a resident graduate. Life in the
new atmosphere was in such pleasant and striking contrast to that
of my former world that I intensely enjoyed it. I had no very well
marked object in view beyond continuing studies and researches in
mathematical astronomy. Not long after my arrival in Cambridge some
one, in speaking of Professor Peirce, remarked to me that he had a
European reputation as a mathematician. It seemed to me that this
was one of the most exalted positions that a man could attain, and I
intensely longed for it. Yet there was no hurry. Reputation would
come to him who deserved it by his works; works of the first class
were the result of careful thought and study, and not of hurry.
A suggestion had been made to me looking toward a professorship in
some Western college, but after due consideration, I declined to
consider the matter. Yet the necessity of being on the alert for
some opening must have seemed quite strong, because in 1860 I became
a serious candidate for the professorship of physics in the newly
founded Washington University at St. Louis. I was invited to visit
the university, and did so on my way to observe the eclipse of 1860.
My competitor was Lieutenant J. M. Schofield of the United States
Army, then an instructor at West Point. It will not surprise the
reader to know that the man who was afterward to command the army
of the United States received the preference, so I patiently waited
more than another year.

[1] Henry Holt & Co.: New York, 1877.

[2] _Wayside Sketches_, by E. J. Loomis. Roberts: Boston

[3] Evangelinus Apostolides Sophocles, a native Greek and a learned
professor of the literature of his country.

IV

LIFE AND WORK AT AN OBSERVATORY

In August, 1861, while I was passing my vacation on Cape Ann,
I received a letter from Dr. Gould, then in Washington, informing
me that a vacancy was to be filled in the corps of professors of
mathematics attached to the Naval Observatory, and suggesting that
I might like the place. I was at first indisposed to consider
the proposition. Cambridge was to me the focus of the science
and learning of our country. I feared that, so far as the world
of learning was concerned, I should be burying myself by moving
to Washington. The drudgery of night work at the observatory would
also interfere with carrying on any regular investigation. But, on
second thought, having nothing in view at the time, and the position
being one f