464 WRITINGS OP JOSEPH HENRY, [1870 



The conductor of an observatory such as I have mentioned 

 to be successful must have peculiar characteristics. He must 

 possess a minute knowledge of all the latest discoveries in 

 physics, a keen eye to detect new appearances, imagination 

 to suggest hypothetical causes, logical power to deduce con- 

 sequences from these, to be tested by observation or experi- 

 ment, and ingenuity to devise apparatus for verifying or 

 disproving his deductions. When such a man is found he 

 should be consecrated to science and fully furnished with 

 all the implements necessary for the prosecution of his 

 researches, those of physics as well as of astronomy, and 

 himself and family placed beyond all anxiet}' as to the 

 supply of their necessary wants. It may not be amiss to 

 combine with his studies and duties, in the way of research, 

 a small amount of lecturing, — just enough by sympathetic 

 communication with admiring pupils to fan as it were his 

 enthusiasm, and to impart a portion of it to others. He 

 should also have at his command a skillful workman who 

 under his direction could construct the temporary apparatus 

 which are constantly required in original research. It is 

 also important that he be associated with the faculty of a well- 

 endowed college or university, to which he will become an 

 important acquisition both in regard to the reputation which 

 he will give to the institution and the effect he will have on 

 the other members of the faculty in the way of stimulating 

 them to higher efforts. In such an association he can call 

 for the co-operation of the professors, and especially that of 

 the physicist, the chemist, and the mathematician. 



One of the most important points perhaps to which I 

 should call your attention, is that of the building to be 

 erected, since from the tendency to error in this line more 

 injury has resulted to public institutions in this country 

 than from any other cause. It should be recollected that 

 "money is power;" that every dollar possesses a definite 

 amount of potential energy as it were which can always 

 command intellectual or physical labor. But money as a 

 power is unlike all other kinds of power in that it is by 

 judicious investment capable of yielding a constant supply 



