1857-1858
FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR CONTINUED--LEVERRIER AND THE PARIS
OBSERVATORY--ROME--HARRIET HOSMER--OBSERVATORY OF THE COLLEGIO
ROMANO--SECCHI
At this time, the feeling between astronomers of Great Britain and those
of the United States was not very cordial. It was the time when Adams
and Leverrier were contending to which of them belonged the honor of the
discovery of the planet Neptune, and each side had its strong partisans.
Among Miss Mitchell's papers we find the following with reference to
this subject:
"... Adams, a graduate of Cambridge, made the calculations which showed
how an unseen body must exist whose influences were felt by Uranus. It
was a problem of great difficulty, for he had some half-dozen quantities
touching Uranus which were not accurately known, and as many wholly
unknown concerning the unseen planet. We think it a difficult question
which involves three or four unknown quantities with too few
circumstances, but this problem involved twelve or thirteen, so that x,
y, z reached pretty high up into the alphabet. But Adams, having worked
the problem, carried his work to Airy, the Astronomer Royal of England,
and awaited his comments. A little later Leverrier, the French
astronomer, completed the same problem, and waiting for no authority
beyond his own, flung his discovery out to the world with the
self-confidence of a Frenchman....
"... When the news of the discovery of Neptune reached this country, I
happened to be visiting at the observatory in Cambridge, Mass. Professor
Bond (the elder) had looked for the planet the night before I arrived at
his house, and he looked again the evening that I came.
"His observatory was then a small, round building, and in it was a small
telescope; he had drawn a map of a group of stars, one of which he
supposed was not a star, but the planet. He set the telescope to this
group, and asking his son to count the seconds, he allowed the stars to
pass by the motion of the earth across the field. If they kept the
relative distance of the night before, they were all stars; if any one
had approached or receded from the others, it was a planet; and when the
father looked at his son's record he said, 'One of those has moved, and
it is the one which I thought last night was the planet.' He looked
again at the group, and the son said, 'Father, do give me a look at the
new planet--you are the only man in America that can do it!' And then we
both looked; it looked precisely like a small star, and George and I
both asked, 'What made you think last night that it was the new planet?'
Mr. Bond could only say, 'I don't know, it looked different from the
others.'
"It is always so--you cannot get a man of genius to explain steps, he
leaps.
"After the discovery of this planet, Professor Peirce, in our own
country, declared that it was not the planet of the theory, and
therefore its discovery was a happy accident. But it seemed to me that
it was the planet of the theory, just as much if it varied a good deal
from its prescribed place as if it varied a little. So you might have
said that Uranus was not the Uranus of the theory.
"Sir John Herschel said, 'Its movements have been felt trembling along
the far-reaching line of our analysis, with a certainty hardly inferior
to ocular demonstration.' I consider it was superior to ocular
demonstration, as the action of the mind is above that of the senses.
Adams, in his study at Cambridge, England, and Leverrier in his closet
at Paris, poring over their logarithms, knew better the locus of that
outside planet than all the practical astronomers of the world put
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 understand when Leverrier
said to the children, 'If you make any more noise you go to bed.'
"While I was there, a woman as old as I rushed in, in bonnet and shawl,
and flew around the room, kissed madame, jumped the children about, and
shook hands with monsieur; and there was a great amount of screaming and
laughing, and all talked at once. As I could not understand a word, it
seemed to me like a theatre.
"I asked monsieur when I could see the observatory, and he answered,
'Whenever it suits your convenience.'
"December 15. I went to Leverrier's again last evening by special
invitation. Four gentlemen and three ladies received me, all standing
and bowing without speaking. Monsieur was, however, more sociable than
before, and shrieked out to me in French as though I were deaf.
"The ladies were in blue dresses; a good deal of crinoline, deep
flounces, high necks, very short, flowing sleeves, and short
undersleeves; the dresses were brocade and the flounces much trimmed,
madame's with white plush.
"The room was cold, of course, having no carpet, and a wood fire in a
very small fireplace.
"The gentlemen continued standing or promenading, and taking snuff.
"Except Leverrier, no one of them spoke to me. The ladies all did, and
all spoke French. The two children were present again--the little girl
five years old played on the piano, and the boy of nine played and sang
like a public performer. He promenaded about the room with his hands in
his pockets, like a man. I think his manners were about equal to
-----'s, as occasionally he yelled and was told to be quiet.
"About ten o'clock M. Leverrier asked me to go into the observatory,
which connects with the dwelling. They are building immense additional
rooms, and are having a great telescope, twenty-seven feet in focal
length, constructed.
"With Leverrier's bad English and my bad French we talked but little,
but he showed me the transit instrument, the mural circle, the
computing-room, and the private office. He put on his cloak and cap, and
said, 'Voila le directeur!'
"One room, he told me, had been Arago's, and Arago had his bed on one
side. M. Leverrier said, 'I do not wish to have it for my room.' He is
said to be much opposed to Arago, and to be merciless towards his
family.
"He showed me another room, intended for a reception-room, and explained
to me that in France one had to make science come into social life, for
the government must be reached in order to get money.
"There were huge globes in one room that belonged to Cassini. If what he
showed me is not surpassed in the other rooms, I don't think much of
their instruments.
"M. Leverrier said he had asked M. Chacornac to meet me, but he was not
there. I felt that we got on a little better, but not much, and it was
evident that he did not expect me to understand an observatory. We did
not ascend to the domes.
"Leverrier has telegraphic communication with all Europe except Great
Britain.
"It was quite singular that they made such different remarks to me.
Leverrier said that they had to make science popular.
"Airy said, 'In England there is no astronomical public, and we do not
need to make science popular.'
"Jan. 24, 1858. I am in Rome! I have been here four days, and already I
feel that I would rather have that four days in Rome than all the other
days of my travels! I have been uncomfortable, cold, tired, and
subjected to all the evils of travelling; but for all that, I would not
have missed the sort of realization that I have of the existence of the
past of great glory, if I must have a thousand times the discomfort. I
went alone yesterday to St. Peter's and the Vatican, and today, taking
Murray, I went alone to the Roman Forum, and stood beside the ruined
porticos and the broken columns of the Temple. Then I pushed on to the
Coliseum, and walked around its whole circumference. I could scarcely
believe that I really stood among the ruins, and was not dreaming! I
really think I had more enjoyment for going alone and finding out for
myself. Afterwards the Hawthornes called, and I took Mrs. H. to the same
spot....
"I really feel the impressiveness of Rome. All Europe has been serious
to me; Rome is even sad in its seriousness. You cannot help feeling, in
the Coliseum, some little of the influence of the scenes that have been
enacted there, even if you know little about them; you must remember
that the vast numbers of people who have been within its walls for ages
have not been common minds, whether they were Christian martyrs or
travelling artists....
"I think if I had never heard before of the reputation of the pictures
and statues of the Vatican, I should have perceived their superiority.
There is more idea of _action_ conveyed by the statuary than I ever
received before--they do not seem to be _dead_.
"January 25. I have finer rooms than I had in Paris, but the letting of
apartments is better managed in Paris. There you always find a
_concierge_, who tells you all you want to know, and who speaks several
languages. In Rome you enter a narrow, dark passage, and look in vain
for a door. Then you go up a flight of stairs, and see a door with a
string; you pull the string, and a woman puts her mouth to a square
hole, covered with tin punctured with holes, and asks what you want. You
tell her, and she tells you to go up higher; you repeat the process, and
at last reach the rooms. The higher up the better, because you get some
sun, and one learns the value of sunlight. I saw no sun in Paris in my
room, and here I have it half of the day, and it seems very pleasant.
"All the customs of the people differ from those of Paris....
"A little of Italian art enters into the ornaments of rooms and
furniture, but anything like mechanical skill seems to be unheard of;
and I dare say the pretty stamp used on the butter I have, which
represents some antique picture, was cut by some northern hand. I could
make a better cart than those that I see on the streets, and I could
_almost_ make as good horses as those that draw them!...
"It is Holy Week. I have spent seven hours at a time at St. Peter's, in
terrible crowds, for ten days, and now I go no more. The ladies are
seated, but as the ceremonies are in different parts of the immense
building, they rush wildly from one to the other; with their black veils
they look like furies let loose! I stayed five hours to-day to see the
Pope wash feet, which was very silly; for I saw mother wash them much
more effectually twenty years ago!
"The crowd is better worth seeing than the ceremony, if one could only
see it without being in it. I shall not try to hear the 'Miserere'--I
have given up the study of music! Since I failed to appreciate Mario, I
sha'n't try any more!
"I go to the Storys' on Sunday evening to look at St. Peter's lighting
up.
"March 21. I have been to vespers at St. Peter's. They begin an hour
before sunset. When my work is done for the day, I walk to St. Peter's.
This is Sunday, and the floor was full of kneeling worshippers, but that
makes no difference. I walk about among them.
"I was there an hour to-day before I saw a person that I knew; then I
met the Nicholses and went with them into a side chapel to hear vespers.
Then I saw next the Waterstons, then Miss Lander; but I was unusually
short of friends, I generally meet so many more.
"There were kneeling women to-day with babies in their arms. The babies
of the lower classes have their legs so wrapped up that they cannot move
them; they look like small pillows even when they are six months old. I
think it must dwarf them. We Americans are a tall people. I am a very
tall woman here. I think that P.'s height would cause a sensation in the
streets. My servant admires my height very much.
"March 22. I called on Miss Bremer to-day, having heard that she desired
to see me. She is a 'little woman in black,' but not so plain; her face
is a little red, but her complexion is fair and the expression very
pleasing. She chatted away a good deal; asked me about astronomy, and
how I came to study it. I told her that my father put me to it, and she
said she was just writing a story on the affection of father and
daughter. She told me I had good eyes. It is a long time now since any
one has told me that!
"Miss Bremer and Mrs. W. met in my room and remained an hour. Miss
Bremer is quiet and unpretending. Mrs. W. is flashy and brilliant, and,
as I usually say when I don't understand a person, a little insane; she
had the floor all the time after she came in. She gave a sketch of her
life from her birth up, mentioning incidentally that she had been a
belle, surrounded with beaux, the pride of her parents, with a
reputation for intellect, etc.
"I had been urging Miss Bremer into an interesting talk before Mrs. W.
appeared, and I felt what a pity it was that she hadn't the same
propensity to talk that the latter had. She talked very pleasantly,
however, and I thought what a pity it was that I shall not see her
again; for I leave Rome in three days for Florence.
"I was in Rome for a winter, an idler by necessity for six weeks. It is
the very place of all the world for an idler.
"On the pleasant days there are the ruins to visit, the Campagna to
stroll over, the villas and their grounds to gather flowers in, the
Forum to muse in, the Pincian Hill or the Capitoline for a gossiping
walk with some friend.
"On rainy days it is all art. There are the cathedrals, the galleries,
and the studios of the thousand artists; for every winter there are a
thousand artists in Rome.
"A rainy day found me in the studio of Paul Akers. As I was looking at
some of his models, the studio door opened and a pretty little girl,
wearing a jaunty hat and a short jacket, into the pockets of which her
hands were thrust, rushed into the room, seemingly unconscious of the
presence of a stranger, began a rattling, all-alive talk with Mr. Akers,
of which I caught enough to know that a ride over the Campagna was
planned, as I heard Mr. Akers say, 'Oh, I won't ride with you--I'm
afraid to!' after which he turned to me and introduced Harriet Hosmer.
"I was just from old conservative England, and I had been among its most
conservative people. I had caught something of its old musty-parchment
ideas, and the cricket-like manners of Harriet Hosmer rather troubled
me. It took some weeks for me to get over the impression of her madcap
ways; they seemed childish.
"I went to her studio and saw 'Puck,' a statue all fun and frolic, and I
imagined all was fun to the core of her heart.
"As a general rule, people disappoint you as you know them. To know them
better and better is to know more and more weaknesses. Harriet Hosmer
parades her weaknesses with the conscious power of one who knows her
strength, and who knows you will find her out if you are worthy of her
acquaintance. She makes poor jokes--she's a little rude--a good deal
eccentric; but she is always _true_.
"In the town where she used to live in Massachusetts they will tell you
a thousand anecdotes of her vagaries--but they are proud of her.
"She does not start on a false scent; she knows the royal character of
the game before she hunts.
"A lady who is a great rider said to me a few days since: 'Of course I
do not ride like Harriet Hosmer, but, if you will notice, there is
method in Harriet Hosmer's madness. She does not mount a horse until she
has examined him carefully.'
"At the time when I saw her, she was thinking of her statue of Zenobia.
She was studying the history of Palmyra, reading up on the manners and
customs of its people, and examining Eastern relics and costumes.
"If she heard that in the sacristy of a certain cathedral, hundreds of
miles away, were lying robes of Eastern queens, she mounted her horse
and rode to the spot, for the sake of learning the lesson they could
teach.
"Day after day alone in her studio, she studied the subject. Think what
knowledge of the country, of the history of the people, must be
gathered, must be moulded, to bring into the face and bearing of its
queen the expression of the race! Think what familiar acquaintance with
the human form, to represent a lifelike figure at all!
"For years after I came home I read the newspapers to see if I could
find any notice of the statue of Zenobia; and I did at length see this
announcement: 'The statue of Zenobia, by Miss Hosmer, is on exhibition
at Childs & Jenks'.'
"It was after five years. All through those five years, Miss Hosmer had
kept her projects steadily turned in this direction.
"Whatever may be the criticism of art upon her work, no one can deny
that she is above the average artist.
"But she is herself, as a woman, very much above herself in art. If
there came to any struggling artist in Rome the need of a friend,--and
of the thousand artists in Rome very few are successful,--Harriet Hosmer
was that friend.
"I knew her to stretch out a helping hand to an unfortunate artist, a
poor, uneducated, unattractive American, against whom the other
Americans in Rome shut their houses and their hearts. When the other
Americans turned from the unsuccessful artist, Harriet Hosmer reached
forth the helping hand.
"When Harriet Hosmer knew herself to be a sculptor, she knew also that
in all America was no school for her. She must leave home, she must live
where art could live. She might model her busts in the clay of her own
soil, but who should follow out in marble the delicate thought which the
clay expressed? The workmen of Massachusetts tended the looms, built the
railroads, and read the newspapers. The hard-handed men of Italy worked
in marble from the designs put before them; one copied the leaves which
the sculptor threw into the wreaths around the brows of his heroes;
another turned with his tool the folds of the drapery; another wrought
up the delicate tissues of the flesh; none of them dreamed of ideas:
they were copyists,--the very hand-work that her head needed.
"And to Italy she went. For her school she sought the studio of
Gibson--the greatest sculptor of the time.
"She resolved 'To scorn delights and live laborious days;' and there she
has lived and worked for years.
"She fashions the clay to her ideal--every little touch of her fingers
in the clay is a thought; she thinks in clay.
"The model finished and cast in the dull, hard, inexpressive plaster,
she stands by the workmen while they put it into the marble. She must
watch them, for a touch of the tool in the wrong place might alter the
whole expression of the face, as a wrong accent in the reader will spoil
a line of poetry.
"COLLEGIO ROMANO; SECCHI. There was another observatory which had a
reputation and was known in America. It was the observatory of the
Collegio Romano, and was in the monastery behind the Church of St.
Ignasio. Its director was the Father Secchi who had visited the United
States, and was well known to the scientists of this country.
"I said to myself, 'This is the land of Galileo, and this is the city in
which he was tried. I knew of no sadder picture in the history of
science than that of the old man, Galileo, worn by a long life of
scientific research, weak and feeble, trembling before that tribunal
whose frown was torture, and declaring that to be false which he knew to
be true. And I know of no picture in the history of religion more weakly
pitiable than that of the Holy Church trembling before Galileo, and
denouncing him because he found in the Book of Nature truths not stated
in their own Book of God--forgetting that the Book of Nature is also a
Book of God.
"It seems to be difficult for any one to take in the idea that two
truths cannot conflict.
"Galileo was the first to see the four moons of Jupiter; and when he
announced the fact that four such moons existed, of course he was met by
various objections from established authority. One writer declared that
as astrologers had got along very well without these planets, there
could be no reason for their starting into existence.
"But his greatest heresy was this: He was tried, condemned, and punished
for declaring that the sun was the centre of the system, and that the
earth moved around it; also, that the earth turned on its axis.
"For teaching this, Galileo was called before the assembled cardinals of
Rome, and, clad in black cloth, was compelled to kneel, and to promise
never again to teach that the earth moved. It is said that when he arose
he whispered, 'It does move!'
"He was tried at the Hall of Sopre Minerva. In fewer than two hundred
years from that time the Church of St. Ignasio was built, and the
monastery on whose walls the instruments of the modern observatory
stand.
"It is a very singular fact, but one which seems to show that even in
science 'the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church,' that the
spot where Galileo was tried is very near the site of the present
observatory, to which the pope was very liberal.
"From the Hall of Sopre Minerva you make but two turns through short
streets to the Fontenelle de Borghese, in the rear of which stands the
present observatory.
"Indeed, if a cardinal should, at the Hall of Sopre Minerva, call out to
Secchi, 'Watchman, what of the night?' Secchi could hear the question;
and no bolder views emanate from any observatory than those which Secchi
sends out.
"I sent a card to Secchi, and awaited a call, well satisfied to have a
little more time for listless strolling among ruins and into the
studios. And so we spent many an hour: picking up land shells from the
top of the Coliseum, gathering violets in the upper chambers of the
Palace of the Caesars,--for the overgrown walls made climbing very
easy,--or, resting upon some broken statue on the Forum, we admired the
arches of the Temple of Peace, thrown upon the rich blue of the sunny
skies.
"Returning one day from a drive, I met two priests descending one of the
upper flights of stairs in the house where I lived. As my rooms had been
blessed once, and holy water sprinkled upon them, I thought perhaps
another process of that kind had just been gone through, and was about
to pass them, when one of them, accosting me, asked if I were the
Signorine Mitchell,--changing his Italian to good English as he saw that
I was, and introducing himself as Father Secchi. He told me that the
younger man was a young _religieux_, and the two turned and went back
with me.
"I recalled, as I saw Father Secchi, an anecdote I had heard, no way to
his credit,--except for ingenious trickery. It was said that coming to
America he brought with him the object-glass of a telescope, at a time
when scientific apparatus paid a high duty. Being asked by some official
what the article was, he replied, 'My looking-glass,' and in that way
passed it off as personal wardrobe, so escaped the duty. (It may have
been De Vico.)
"Father Secchi had brought with him, to show me, negatives of the planet
Saturn,--the rings showing beautifully, although the image was not more
than half an inch in size.
"I was ignorant enough of the ways of papal institutions, and, indeed,
of all Italy, to ask if I might visit the Roman Observatory. I
remembered that the days of Galileo were days of two centuries since. I
did not know that my heretic feet must not enter the sanctuary,--that my
woman's robe must not brush the seats of learning.
"The Father's refusal was seen in his face at once, and I felt that I
had done something highly improper. The Father said that he would have
been most happy to have me visit him, but he had not the power--it was a
religious institution--he had already applied to his superior, who was
not willing to grant permission--the power lay with the Holy Father or
one of his cardinals. I was told that Mrs. Somerville, the most learned
woman in all Europe, had been denied admission; that the daughter of Sir
John Herschel, in spite of English rank, and the higher stamp of
Nature's nobility, was at that time in Rome, and could not enter an
observatory which was at the same time a monastery.
"If I had before been mildly desirous of visiting the observatory, I was
now intensely anxious to do so. Father Secchi suggested that I should
see Cardinal Antonelli in person, with a written application in my hand.
This was not to be thought of--to ask an interview with the wily
cardinal!
FROM A LETTER TO HER FATHER.
... I am working to get admitted to see the observatory, but it
cannot be done without special permission from the pope, and I
don't like to be "presented." If I can get permission without
the humbug of putting on a black veil and receiving a blessing
from Pius, I shall; but I shrink from the formality of
presentation. I know thou'd say "Be presented."
"Our minister at that time had the reputation of being very careless of
the needs and wishes of his countrymen, and I was not surprised to find
a long delay.
"In the course of my waiting, I had told my story to a young Italian
gentleman, the nephew of a monseigneur; a monseigneur being next in rank
to a cardinal. He assured me that permission would never be obtained by
our minister.
"After a fortnight's waiting I received a permit, written on parchment,
and signed by Cardinal Antonelli.
"When the young Italian next called, I held the parchment up in triumph,
and boasted that Minister ---- had at length moved in the matter. The
young man coolly replied, 'Yes, I spoke to my uncle last evening, and
asked him to urge the matter with Cardinal Antonelli; but for that it
would never have come!' There had been 'red tape,' and I had not seen
it.
"At the same time that the formal missive was sent to me, a similar one
was sent to Father Secchi, authorizing him to receive me. The Father
called at once to make the arrangements for my visit. I made the most
natural mistake! I supposed that the doors which opened to one woman,
opened to all, and I asked to take with me my Italian servant, a
quick-witted and bright-eyed woman, who had escorted me to and from
social parties in the evening, and who had learned in these walks the
names of the stars, receiving them from me in English, and giving back
to me the sweet Italian words; and who had come to think herself quite
an astronomer. Father Secchi refused at once. He said I was to meet him
at the Church of St. Ignasio at one and a half hours before Ave Marie,
and he would conduct me through the church into the observatory. My
servant might come into the church with me. The Ave Marie bell rings
half an hour after sunset.
"At the appointed time, the next fine day,--and all days seem to be
fine,--we set out on our mission.
"When we entered the church we saw, far in the distance, Father Secchi,
standing just behind a pillar. He slipped out a little way, as much as
to say, 'I await you,' but did not come forward to meet us; so the woman
and I passed along through the rows of kneeling worshippers, by the
strolling students, and past the lounging tourists--who, guide-book in
hand, are seen in every foreign church--until we came to the standpoint
from which the Father had been watching us.
"Then the Italian woman put up a petition, not one word of which I could
understand, but the gestures and the pointing showed that she begged to
go on and enter the monastery and see the observatory. Father Secchi
said, 'No, the Holy Father gave permission to one only,' and alone I
entered the monastery walls.
"Through long halls, up winding staircases, occasionally stopped by some
priest who touched his broad hat and asked 'Parlate Italiano?'
occasionally passed by students, often stopped by pictures on the
walls,--once to be introduced to a professor; then through the library
of the monastery, full of manuscripts on which monks had worked away
their lives; then through the astronomical library, where young
astronomers were working away theirs, we reached at length the dome and
the telescope.
"One observatory is so much like another that it does not seem worth
while to describe Father Secchi's. This observatory has a telescope
about the size of that at Washington (about twelve inches). Secchi had
no staff, and no prescribed duties. The base of the observatory was the
solid foundation of the old Roman building. The church was built in
1650, and the monastery in part at that time, certainly the dome of the
room in which was the meridian instrument.
"The staircase is cut out of the old Roman walls, which no roll of
carriage, except that of the earthquake chariot, can shake.
"Having no prescribed duties, Secchi could follow his fancies--he could
pick up comets as he picked up bits of Mosaic upon the Roman forum. He
learns what himself and his instruments can do, and he keeps to that
narrow path.
"He was at that time much interested in celestial photography.
"Italy must be the very paradise of astronomers; certainly I never saw
objects so well before; the purity of the air must be very superior to
ours. We looked at Venus with a power of 150, but it was not good.
Jupiter was beautiful, and in broad daylight the belts were plainly
seen. With low powers the moon was charming, but the air would not bear
high ones.
"Father Secchi said he had used a power of 2,000, but that 600 was more
common. I have rarely used 400. Saturn was exquisite; the rings were
separated all around; the dusky ring could be seen, and, of course, the
shadow of the ball upon the ring.
"The spectroscopic method of observing starlight was used by Secchi as
early as by any astronomer. By this method the starlight is analyzed,
and the sunlight is analyzed, and the two compared. If it does not
disclose absolutely what are the peculiarities of starlight and
sunlight, relatively, it traces the relationship.
"In order to be successful in this kind of observation, the telescope
must keep very accurately the motion of the earth in its axis; and so
the papal government furnishes nice machinery to keep up with this
motion,--the same motion for declaring whose existence Galileo suffered!
The two hundred years had done their work.
"I should have been glad to stay until dark to look at nebulae, but the
Father kindly informed me that my permission did not extend beyond the
daylight, which was fast leaving us, and conducting me to the door he
informed me that I must make my way home alone, adding, 'But we live in
a civilized country.'
"I did not express to him the doubt that rose to my thoughts! The Ave
Marie bell rings half an hour after sunset, and before that time I must
be out of the observatory and at my own house."