PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE. 213 



not propose that the kindergarten shall be a substitute for the 

 mother; but it tries to provide for the little ones a beautiful 

 home, where they may enjoy the sympathetic affection of a true 

 woman's heart, and have at the same time the advantages of the 

 culture of a trained educator. It is only when the child's nature 

 opens to the light that its complete life grows ; it is only when 

 the child's heart is happy that its mind is free. In the true kin- 

 dergarten no woman can find a place whose heart is not young, 

 whose life is not pure, and whose aims are not unselfish. Love 

 is the greatest controlling 'force and the greatest intellectual 

 stimulus. 



PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE. 



BY GARRETT P. SERVISS. 

 I. THE SELECTION AND TESTING OF A GLASS. 



IF the pure and elevated pleasure to be derived from the pos- 

 session and use of a good telescope of three, four, five, or six 

 inches aperture were generally known, I am certain that no in- 

 strument of science would be more commonly found in the homes 

 of intelligent people. The writer, when a boy, discovered unex- 

 pected powers in a pocket telescope not more than fourteen inches 

 long when extended, and magnifying ten or twelve times. It 

 became his dream, which was afterward realized, to possess a 

 more powerful telescope, a real astronomical glass, with which he 

 could see the beauties of the double stars, the craters of the moon, 

 the spots on the sun, the belts and satellites of Jupiter, the rings 

 of Saturn, the extraordinary shapes of the nebulae, the crowds of 

 stars in the Milky Way, and the great stellar clusters. And now 

 he would do what he can to persuade others, who perhaps are not 

 aware how near at hand it lies, to look for themselves into the 

 wonder- world of the astronomers. 



There is only one way in which you can be sure of getting a 

 good telescope. First, decide how large a glass you are to have, 

 then go to a maker of established reputation, fix upon the price 

 you are willing to pay remembering that good work is never 

 cheap and finally see that the instrument furnished to you 

 answers the proper tests for a telescope of its size. There are 

 telescopes and telescopes. Occasionally a rare combination of 

 perfect homogeneity in the material, complete harmony between 

 the two kinds of glass of which the objective is composed, and lens 

 surfaces whose curves are absolutely right, produces a telescope 

 whose owner would part with his last dollar sooner than with it. 

 Such treasures of the lens-maker's art can not, perhaps, be com- 



