TkANSACiTIONS OF SECTION A. 539 



Here, however, I end, for the present at any rate, my list of the risks and 

 dangers which co-operation brings in its train. It is time to turn to the other and 

 brighter side of the matter ; for there is a brighter side, whicli presents itself, 

 as it should to experimental philosophers, when we come to practical working 

 as opposed to forecasting ; and it is because the great scheme of the Astrographic 

 Chart illustrates vividly both the dark side and the bright, both the possible evils 

 of such schemes and the actual benefits which may replace them under certain 

 circumstances, that 1 have ventured to select it so often for reference in these 

 remarks. We have seen how it has escaped the premature decease which has 

 befallen other such schemes, owing in great measvire to the energy of the central 

 authority. The mistake of attempting too much is unfortunately now irreme- 

 diable in this particular case ; but it may serve as a warning on future occasions. 

 It remains to show how the danger of crippling individuality has been averted in 

 an unexpected, almost a comical, manner. 



At the outset this danger was distinctly threatening. At the earlier confer- 

 ences there was manifest anxiety, chiefly on the part of those who were not going 

 to do the work, to bind down the workers rather stringently by rules of procedure. 

 The anxiety seemed to be intensified rather than diminished by the circumstance 

 that it was not very clear what these rules ought to be. Where several courses 

 were open, each found its champion, and the discussion was perhaps most 

 animated in the cases where the teaching of actual experience was least 

 available. On several occasions a decision was only arrived at by an expedient 

 which seems to be familiar in Continental meetings, but is little known in 

 England ; perhaps it deserves a wider recognition. When formal discussion 

 waxes warm, the" President declares the meeting dissolved, for ten minutes 

 of informal conversation. The meeting forthwith breaks up into animated 

 knots of eager talkers ; opponents who have been addressing one another 

 with the meeting between them rush across the room to each other and put their 

 points with renewed emphasis and unfettered gesture, and for ten minutes there 

 is apparent confusion and some noise. But when the President's bell again rings, 

 the effect of the outburst is manifested in a restoration of sobriety and the passing 

 of a resolution ; and so the number of resolutions mounts up, and by the end of the 

 Conference a respectable list of them is ready for the printer ; a list quite long 

 enough to quench any spark of originality in the individuals taking part in the 

 work. But now comes the unforeseen feature of the enterprise. The participating 

 workers go off to their obsenatories with a copy of these rules in their pockets, 

 and do not observe them. Such as they find convenient they adhere to closely ; 

 but when they find by experience that a rule will not work, they do not hesitate 

 to prefer their experience, as good and faithful experimental philosophers should. 

 And their individual experiences were by no means similar, so that the sheet of 

 rules was torn across in all sorts of directions ; the original copy would be now 

 barely recognisable by those who subscribed to it. 



But then is anything left ? Is not this the practical failure of the scheme ? 

 On the contrary it was its salvation. The diversity of experience was not funda- 

 mental, but to a great extent apparent only. The rules which were broken were 

 those which experience proved non-essential, and which ought never to have been 

 made ; and when those who had actually carried out a considerable portion of the 

 work met last year, they found that they had arrived at practically the same con- 

 clusions by a diversity of routes. It was inevitable that they should, rules or no 

 rules, if they went to work honestly and perseveringly ; and if some went a longer 

 way and some a shorter to the same goal this was, after all, an unimportant 

 matter beside the fact that they all arrived at last. Had they not thrown off 

 the needless constraints they might never have arrived at all. 



The reality of this happy consummation was illustrated by two minor inci- 

 dents, which I will mention. At this last Conference several points were brought 

 up for discussion which had not been previously considered. Guided by expe- 

 rience, no attempt was made in general to frame new rules of procedure : the 

 object was tacitly assumed to be that the different workers should compare notes 

 for their own guidance. But there were some present, especially among those not 



