SIMON NEWCOMB, F.R.S., LL.D., D.C.L. 

 (Read April 23, igio.) 



The subject of this sketch, Simon Newcomb, furnishes a con- 

 spicuous instance of a career carved out by the man himself. Born 

 March 12, 1835, in what seems to us a remote region of Nova Scotia, 

 with nothing in his early history to suggest much beyond a perpetual 

 struggle for existence, he, nevertheless, by the exercise of great 

 natural talent, with undaunted pluck and perseverence, succeeded in 

 attaining a place in the front ranks of his favorite science, that 

 science which some of us, at least, consider the noblest of all — namely 

 astronomy. 



Though born in Nova Scotia, Professor Newcomb's ancestors 

 were of that sturdy New England stock which his furnished so large 

 a proportion of our distinguished men, and which has contributed so 

 powerfully toward making our nation what it is to-day. 



In his remniscences. Professor Newcomb says : 



So far as the economic conditions of society and the general mode of 

 thinking were concerned, I might lay claim to have lived in the time of the 

 American Revolution. A railway was something read or heard about with 

 wonder, a steamer had never ploughed the waters of Wallice Bay. Nearly 

 everything necessary for the daily life of the people had to be made on the 

 spot and even at home. 



It was in this environment of Arcadian simplicity that young 

 Newcomb passed his early years. His father's occupation was that 

 of school teacher — not a lucrative one, and made even less so by the 

 fact that he had ideas of his own on the subject of education which 

 were not in strict harmony with those of his contemporaries. 

 Wealth and poverty are, however, relative terms, and this early 

 period which, from our point of view, would no doubt appear to be 

 one of considerable privation, was probably not so regarded by those 

 immediately concerned. 



Such were the surroundings in which the first sixteen years of 

 young Newcomb's life were passed. Where everyone labored from 

 daylight to dark, his lot could not be expected to form an exception. 



