40 THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 
GREAT ‘EVENTS OF ASTRONOMY. 
Read before the Hamilton Scientific Association, 
February 14th, 1901, 
BY D. V. LUCAS, D. D., GRIMSBY, ONT. 
Among the sciences astronomy is the first in rank. It is 
the oldest, the most patient and persevering, and withal the 
most triumphant. The subject matter with which it deals 
towers immeasurably above and reaches far beyond that of 
any other with which the human mind has ever grappled. It 
demonstrates in a measure as no other can the greatness of the 
Creator, and at the same time, though not in the same degree, 
the greatness of man. 
That a being so helpless in his infancy and with an indi- 
vidual life so brief and with native powers so apparently 
inadequate should succeed with the rolling centuries in reach- 
ing into space and discovering the proportions and distances 
and velocities of the orbs of heaven is something which height- 
ens our regard for the race to which we belong. 
I have not come to tell you anything new but to stir up 
your pure minds by way of remembrance, lest we forget what 
has been accomplished by those great men whose names 
should be honored by all generations. 
Step by step, from the first going down of the sun, or the 
changing phases of the moon before the eyes of our amazed 
primeval parents to the discovery of the outermost planet 
in our solar system, the great science has gone on from 
victory to victory, dispelling darkness, superstition and error, 
and putting in their place intelligence, admiration and rever- 
ence. Astronomy in its earlier efforts was so simple, the 
unlettered shepherd on the mountain side was equal to the 
task of its initiation, while as it progresses it offers us heights 
