NOVEMBER 12, 1897. ] 
noteworthy institutions of your city which 
every visitor is taken to see, and yet this 
invention has given it an important place 
in the science of our day. 
Should you ask me what are the most 
hopeful features in the great establishment 
which you are now dedicating, I would say 
that they are not alone to be found in the 
size of your unequaled telescope, nor in the 
cost of the outfit, but in the fact that your 
authorities have shown their appreciation 
of the requirements of success by adding 
to the material outfit of the establishment 
the three men whose works I have de- 
scribed. 
Gentlemen of the Trustees, allow me to 
commend to your fostering care the men at 
the end of the telescope. The constitution 
of the astronomer shows curious and inter- 
esting features. If he is destined to ad- 
vance the science by works of real genius 
he must, like the poet, be born, not made. 
The born astronomer, when placed in com- 
mand of a telescope, goes about using it as 
naturally and effectively as the babe avails 
itself of its mother’s breast. . He sees in- 
tuitively what less-gifted men have to learn 
by long study and tedious experiment. He 
is moved to celestial knowledge by a pas- 
sion which dominates his nature. He can 
no more avoid doing astronomical work, 
whether in the line of observations or re- 
search, than the poet can chain his Pegasus 
to earth. I do not mean by this that edu- 
cation and training will be of no use to him. 
They will certainly accelerate his early 
progress. If he is to become great on the 
mathematical side, not only must his genius 
have a bent in that direction, but he must 
have the means of pursuing his studies. 
And yet I have seen so many failures of 
men who had the best instruction, and so 
many successes of men who scarcely learned 
anything of their teachers, that I sometimes 
ask whether the great American celestial 
mechanician of the twentieth century will 
SCIENCE. 
719 
be a graduate of a university or of the 
backwoods. 
Is the man thus moved to the explora- 
tion of nature by an unconquerable passion 
more to be envied or pitied? In no other 
pursuit does success come with such cer- 
tainty to him who deserves it. No life is 
so enjoyable as that whose energies are de- 
voted to following out the inborn impulses 
of one’s nature. The investigator of truth 
is little subject to the disappointments 
which await the ambitious man in other 
fields of activity. Itis pleasant to be one 
of a brotherhood extending over the world 
in which no rivalry exists except that which 
comes out of trying to do better work than 
anyone else, while mutual admiration stifles 
jealousy. And yet, with all these advan- 
tages, the experience of the astronomer may 
have its dark side. As he sees his field 
widening faster than he can advance he is 
impressed with the littleness of all that can 
be done in one short life. He feels the same 
want of successors to pursue his work that 
the founder of a dynasty may feel for heirs 
to occupy his throne. He has no desire to 
figure in history as a Napoleon of science 
whose conquests must terminate with his 
life. Even during his active career his 
work may be of such a kind as to require 
the cooperation of others and the active sup- 
port of the public. If he is disappointed 
in commanding these requirements, if he 
finds neither cooperation nor support, if 
some great scheme to which he may have 
devoted much of his life thus proves to be 
only a castle in the air, he may feel that 
nature has dealt hardly with him in not 
endowing him with passions like to those 
of other men. 
In treating a theme of perennial interest 
one naturally tries to fancy what the future 
may have in store. If the traveler con- 
templating the ruins of some ancient city 
which in the long ago teemed with the life 
and activities of generations of men sees 
