Prof. Lovering on the American Prime Meridian. 195 
ence. By the encouragement which we give to the cultivation 
of true science in this land, and by the bright example which we 
hold up to the world of a just as well as a free government, we 
may hope to pay back a part of the great obligation under which 
we Stand to the older nations of the world and the time-hallowed 
institutions of Europe. 
An American prime meridian will make American science in- 
dependent in name only, and such an independence can deceive 
no one but. ourselves. Certainly, we shall not be so blind as to 
be deceived by it. Every thing around us must remind us of 
our relations with the old world. Our ships are furnished with \ 
the chronometers and sextants of Great Britain and France. ur 
a century before we shall have created a fund of observations at 
our own observatories which will make us independent of similar 
institutions abroad. How much longer must we wait before we 
shall have American observations made by American instruments? 
This is a real dependence. Let us not be humiliated by it, but 
rather let us take courage from it to imitate, in due season, the 
honorable achievements in science of the older nations of the 
But the use of a foreign meridian involves no dependence what- 
ever. We do not hesitate to reckon our latitudes from the equa- 
tor, though this great circle does not, at present, lie within our 
Own territories. Why should we refuse to count our longitudes 
from the meridian of Greenwich, even if it be a line intersecting 
some foreign country? We borrow nothing from Great Britain 
or any other country when we count our longitudes from Green- 
wich. It belongs to us and to whoever chooses to use it for this 
purpose, as much as to them. It belongs to us as much as the 
Kuglish language belongs to us and whatever else that is valua- 
ble which we have inherited from our parent of the old world. 
It belongs to us, for all scientific purposes, as much as the earth’s 
magnetism or the sun’s light and heat; as much as the moon, 
planets and stars; as much as the common atmosphere which 
warms and feeds us all. There is no property in any of these 
things. They are the common property of all who think, all 
over the world; and he most possesses who most uses them. 
Should Great Britain and America ever agree to adopt an 
American prime meridian, it would be a misfortune to us. Should 
the nations ever agree upon a universal first meridian, the prayer 
of these United States ought to be that it might not pass across 
this western continent. Of all nations in the world, we can least 
afford to sacrifice our coasters to the perpetual annoyance they 
must experience in crossing it. The meridian of New Orleans, 
Which is recommended by Lieut. Davis as the first meridian of 
