312 THE WORLD MACHINE 



distinguished Astronomer Royal received a copy of this paper 

 as well ; he was astonished to find that the theoretical place 

 of the planet, as calculated by the French mathematician, was 

 within a degree of the point fixed by Adams. It is amazing 

 to think that he could not be stirred to turn his telescope around 

 and hunt, instead of writing another letter with the same ques- 

 tions. But another letter he wrote. Adams meanwhile had 

 been perfecting his calculations ; finally, the big telescope at 

 Cambridge was brought into action. It must likewise have 

 been in charge of a fat-wit, for the new planet was actually 

 seen but not recognised ; his method, Newcomb says, was 

 like that of a man who, knowing that a diamond had been 

 dropped near a certain spot on the sea-beach, should remove 

 all the sand in the neighbourhood to a convenient place where 

 he might sift it at his leisure. 



No doubt others had tried ; it was a difficult quest. But 

 in methodical, painstaking Germany they were making splendid 

 star-maps. To the head of the Berlin Observatory Leverrier 

 wrote a careful letter, fixing with very confident precision the 

 point where the new planet could be found. The head of the 

 institution, Galle, received the letter on an afternoon ; that 

 night he swung his telescope round and the discovery was made. 

 The planet was found exactly where these two mathematicians 

 had reckoned it should be. In neither of the countries to which 

 they belonged could the astronomers in charge of the great 

 telescopes be roused to give heed to these unhonoured prophets. 

 Thankfully there are not many similar instances in the history 

 of the science, in which such extremes- of brilliant investigation 

 and official stupidity have come together with such luckless 

 result. 



It was assuredly an amazing result, one of the spec- 

 tacular triumphs of the calculating mind. There is scarce need 

 to add that when it had come there could no longer be any 

 doubt as to the universal application of Newton's law. By the 

 aid of that law the hand of the astronomer had dipped into the 

 distant waters of space and brought from its invisible depths 

 a new world. Even while they hovered on the edge of the dis- 

 covery, Sir John Herschel, in an address before the British 

 Association, had very beautifully observed : 



" The past year has given to us a new asteroid ; it has done 

 more it has given us the prospect of another planet. We see 



