62 EDWARD S. HOLDEN 



haps the time has already come," he says, "when the slug- 

 gard intellect of this country will look from under its iron 

 lids and fill the postponed expectation of the world with 

 something better than the exertions of mechanical skill. 

 Our day of dependence, our long apprenticeship to the learn- 

 ing of other lands, draws to a close. The millions that around 

 us are rushing into life can not always be fed with the sere 

 remains of foreign harvests." 



Benjamin Peirce, a graduate of Harvard in the class 

 of 1829, had been concerned with the translation of the 

 Mecanique Celeste, and was early familiar with the best 

 mathematical thought of Europe. He became professor 

 in Harvard college in 1833, and, after the death of Bowditch 

 in 1838, he v*^as easily the first mathematical astronomer 

 in the country. His instruction was precisely fitted to de- 

 velop superior intelligences, and this was his prime useful- 

 ness. Just such a man was needed at that time. Besides 

 his theoretical researches on the orbits of the planets (spe- 

 cially Uranus and Neptune) and of the moon, his study of 

 the theory of perturbations, and his works on pure mathe- 

 matics and mechanics, he concerned himself with questions 

 of practical astronomy, although the observations upon 

 which he depended were the works of others. He was the 

 consulting astronomer of the American Ephemeris and Nau- 

 tical Almanac from its foundation in 1849, and its plans were 

 shaped by him to an important degree. His relative, Lieu- 

 tenant Davis, United States navy (the translator of Gauss's 

 Theoria Motus Corporum Coelestium, 1857), was placed in 

 charge of the Ephemeris, and the members of its staff — Runkle 

 Ferrel, Wright, Newcomb, Winlock, and others — most effect- 

 ively spread its exact methods jjy example and precept. 

 Professor Peirce undertook the calculations relating to the 

 sun. Mars, and Uranus in the early volumes of the Ephem- 

 eris. As a compliment to her sex, Miss Maria Mitchell was 

 charged with those of Venus; Mercury was computed by Win- 

 lock, Jupiter by Kendall, Saturn by Downes, Neptune by 

 Sears Walker. 



The Smithsonian institution was founded in 1846, and 

 Joseph Henry was called from Princeton college to direct 



