ASPECTS OF AMERICAN ASTRONOMY. 87 



themselves inspired by thoughts which, however familiar, will now be 

 more easily worked out. 



We may pass from the aspects of the case as seen by the strictly pro- 

 fessional class to those general aspects fitted to excite the attention of 

 the great public. From the i^oint of view of the latter it may well 

 appear that the most striking feature of the celebration is the great 

 amount of effort which is shown to be devoted to the cultivation of a 

 field quite outside the ordinary range of human interests. 



A little more than two centuries ago Huyghens prefaced an account 

 of his discoveries on the j)lanet Saturn with the remark that many, 

 even among the learned, might think he had been devoting to things 

 too distant to interest mankind an amount of study which would 

 better have been devoted to subjects of more immediate concern. It 

 must be admitted that this fear has not deterred succeeding astrono- 

 mers from pursuing their studies. The enthusiastic students whom we 

 see around us are only a detachment from an army of investigators 

 who, in many parts of the world, are seeking to explore the mysteries 

 of creation. Why so great an expenditure of energy? Certainly not to 

 gain wealth, for astronomy is perhaps the one field of scientific work 

 which, in our expressive modern i)hrase, '' has no money in it." It is true 

 that the great practical use of astronomical science to the country and 

 the world in affording us the means of determining iDositions on land and 

 at sea is frequently pointed out. It is said that an Astronomer Eoyal 

 of England once calculated that every meridian observation of the 

 moon made at Greenwich was worth a pound sterling on account of 

 the help it would afford to the navigation of the ocean. An accurate 

 map of the United States can not be constructed without astronomical 

 observations at numerous points scattered over the whole country, 

 aided by data which great observatories have been accumulating for 

 more than a century, and must continue to accumulate in the future. 



But neither the measurement of the Earth, the making of maps, nor 

 the aid of the navigator is the main object which the astronomers of 

 to day have in view. If they do not quite share the sentiment of that 

 eminent mathematician, who is said to have thanked God that his sci- 

 ence was one which could not be prostituted to any useful purpose, 

 they still know well that to keep utilitarian objects in view would only 

 prove a handicap on their efforts. Consequently they never ask in 

 what way their science is going to benefit mankind. 



As the great captain of industry is moved by the love of wealth, and 

 the i)olitician by the love of power, so the astronomer is moved by the 

 love of knowledge for its own sake, and not for the sake of its applica- 

 tion. Yet he is proud to know that his science has been worth more to 

 mankind than it has cost. He does not value its results merely as a 

 means of crossing the ocean or mapping the country, for he feels that 

 man does not live by bread alone. If it is not more than bread to know 

 the place we occupy in the universe, it is certainly something which 



