400 Lieitt. Davis on the Prime Meridian. 



tific character why the National Observatory at Washington should 

 be selected as the nominal origin of longitude, on this continent. 

 Such is not the case. Our National Observatory at Washington 

 must have existed half a century before it will be able to furnish 

 independent observations sufficient for the determination of a cor- 

 rect theory of the moot] or primary planets. But these theories 

 are already calculated from the observations (begun long since and 

 uninterruptedly continued) at the old established observatories of 

 Europe. In preparing new tables, I shall avail myself of the 

 Washington observations to the utmost extent of their utility. 



I propose, also, to give, in the Astronomical Ephemeris, the 

 times of transit, and the corresponding places of the planets, and 

 principal fixed stars, over the meridian of Washington. 



Hitherto I have treated this question without an express refer- 

 ence to merely national views and feelings. So for as the sub- 

 ject is merely scientific, they do not enter ; so far as it is practical, 

 they are of paramount importance. 



But I am very far from being seduced into a forgetfulness of 

 national sentiments, by the silly pretense that there are or can be 

 duties to science or to humanity, which are at variance with those 

 to country ; a notion, wherever it is held, that implies not only a 

 want of patriotism, but of true humanity also. " Science knows 

 no distinctions of country" — in its claims to support and in its ex- 

 emption from hostilities — in its spirit and in its communions — in 

 its highest aim, which is to study the laws of nature, and endeavor 

 to make the knowledge of those laws useful to mankind. 



But science, like all objects of human interest and pursuit, is 

 compelled to recognize the distinctions of country in the duties 

 it imposes, in the means of its progress, and in some measure in 

 its associations and the limits of its operations. It prospers and 

 is fostered by those affections which divide us into distinct fami- 

 lies and nations, at. the same time that they preserve our relation 

 to the whole race. 



Being designed to act within a limited sphere of usefulness, we 

 are happily supplied with a motive to every duty in a correspond- 

 ing affection, which, if rightly elevated and directed, renders the 

 performance of that duty easy and agreeable. 



Feeling assured that it is by laboring in the sphere assigned us 

 that we are most likely to accomplish something that may be 

 beneficial to mankind, and that by making ourselves good citi- 

 zens of that state to which our efforts are unavoidably confined, 

 we may best hope to prove ourselves useful citizens of the great 

 republic of letters and science constituted by the union of all 

 cultivated people, I indulge a sentiment of American pride and 

 gratification, that another step has been taken by the government 

 towards the promotion of science, by the foundation of an Ameri- 

 can Nautical Almanac. 





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