progress in Eussian. In his latter years he often recited from memory- 

 passages from Homer and Horace. Hansen's personal appearance was 

 noble and imposing ; his tall and stately form with his early grey hair 

 gave him a venerable appearance. His whole demeanour, as well as his 

 expression of countenance, announced a man of intellect, and one whose 

 opinions were the result of matured thought. He took little interest in the 

 commonplaces of society, and thereby gave many people the impression of 

 being reserved, but he was gladly and freely communicative in intercourse 

 with those who took a real interest in scientific questions. He willingly 

 acknowledged any suggestion offered to him on such subjects, and enjoyed 

 on this account especially his personal intercourse ^ith the celebrated 

 mathematician Jacobi, during the stay of the latter at Gotha, and felt 

 deeply the loss caused by his early death. 



He had great taste for music, and played both on the piano and the 

 harmonium. Another recreation to which he occasionally resorted was 

 chess. He had not much appreciation of the beauties of nature, owing 

 probably to shortsightedness and the peculiarity of his eyes, he being to a 

 considerable extent colour-blind. Accustomed in early youth to a flat sea- 

 shore, he felt rather oppressed than attracted by the romantic scenery of 

 the Thuriugian forest. 



He ^^-as an affectionate and devoted husband and father, and in his 

 old age took the greatest dehght in the society of his little grandchildren. 



His predilection for mechanical contrivances, which was one of his 

 chief sources of recreation after any continuous mental labour, continued 

 in later years ; and when his eyesight began to fail him, he with his own 

 hands introduced improvements in a most ingenious and artistic watch, 

 which he had contrived during his residence on the Seeberg, and which, 

 besides other things, indicated the mean time, the apparent solar time, 

 and the sidereal time. He also took a steady interest in the machine 

 factory which his son had erected in Grotha. 



For nearly forty years Hansen condiicted the Detail Survey of the 

 Gotha domains with untiring zeal and care, and had the satisfaction of 

 completing it before his death. Hansen held the appointment of Com- 

 missioner of the Ducal Government, and was for a long period President 

 of the " Permanent Commission," which post he only relinquished at last 

 on account of his health. He was also an efficient President of the Com- 

 mission appointed by the German Empire for the preparation for observing 

 the Transit of Venus. Both these scientific undertakings gave him an 

 opportunity of making elaborate and valuable theoretical investigations. 



His collection of scientific books has been, by the enlightened care of 

 the Grand Ducal Government and with the consent of the Landtag, pur- 

 chased for the Library of the Observatory. With the most praise- 

 worthy liberality his family have delivered up to the Astronomical Society 

 of Leipzig the whole of his valuable collection of manuscripts, thus affording 

 a further proof of the interest ever taken by Hansen in the labours of that 

 institution, notwithstanding that he was not a member of it. 



