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What he learned, he communicated, like an apostle. And if, 
like an apostle, his zeal led him to act or teach an error, he 
was ready afterwards, like an honest man, to make his recan- 
tation, and advance the general intelligence in that way also. 
But he was saved from making great or many errors by the 
patience and precision with which he worked. 
The best illustration of his precision is afforded by the 
history of his controversy with Mr. Blunt, the republisher 
of the Nautical Almanac in New York. In 1811 young 
Hitchcock had used the telescope of Deerfield Academy for 
observing the comet. “The subsequent winter,” he says, 
“was in good measure devoted to a reduction of his obser- 
vations, and, as he had access to few books, he was obliged 
to calculate by spherical trigonometry many elements which, . 
at this day, are found in the tables of practical astronomy. 
The mere effort to form an accurate idea of the numerous 
spherical triangles he had to construct was an admirable 
discipline, and their accurate solution not less so.” In -, 
ing these calculations he was obliged to use Blunt’s Alma- 
nac, on the opening monthly page of which this challenge 
was ostentatiously printed: “Ten dollars will be paid on the 
discovery of an error in the figures.” The young astronomer 
amused himself by collecting such errors, and mailed his 
collection to New York. In spite of the placard their value 
was unrecognized. He then published the list in the Amer- 
ican Monthly Magazine. Blunt’s ire was roused; he has- 
tened to explain that, although “one Edward Hitchcock had 
made the discovery of some few errors in the astronomical 
portions of his Almanac, the portion devoted to the practical 
_ use of sailors would be found to be perfectly reliable, and 
‘was a thousand times more important.” The young astrono- 
‘Mer was soon ready with another list, taken this time from 
_ the tables of lunar distances, practical enough on shipboard. 
