t
together....

"Of course in Paris I went to the Imperial Observatory, to visit
Leverrier. I carried letters from Professor Airy, who also sent a letter
in advance by post. Leverrier called at my hotel, and left cards; then
came a note, and I went to tea.

"Leverrier had succeeded Arago. Arago had been a member of the
Provisional Government, and had died. Leverrier took exactly opposite
ground, politically, to that of Arago; he stood high with the emperor.

"He took me all over the observatory. He had a large room for a
ballroom, because in the ballroom science and politics were discussed;
for where a press is not free, salons must give the tone to public
opinion.

"Both Leverrier and Madame Leverrier said hard things about the English,
and the English said hard things about Leverrier.

"The Astronomical Observatory of Paris was founded on the establishment
of the Academy of Sciences, in the reign of Louis XIV. The building was
begun in 1667 and finished in 1672; like other observatories of that
time, it was quite unfit for use.

"John Dominie Cassini came to it before it was finished, saw its
defects, and made alterations; but the whole building was afterwards
abandoned. M. Leverrier showed me the transit instrument and the mural
circle. He has, like Mr. Airy, made the transit instrument incapable of
mechanical change for its corrections of error, so that it depends for
accuracy upon its faults being known and corrected in the computations.

"All the early observatories of Europe seem to have been built as
temples to Urania, and not as working-chambers of science. The Royal
Observatory at Greenwich, the Imperial Observatory of Paris, and the
beautiful structure on Calton Hill, Edinboro', were at first wholly
useless as observatories. That of Greenwich had no steadiness, while
every pillar in the astronomical temple of Edinboro', though it may tell
of the enlightenment of Greece, hides the light of the stars from the
Scottish observer. Well might Struve say that 'An observatory should be
simply a box to hold instruments.'

"The Leverriers speak English about as well as I do French, and we had a
very awkward time of it. M. Leverrier talked with me a little, and then
talked wholly to one of the gentlemen present. Madame was very chatty.

"Leverrier is very fine-looking; he is fair-haired full-faced,
altogether very healthy-looking. His wife is really handsome, the
children beautiful. I was glad that I could un