2 POPULAR LECTURES AND ADDRESSES. 



his circumstances permit, to be a navigator also. 

 I have often admired the zeal with which even 

 untaught sailors con over a chart when they get 

 access to one, and the aptitude which they display 

 for the scientific use of it. It is a common saying 

 that sailors are stupid ; but I thoroughly and 

 heartily repudiate it, not from any sentimental 

 fancy, but from practical experience. No other 

 class of artizans is more intelligent ; and, more- 

 over, sailors' wits are kept sharp by the ever 

 nearness of difficulties and dangers to be met by 

 ready and quick action. The technical division 

 between navigation and seamanship, if pushed so 

 far as to leave one class of officers chiefly or wholly 

 responsible for navigation and another for seaman- 

 ship, would not tend to excellence or ski! fulness 

 in either department. The subject of the present 

 lecture is, however, Navigation in its technically 

 restricted sense. 



2. To find a ship's place at sea is a practical 

 application of Pure Geometry and Astronomy. It 

 is on this piece of practical mathematics that I am 

 now to speak to you. 



