604 HENKT A. KOWLAND 



names of Wollaston and Faraday mentioned as needing scarcely any- 

 thing for their researches. Much can even now be done with the sim- 

 plest apparatus, and nobody, except the utterly incompetent, need stop 

 for want of it; but the fact remains, that one can only be free to investi- 

 gate in all departments of chemistry and physics, when he not only has 

 a complete laboratory at his command, but a fund to draw on for the 

 expenses of each experiment. That simplest of the departments of 

 physics, namely, astronomy, has now reached such perfection that 

 nobody can expect to do much more in it without a perfectly equipped 

 observatory; and even this would be useless without an income sufficient 

 to employ a corps of assistants to make the observations and computa- 

 tions. But even in this simplest of physical subjects, there is great 

 misunderstanding. Our country has very many excellent observatories, 

 and yet little work is done in comparison, because no provision has been 

 made for maintaining the work of the observatory; and the wealth 

 which, if concentrated, might have made one effective observatory which 

 would prove a benefit to astronomical science, when scattered among a 

 half-dozen merely furnishes telescopes for the people in the surrounding 

 region to view the moon with. And here I strike the keynote of at least 

 one need of our country, if she would stand well in science; and the 

 following item which I clip from a newspaper will illustrate the matter: 

 " The eccentric old Canadian, Arunah Huntington, who left $200,000 

 to be divided among the public schools of Vermont, has done something 

 which will be of little practical value to the schools. Each district will 

 be entitled to the insignificant sum of $10, which will not advance 

 much the cause of education." 



Nobody will dispute the folly of such a bequest, or the folly of filling 

 the country with telescopes to look at the moon, and calling them 

 observatories. How much better to concentrate the wealth into a few 

 parcels, and make first-class observatories and institutions with it! 



Is it possible that any of our four hundred colleges and universities 

 have love enough of learning to unite with each other and form larger 

 institutions? Is it possible that any have such a love of truth that they 

 are willing to be called by their right name? I fear not; for the spirit 

 of expectation, which is analogous to the spirit of gambling, is strong in 

 the American breast, and each institution which now, except in name, 

 slumbers in obscurity, expects in time to bloom out into full prosperity. 

 Although many of them are under religious influence, where truth is 

 inculcated, and where men are taught to take a low seat at the table 

 in order that they may be honored by being called up higher, and not 



