158 
PUTNAM. 
speculation which, together with patience and reserve, Dr. 
Eliot declares the necessary equipment of the scientific in- 
vestigator, he thus never failed to distinguish mere hypothe- 
sis from a conclusion reached by induction. Nor did he 
think it necessary to the ascertained conclusion that it should 
be stated dogmatically or otherwise than with moderation. 
If this general attitude of Dr. Newcomb was remarkable 
for its lack of pretence, his attitude toward his own specialty 
was still more so — I mean in its modesty with reference to 
his own achievements, his generosity toward those of others. 
These traits are strikingly evidenced in his “Reminiscences,” 
a book charming as literature, but also, to those who cared 
for the man, most winning in revealing him. Written to- 
ward the close of his career, when his own great work was 
before the world and his fame established, these offered the 
opportunity, if vanity craved it, for pardonable complacency. 
They offered also the opportunity, which a lesser nature 
could not have resisted, for that parsimonious praise of others 
whose effect is depreciation. 
But so far removed are they from parsimony that his 
references to the abilities and accomplishments of other 
astronomers are as hearty and even respectful as if he were 
a novice in the science writing of the masters. Mr. (Geo. 
W.) TTill, for instance, he records as “the greatest master of 
mathematical astronomy during the last quarter of the 19th 
century,” who, in the determination of certain actual quanti- 
ties, “has left every investigator of recent or present time 
far in the rear”; a tribute the more striking (and unusual) 
because Mr. Hill was an associate and a subordinate. The 
chapter in which it occurs is entitled “The Author’s Scien- 
tific Work,” yet it is a chapter largely devoted to the recog- 
nition of that of others. Airy, the Astronomer Royal of 
England, was “the most commanding figure in the astron- 
omy of our time”; Auwers, “the highest type of the scientific 
investigator of our time”; Hansen, “the greatest master of 
celestial mechanics since Laplace”; while Delaunay’s investi- 
gation of the moon’s motion was “one of the most extra- 
ordinary pieces of mathematical work ever turned out by a 
single person.” 
