64 



DISCOVERY 



CH. 



of spots visible upon the sun varied periodically, waxing 

 and waning in what seemed to him to be a period of about 

 ten years. But the subject attracted little attention, 

 and it was not until 1851 that astronomers realised its 

 importance. In 1857 the gold medal of the Royal 

 Astronomical Society was presented to the indefatigable 

 observer of Dessau. 



"Twelve years," remarked the President of the Society in 

 his address, " he spent to satisfy himself, six more years to 

 satisfy, and still thirteen more to convince mankind. For thirty 

 years never has the sun exhibited his disc above the horizon of 

 Dessau without being confronted by Schwabe's imperturbable 

 telescope, and that appears to have happened on an average 

 about 300 days a year. So, supposing that he observed but once 

 a day, he has made 9,000 observations, in the course of which he 

 discovered about 4,700 groups. This is, I believe, an instance of 

 devoted persistence (if the word were not equivocal, I should 

 say pertinacity) unsurpassed in the annals of astronomy. The 

 energy of one man has revealed a phenomenon that has eluded 

 even the suspicion of astronomers for 200 years ! . . . I can con- 

 ceive few more unpromising subjects from which to extract a 

 definite result than were the solar spots when Schwabe first 

 attacked them." 



Everyone can add something to knowledge if he will 

 make use of the opportunities richly offered by Nature. 

 He is a bad workman who grumbles at his tools, and the 

 student of science who neglects research because he 

 does not possess apparatus ready-made and varnished 

 by the instrument-maker, lacks the spirit of the investi- 

 gator. Test the efficiency of the things at your disposal 

 is good advice ; for the knowledge and experience 

 gained by direct communion with Nature, even through 

 the roughest apparatus, is a very valuable educational 

 training. Tradition says that a foreign savant, who 

 had heard of the fame of Dr. Wollaston, the great 

 chemist and physicist who was President of the Royal 



