DORPAT AND POULKOVA. 371 



bygone times ; wLilst always, Avitli iioprc'ssivc silence, tlic crunil>lin<:^ cathedral 

 looked down from its commanding- lieight, directing one's tlionglits tln-ougii the 

 five past centuries back to tlie time wlien its own beauty was renowned through 

 all the land. 



Seelcing to retain for Dorpat its former military importance, the Empress 

 Catherine ordered her engineers to make of the enrire hill, inchiding the cathe- 

 dii-al, an impregnable fortress. Tlie Avork -was left only ])artially finished at the 

 close of the past century, and the immense earthworks still remain. ]\iay they 

 ever stand as an emblem that wisdom is stronger than force, and that tlie reign 

 of war is to be everywhere succeeded by the reign of knowledge. 



It was certainly the instinct of true wisdom that in 1802 prompted the Emperor 

 Alexander I to dedicate this hill to the use of his new university. The for- 

 fortifications have been planted with shade trees, in the midst of which are found 

 the ruined cathedral, several of the university buildings, and the pleasure walks 

 of the Dorpat students. On the northeast brow of the hill is the observatory, 

 built upon the massive foundation walls of the former bishops' palatial residence ; a 

 few steps from its porch brings <me to the brink of bastions fifty and one hundred feet 

 high ; whilst from its dome the eye ranges over that beautiful country whose fitness 

 invited Struve to Ix'gin the geodetic work that forty years later had stretched north- 

 Avards to the Arctic sea and southwards to the Danube. As the illustrious Carl 

 Ritter could in the growth of his own mind trace the influence of the wide pano- 

 ramic view familiar to him in his j^outh, so may we well believe that the ever 

 present *'Doin lluine'' and the beautiful broad landscape have exerted no little 

 influence upon the lives of Struve and the many others who with him hail Dor- 

 pat as Alma Mater. Thrice dedicated: to War, to Religion, to Education ; may 

 "coming centuries still find the home of learning sheltered beneath those quiet 

 groves." 



It is with pleasure that one contemplates the life of a great and good man, 

 "whose whole course was a continued success, and who richly merited the unbounded 

 favor of emperors and the lasting respect of all. Such was Friedric Georg 

 Wilhelm Struve ; and often as the story of his brilliant career has been told, we 

 will again rehearse its noteworth}' features. 



Inheriting great ability, he received at the hands of wise and devoted chris- 

 tian parents, at their home in Altona, so thorough a physical and mental develop- 

 ment that at his entrance, in 1808, at the age of 15, into the student life of the 

 university at Dorjiat, his superiority was already perceived. His elder brotlier 

 Carl was then a lecturer at the university, and his own attention was strongly 

 turned to philology as aflbrding a very congenial fiekl for future lifelong labor. 

 It was not until after tliree years spent in literary studies, and after gaining the 

 highest university prizes, that he began to attend the lectures of Iluth on math- 

 ematics and of I-'arrot on physics. Huth had in 1809 succeeded Pfaft' as pro- 

 fessor of mathematics and ducctor of the observatory, and held this chair until 

 his death, in 1815. 



Obliged, ibr self-support, to give instniction as a private tutor, his residence at 

 Sagnitz with his patron, the Count von Berg, was fortunate, in that Struve could 

 find convenient relaxation from his duties in making a slight topographical recon- 

 noissance of the surrounding country. This was in the summer of 1811, a period 

 signalized by the s))lendor of the great comet of that year. No wonder then, 

 that when in the autumn Struve began his attendance upon the scientiiic lectures 

 of Huth and Parrot, he, as an enthusiastic student, with his own hands released 

 the long-neglected telescopes from their packing boxes, and perfected himself in 

 their use. His observations of the angle of position of the components of Castor, 

 in August, 1811, show that his attention was now engaged by astronomy as 

 decidedly as it had in the early summer been turned towards geodesy. Through 

 the remainder of Struve's life these correlated subjects equally engrossed liis 

 energies and were equally advanced by his labors. 



