i OUTLOOK AND ENDEAVOUR 5 



shipped by a love-sick Romeo. Only those who consider 

 her worthy of battle have the patience or the power to 

 effect a conquest. From whatever side she is approached 

 obstacles arise which prevent a clear vision of her ; and 

 infinite labour as well as strong desire are necessary 

 for every step of advance. 



Pasteur carried on an unrelenting warfare against the 

 forces of Nature hostile to man ; it took him five years 

 to discover the remedy for rabies. Above all, he was an 

 indefatigable worker. He called the interval of night 

 " hours of waiting," which always seemed to him slow 

 to pass. C. G. J. Jacobi (1804-1851), the greatest 

 mathematical teacher of his generation, likewise made 

 the best use of time. " It must not be supposed," he 

 said, " that it is to a gift of Nature that I owe such 

 mathematical power as I possess. No, it has come by 

 hard work, hard work. Not mere industry, but brain- 

 splitting thinking hard work ; hard work that has 

 often endangered my health." 



Several years ago the leading astronomers in the 

 United States were asked to set down in order of prefer- 

 ence the names of living Americans who had contributed 

 most to the progress of astronomy. The name which 

 headed all the lists was that of Simon Newcomb, yet 

 he made no discovery in astronomy to which the period- 

 ical press would give prominence. Far greater, however, 

 than the observation of a new star, planet, or comet, 

 was the exceedingly laborious computations made and 

 directed by Newcomb to enable the positions of the sun,* 

 moon, planets and some of the fixed stars to be pre- 

 dicted with greater accuracy than had hitherto been the 

 case. This was the work which gave him the first place 

 in the esteem of men who were best able to judge its 

 value to astronomical science. 



