53 



ENCKE THE ASTRONOMER. 



FOUR years have passed since Encke died. Even 

 those four years have witnessed notable changes in the 

 aspect of the science he loved so well. But we must look 

 back over more than fifty years, if we would form an 

 estimate of the position of astronomy when Encke's 

 most notable work was achieved. At Seeberge, under 

 Lindenau, Encke had been perfecting himself in the 



appeared in the Eagle, a magazine written by and for members of St. 

 John's College, Cambridge. Although my paper in the Quarterly Journal 

 of Science was written quite independently of Mr. Wilson's (which, 

 however, I had read), yet it chanced that in describing the same mathe- 

 matical relations, and the same sequence of events, I here and there 

 used language closely resembling his. I fear this led for awhile to 

 some misconception ; but I was fortunately able to show in Mr. 

 De la Eue's address to the Astronomical Society, on the same sub- 

 ject, passages yet more strikingly resembling some in Mr. Wilson's 

 paper (written subsequently and quite independently). The fact would 

 seem to be that if two persons describe the same events, and deal with 

 the same mathematical relations, it is almost certain that in more than 

 one passage they will use somewhat similar expressions. 



I was actually indebted to Mr. Wilson's paper for one illustration, 

 however, that derived from the movements of a supposed artificial 

 moon ; and I think that had his paper appeared in a magazine printed 

 for general circulation, I should have referred to it. As it was, this 

 seemed useless so far as the readers of the Quarterly Journal of Science 

 were concerned. The circumstances of the case were, indeed, far 

 from calling for a reference ; while I had in a sense made the illustra- 

 tion my own by detecting an important miscalculation in the original 

 (the amount of advance being either doubled or halved I forget which). 

 Had I referred to Mr. Wilson's paper, I must needs have mentioned 

 this mistake ; and it would have appeared as though I had had no other 

 purpose in making the reference. 



I mention these matters to explain what I fear my esteemed fellow- 

 collegian was disposed at the time to regard as either a wrong or % 

 slight. Nothing was further from my intention than either. 



