78 THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 
THE PLANET NEPTUNE. 
Read before the Astronomical Sectzon of the Hamilton Scientific 
Association, April rst, 1902. 
BY REV. D. B. MARSH, SC. D. 
No unaided human eye has ever seen Neptune; he pursues his 
lonely way far beyond the vision of mortal man. Only with the tel- 
escope can the veil of the distance be lifted, and even then only very 
imperfectly. 
With a telescope of moderate power Neptune is seen as a star 
of the 8th magnitude. With an eye-piece of about 300 magnifying 
power a disc is perceptible, yet even this reveals glorious mystery. 
A view of Neptune by the telescope creates a thrill of wonder and 
awakens transports of solemn joy within the soul which no words 
can describe. 
That we may know the place of Neptune among the planets, 
and that we may have some conception of its vast distance from us, 
it will be necessary for me to take you nearly all the way there. 
I trust that you will enjoy the journey and the study of the planet 
when we get near enough for favorable observation, which will be 
only a few hundred miles from the planet. 
Before starting the journey I would like to say a few words 
regarding the discovery of the planet, and while I am doing this 
those of you who intend accompanying me can get your wraps about 
you and be ready for the tremendous journey through space. 
In the discovery of Neptune we have the triumph of calculation ; 
the discovery is due to the sole power of numbers. ‘The existence 
of this planet in the sky was revealed by mathematics. ‘The distur- 
bance of Uranus in his orbit permitted the mathematician to say that 
the cause of these perturbations was an unknown planet beyond the 
orbit of Uranus. A telescope was directed towards the sky, as 
directed by the mathematician, and in less than an hour the planet 
was found. If the planets only obeyed the traction of the sun, they 
