September i, 1892] 



NATURE 



427 



servatories throughout the world have been founded generally 

 for some special purpose. Their existence depended upon some 

 endowment or bequest originating in the real or fancied interest 

 which the wealthy benefactor took in some popular branch of 

 the science, and this founder, with a real enthusiasm for the 

 stimulation of research, and a noble generosity that deserved 

 recognition in a broader field, often unwittingly limited the scope 

 of his foundation and restrained the usefulness of his gift. 

 Utility or novelty, separately or in combination, were frequently 

 the groundwork on which were based the successful claims for 

 pecuniary assistance in founding and maintaining astronomical 

 observatories. The working observatories founded fifty years 

 or more ago, with scarcely an exception, were supported entirely 

 in the belief that the results of the observations would be, 

 directly or indirectly, beneficial to navigation and to commerce. 

 At that time this belief rested upon a reasonable basis. This 

 plea for the construction and support of observatories is some- 

 times heard even at this period in the evolution of science, in 

 spite of the fact that, if every fixed observatory in the world 

 were destroyed to-day, no interest of navigation or commerce 

 would suffer for the next fifty years. The function of astronomy 

 in promoting the development of navigation and in fostering the 

 extension of commerce has been completed. 



In the periodical struggle with wealthy patrons to secure the 

 yearly stipend, and with corporations and legislative bodies to 

 obtain the annual appropriations for the support of observatories, 

 may be found perhaps an apparent, if not a sufficient, motive 

 for selecting the class of work that is pursued in most of the 

 American observatories at this time. The apparent conclusion 

 of those who have sought financial support for astronomical 

 observatories seems to have been that such aid could not be 

 secured except for some special work or research, and that the 

 particular branch of investigation selected must be one that 

 promised either immediate and novel results, or such as would 

 enable capital to win, either in material benefits or in popular 

 reputation, some returns for the risks incurred in speculative 

 advances. Persistence in these theories and in the consequent 

 lines of action, has doubtless resulted in the evolution of a 

 certain type of astrcnomer, and also of a corresponding type of 

 astronomical patron, whether the latter be an individual, a cor- 

 poration, or the legislative agents of millions of intelligent 

 people. Such a result would be the obvious outcone of the 

 forces in action. 



The motives that actuate the early settlers in new countries, 

 that guide them in the struggle with the untamed forces of 

 nature, arise mainly from the material interests of the pioneer. 

 As the subjugation of the land progresses and the comforts and 

 luxuries of life are substituted for the bare necessities of exist- 

 ence, the higher, intellectual side of humanity asserts itself and 

 demands, not only a hearing in the councils, but also its share 

 in the advantages won in the campaign for material prosperity. 



The progress in the development of the various stages of 

 civilization has its parallel in the evolution of the science of 

 modern astronomy. For many centuries the timid navigator 

 skirted the familiar shores of his native land, or, occasionally 

 lured by the hope of unusual gains, he rashly tempted fate by 

 adventurous cruises along distant shores that bore no name in 

 the traditions of hi> forefathers. But, however lofty his ambi- 

 tion, he never allowed the known or unknown peaks and head- 

 lands to sink below his horizon. To him the open ocean was 

 a symbol of infinite space that he dared not explore until 

 astronomy furnished the key to its uttermost recesses, and the 

 art of navigation rose to the dignity of a science. 



Greenwich Observatory was founded in 1675 ^o promote the 

 interests of navigation. The royal warrant appointing the first 

 astronomer royal also declares that his duty is ' • forthwith to 

 apply himself with the most exact care and diligence to the rec- 

 tifying the tables of the motions of the heavens and the places 

 of the fixed stars, so as to find out the so much desired longitude 

 of places for the perfecting the art of navigation." Right faith- 

 fully have the successive astronomers royal carried out the spirit 

 of the royal mandate. For many years the success was far from 

 uniform, nor was the progress always satisfactory, but, through 

 adversity as well as prosperity, the original design of the founda- 

 tion was always kept in view, and the results have been com- 

 mensurate with the effort. If the work of all the other 

 observatories of the world were neglected or destroyed, 

 the data in the annual volumes of the Greenwich Observatory 

 would be sufficient, not only to build anew the science of 



navigation, but to reconstruct the entire planetary and lunar 

 theories. Surely there can be no more flattering commentary 

 on the value of a well-planned system of observatory work 

 closely followed, through two centuries, with true Anglo-Saxon 

 pertinacity. 



The history of Greenwich Observatory is in many respects 

 that of nearly all the observatories, of that early epoch, that 

 have survived to the present time, but most of the urgent needs 

 that led to their foundation have ceased to exist, and new pro- 

 blems have arisen to take their place. The immediate material 

 and commercial advantages, sought for in obedience to the de- 

 mands of the original foundations, have been fully gained, and 

 the scientific results obtained from the same researches remain a 

 permanent benefaction to the whole world. 



To this extent the science of astronomy is deprived of some, 

 perhaps the most efficient, of the influences that commended it 

 to public approval and support during the last two centuries ; 

 and the science has now reached a period in its development 

 where we may with propriety consider two pertinent questions. 

 First, what has astronomy gained for itself in the effort to 

 present, in its results, commercial advantages or popular 

 reputation to its patrons, in return for financial support ? 



Second, what shall be its future attitude wh6n seeking aid in 

 the foundation and endowment of new observatories or in the 

 maintenance of those already in existence ? 



It may be assumed without fear of contradiction that after 

 the revival of astronomical studies in Europe the rapid develop- 

 ment of practical and applied astronomy and the consequent 

 establishment of a large number of observatories was due to 

 the stimulus derived from newly-awakened interests of naviga- 

 tion and commerce. Around these centres of scientific activity 

 the astronomers of the world gathered to discuss not only the 

 problems of practical astronomy, but the more abstruse, theo- 

 retical questions which lay at the foundation of the higher 

 branches of the science. The work of each observatory not only 

 furnished the means for determining the accuracy of the numerous 

 theories then extant, but it produced original data on which 

 new theories were constructed, to be in their turn subjected to 

 the rigid test of observation. In the extreme interest evolved 

 in such discussions by those who eagerly sought the key to 

 Nature's methods in the simple form of general laws, the minor 

 problems of practical astronomy were soon solved or passed over 

 to clear the way for the more profound questions that involved 

 the motions in the solar system and the structure of the stellar 

 universe. So, indirectly at first, with a zeal superior to all ob- 

 stacles, and an ambition that looked beyond the simple and 

 practical idea underlying the original foundation, astronomers 

 have steadily but persistently sought for Nature's general laws 

 in the labyrinth of complex phenomena, have devoted years of 

 intense labour to the most refined tests of methods and theories, 

 and finally, have won for their exacting but fascinating study 

 the foremost place among the sciences. Success in all these 

 labours has justified the wisdom of those royal and wealthy 

 patrons who generously gave their support when a favourable 

 issue was by no means certain. 



In its practical results astronomy has returned to mankind a 

 thousand-fold the cost of founding and maintaining its obser- 

 vatories, and at the same time it has developed a science whose 

 field of action includes not only the figure, motions, and posi- 

 tions of our own insign ificant planet, but it reaches the utter- 

 most limits of the universe. 



If the second question be regarded as involving only a simple 

 problem in ethics it could be readily answered by following the 

 homely, but sometimes pertinent, injunction to " speak the 

 truth." But in view of the complexity of interests now existing 

 this question has a wider signification and deserves some con- 

 sideration. As already stated, utility or commercial advantage 

 can no longer be given as a reason for carrying on astronomical 

 investigations. Novelty, combined with a desire for archi- 

 tectural display and an absurd ambition to secure the largest 

 telescope and the greatest variety of astronomical instruments, 

 has, even at the present time, a place, and sometimes a prominent 

 one, among the reasons assigned for establishing new 

 observatories. In view of these facts, it is surely the duty of 

 astronomers to see to it that, for their own reputation and for 

 the present and the ultimate welfare of their science, the true 

 purpose of astronomical study and research, and the grounds for 

 the existence and the support of observatories should be frankly 

 given and courageously maintained. It is possible that pecuniary 



NO. II 92, VOL. 46] 



