PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 25 



tions made at Sherman Station by Prof. C. A. Young, and on the 

 Sierra Nevada by Prof. Davidson. All this paved the way for the 

 endowment and establishment of the Lick Observatory. These 

 experiments led to the conclusion that the atmosphere of California 

 was most favorable to such observations. The more recent tentative 

 observations of Mr. Burnham at Mount Hamilton confirm these 

 views, and give promise of great success at the Lick Observatory. 



Prof. Abbe said that while the scientific and public works of 

 Prof. Peirce would always be spoken of with admiration, his social 

 characteristics were equally interesting. Prof. Abbe could never 

 forget the first time he shook hands with the venerable mathe- 

 matician in 1860, when he felt that there was a bond of union and 

 sympathy between them. Almost the first words he ever heard 

 him utter gave a glimpse of the man himself. He had heard Prof 

 Peirce say that the true poet — he who writes the most elevated 

 poetry — is the pure mathematician. 



. Kemarks by Mr. Edward Goodfellow. 



It was my privilege, more than a quarter of a century ago to be 

 ordered to duty under Prof. Peirce's direction, to aid him in cer- 

 tain investigations he was making in behalf of the Coast Survey, 

 with the object of ascertaining the most probable value to be as- 

 signed to observations of moon culminations in the determination 

 of differences of longitude. 



He was then in the prime of life and upon the threshold of that 

 great fame which his works brought to him but a few years later* 

 He impressed me as a man of thorough kindliness of heart. I 

 came to Cambridge an entire stranger; he interested himself per- 

 sonally in obtaining for me home-like lodgings, and not unfrequently 

 would come to my room to explain in detail, or to write out at length, 

 formulae which in his own very concise forms had been to me an en- 

 tire puzzle. 



Among the Harvard students he was very popular; his text- 

 books though were less liked than himself. It was a common say. 

 ing among the collegians, that Prof. Peirce took for granted, in his 

 books, that every one had as clear an insight into mathematics as 

 he himself had. 



I was on duty at West Hills, one of the Coast Survey stations on 

 Long Island, in 1865, when Prof. Peirce came to see Mr. Bache, 

 then just returned from Europe, but not with improved health. 



