l feel stimulated to
well-directed efforts and find 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
professional class to those general aspects fitted to excite the
attention of the great public. From the point 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. The workers 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 phrase, "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 positions on land and at sea is frequently pointed
out. It is said that an Astronomer Royal 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 cannot 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 science 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 &
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 political leader by
the love of power over men, so the astronomer is moved by the love of
knowledge for its own sake, and not for the sake of its useful
applications. Yet he is proud to know that his science has been worth
more to mankind than it ha