68 SIMON NEWCOMB 



But neither the measurement of the earth, the making 

 of maps, nor the aid of the navigator is the main object which 

 the astronomers of to-day have in view. If they do not quite 

 share the sentiment of that eminent mathematician who is 

 said to have thanked God that his science was one which could 

 not be prostituted to any useful purpose, they still know well 

 that to keep utilitarian objects in view would only prove a 

 handicap on their efforts. Consequently they never ask in 

 what way their science is going to benefit mankind. 



As the great captain of industry is moved by the love of 

 wealth, and the pohtician by the love of power, so the astron- 

 omer is moved by the love of knowledge for its own sake, and 

 not for the sake of its appHcation. Yet he is proud to know 

 that his science has been worth more to mankind than it has 

 cost. He does not value its results merely as a means of 

 crossing the ocean or mapping the country, for he feels that 

 man does not live by bread alone. If it is not more than 

 bread to know the place we occupy in the universe, it is cer- 

 tainly something which we should place not far behind the 

 means of subsistence. That we now look upon a comet as 

 something very interesting, of which the sight affords us a 

 pleasure unmixed with fear of war, pestilence, or other calam- 

 ity, and of which we therefore wish the return, is a gain we 

 can not measure by money. In all ages astronomy has been 

 an index to the civihzation of the people who cultivated it. 

 It has been crude or exact, enlightened or mingled with super- 

 stition, according to the current mode of thought. When 

 once men understand the relation of the planet on which they 

 dwell to the universe at large, superstition is doomed to 

 speedy extinction. This alone is an object worth more than 

 money. 



Astronomy may fairly claim to be that science which 

 transcends all others in its demands upon the practical appH- 

 cation of our reasoning powers. Look at the stars that stud 

 the heavens on a clear evening. What more hopeless problem 

 to one confined to earth than that of determining their varying 

 distances, their motions, and their physical constitution? 

 Everything on earth we can handle and investigate. But 

 how investigate that which is ever beyond our reach, on 



