362 ELIZABETH CARY AGASSIZ 
which the photographic instrument is made thus to 
serve the work of man I had heard from Mrs. Fleming 
before. It is impossible to reproduce the charm of the 
narrative as told by her; the fitting of the blank 
photographic plate into the glass at evening, the 
setting of the telescope to the prescribed area over 
which it is to travel before daylight returns, the wind- 
ing of the clock which is to control its motion, the 
examination of the plate in the morning, and the 
finding possibly a new star included in the record 
of the night’s work, — it is all of transcendent in- 
terest. 
We may ask of what use the knowledge of such a 
discovery and of its results may be to the student un- 
less he or she is to be an astronomer. As much use as 
any knowledge which exalts and enlarges one’s concep- 
tion of the infinite, and carries us, if but a little way, 
into the measureless regions of the unknown. That 
the ingenuity of man should reveal to him the exist- 
ence of a world which lies beyond his utmost field 
of vision, however aided artificially; that the intellect 
of man should compute the position of this world and 
determine its relation in space, — seems like bringing 
the seen and the unseen into touch with one another. 
It is an object lesson which appeals alike to reason 
and to faith. I have no right to dwell, however lightly, 
on these mysteries. I only use the incident of that 
hour at the Observatory, which seemed to lift the 
veil for a moment from the hidden things of life, as 
an illustration of what characterizes the whole subject 
of enlarged education for girls and women, namely, 
