce the charm of the 

 narrative as told by her; the fitting of the blank 

 photographic plate into the glass at evening, the 

 setting of the telescope to the prescribed area over 

 which it is to travel before daylight returns, the wind- 

 ing of the clock which is to control its motion, the 

 examination of the plate in the morning, and the 

 finding possibly a new star included in the record 

 of the night's work, — it is all of transcendent in- 

 terest. 



We may ask of what use the knowledge of such a 

 discovery and of its results may be to the student un- 

 less he or she is to be an astronomer. As much use as 

 any knowledge which exalts and enlarges one's concep- 

 tion of the infinite, and carries us, if but a little way, 

 into the measureless regions of the unknown. That 

 the ingenuity of man should reveal to him the exist- 

 ence of a world which lies beyond his utmost field 

 of vision, however aided artificially; that the intellect 

 of man should compute the position of this world and 

 determine its relation in space, — seems like bringing 

 the seen and the unseen into touch with one another. 

 It is an object lesson which appeals alike to reason 

 and to faith. I have no right to dwell, however lightly, 

 on these mysteries. I only use the incident of that 

 hour at the Observatory, which seemed to lift the 

 veil for a moment from the hidden things of life, as 

 an illustration of what characterizes the w^hole subject 

 of enlarged education for girls and women, namely. 



