NA TURE 



SNov. 5, 1885 



such devotion — the cause of science. He sailed with his 

 family for Buenos Aires, and there for fifteen years he 

 has been searching the heavens by night, and making his 

 calculations by day, till he has finished a complete cata- 

 logue of the stars of the southern hemisphere. And in 

 this great work, the greatest perhaps ever known, an exile 

 from home, almost alone and unaided, feeling that on the 

 continuance of his life and strength depended its accom- 

 plishment, he braved and endured all with a courage and 

 devotion worthy of our highest admiration." 



In reply to the toast of "his health, Dr. Gould spoke as 

 follows : — 



My Dear Friends,— Would that I knew how to give some fit 

 expression to my deep sense of your kindness, and to my gratitude 

 for this delightful manifestation of your approval and regard. No 

 man could fail to be profoundly moved, or to indulge a pardonable 

 pride, under such circumstances ; and it is only natural that one, 

 who is perhaps too sensitive to the opinions of those whom he 

 loves and esteems should find it difficult to control his emotions 

 or to give full utterance to his thanks. 



If the pursuance of my appointed task has entailed sacrifices, 

 the chief among them has certainly been the long separation from 

 the friends at home, whose companionship, encouragement and 

 sympathy were always my greatest source of happiness, outside 

 the narrow limits of domestic life. But there has been something 

 more than mere separation ; for, however cherished and abiding 

 may be our memory in the hearts of the friends spared to us for 

 that reunion to which we are always yearningly looking forward, 

 there still remains the consciousness that we have ceased to form 

 an element in their lives, and that all human associations become 

 dulled by the lapse of time. Had I been able to foresee this 

 welcome from those to whom I am most closely bound by ties of 

 affection, sympathy and respect, the anticipation would have 

 lightened many a wear}- hour, and given new strength when 

 courage threatened to fail. 



You, my dear classmates of forty years ago, like the other 

 friends around us here, need not be reminded that public speak- 

 ing was never comprised in the short list of my attainments. It 

 will not surprise you ihat fifteen years' disuse of our native 

 language should have given me no greater command of it, nor 

 that an unremitting employment of telescopes and logarithm- 

 tables, should have made it no easier to face a large assemblage, 

 even though composed only of kind and indulgent friends. All 

 that I can do is to offer to all of you my overflowing thanks, and 

 to assure you that the long severance from friends and country, 

 now at last ended, shall give greater earnestness to my resolve 

 to atone in the future, as well as may be, for the past neglect of 

 my duties to them and to this community, in which I will never 

 abdicate my priceless birthright. 



_ As you have implied in your too flattering words, that incen- 

 tive has never been wanting during my expatriation, which 

 came from the consciousness that whatever it might be within 

 my power to accomplish well, would be credited in part to our 

 native land. It is a source of pride to the Argentines that their 

 political organisation was modelled upon that of the United 

 States — that their precedents in constitutional law are based 

 upon the decisions of North American courts, and that the 

 word " America" vibrates in their ears with the same melody 

 we know so well. If a conquest from the realm of the unknown 

 be made by American effort, they rejoice in it, before considering 

 which is the hemisphere whence the soldiery came. And the 

 success of any laudable effort emanating from this western hemi- 

 sphere is doubly prized by them when the two Americas have 

 united for its accomplishment. 



Science knows no narrow bounds of nationality ; yet who 

 would be so cruel or so unwise as to censure, or attempt to 

 weaken, the intense stimulus which is given by the hope that 

 what honour may attach to a good work will be reflected upon 

 one's own country ? Does not a part of the world's tribute to 

 a Franklin, Fulton, Bache, Henry, Agassiz, or Peirce — to an 

 Irving, Bryant, Prescott, Motley, or Longfellow (I name only 

 such as have left us)— belong to their country ? And is it ijot a 

 wholcLome incentive to the labourer that he should feel that a 

 portion of his reward will be assigned to his country, or even in 

 a wider sense, to his own continent, when this has started late 

 in the race, handicapped by the shortness of its history and the 

 restrictions of its past opportunities ? 



From this point of view it may not be unseemly if I comply 



with the request to relate briefly what has been attained at Cor- 

 doba in these fourteen and a half years, chiefly by North 

 Americans, labouring in the service of the Argentine nation, 

 which has never failed to aftbrd them all needful support and 

 encouragement. 



The undertaking began, as you know, with the project of a 

 private astronomical expedition, for which my friends in Boston 

 and its vicinity had promised the pecuniary means. The selec- 

 tion of Cordoba, as an especially desirable place, was chiefly 

 due to our lamented countryman, Gilliss, whose astronomical 

 mission to Santiago dc Chile had resulted in extensive and valu- 

 able observations of southern stars, and in the establishment of a 

 national observatory, while it had enabled him to form a sound 

 judgment as to the relative advantages of different points in 

 South America for astronomical purposes, notwithstanding the 

 total want of trustworthy meteorological data. This choice of 

 place was confirmed by the counsel of the Argentine ^Minister to 

 this country. That minister was Sarmiento, a man who needs 

 no encomium here, for, during his brief residence in the United 

 States, he gained an exceptional number of friends and admirers. 

 He transmitted to his Government, then under the presidency of 

 Gen. Milre, my application for certain privileges and assur- 

 ances, all of which were at once cordially conceded ; but his 

 interest in the plan became furthermore so great that when, soon 

 afterwards, he was himself elected President, he obtained the 

 assent of the Argentine Congress to the establishment of a 

 national observatoi-y, and wrote asking me to change my plans 

 accordingly. The official invitation was sent in due time by the 

 Minister of Public Instruc'ion, Dr. Avellaneda. The Govern- 

 ment assumed the expense of the instruments and equipments 

 already bespoken, and authorised the engagement of the requisite 

 assistants. 



In 1874 Dr. Avellaneda succeeded .Sarmiento in the presi- 

 dency, and in iSSo he was himself succeeded by Gen. Roca. 

 Thus, four successive administrations have encouraged and sus- 

 tained the undertaking ; and, notwithstanding the high political 

 excitement which often prevails, and might easdy have disinclined 

 the members of any one party to give cordial aid to institutions 

 established or fostered by its opponents, there has never been 

 wanting a spirit of decided friendliness to the Observatory and to 

 the scientific interests which have been developed under its 

 auspices. No president of the nation, and no minister of the 

 department under which the Observatory is placed, has failed to 

 give strong practical evidence of his good will ; there has been 

 none of them to whom I do not owe a debt of gratitude ; I have 

 never made an official request which has not been granted, and 

 almost always in such a way as to enhance the favour. And, just 

 as the official founders of the Observatory met us with a cordial 

 welcome on our arrival, so the Government of to-day has over- 

 whelmed me with kindness and tokens of regard on my de- 

 parture. On ihe very last evening before embarking — when it 

 was my privilege to receive the farewells of a crowded .assem- 

 blage in the halls of the Argentine Geographical Institute, and 

 to hear words of sympathy and commendation from the lips of 

 Gen. Sarmiento, my earliest Argentine friend, speaking in behalf 

 of that Society — I replied, in the few words which alone were 

 possible at the time, but with all sincerity and truthfulness, as 

 follows : — 



" It was you, sir, who provided the opportunity for which I 

 was yearning ; it was the Argentine Republic which made it 

 easy for me to avail myself of it ; it has been the National 

 Government which, in its various phases, and under so many 

 different administrations, always provided all needful means and 

 resources ; it is the Argentine people which has accompanied me 

 in my tasks, giving support by their sympathy and incentive by 

 their kindness." 



The original purpose of the expedition was to make a thorough 

 survey of the southern heavens by means of observations in 

 zones between the parallel of 30° and the polar circle ; but the 

 plan grew under the influence of circumstances, until the scrutiny 

 comprised the whole region from the tropic to within 10° of the 

 pole— somewhat more than 57° in width, instead of 37°. Al- 

 though it was no part of the original design to perform all the 

 numerical computations, and still less to bring the results into 

 the form of a finished catalogue, it has been my exceptional 

 privilege, unique in astronomical history so far as I am aware, to 

 enjoy the means and opportunity for personally supervising all 

 that vast labour, and to see the results published in their 

 definite, permanent form. Of course this has required time. 

 The three years which I had purposed devoting to the less 



