1858-1865
FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR CONCLUDED--MRS. SOMERVILLE--HUMBOLDT--MRS.
MITCHELL'S DEATH--REMOVAL TO LYNN, MASS.--PRESENT OF AN EQUATORIAL
TELESCOPE-EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS
"I had no hope, when I went to Europe, of knowing Mrs. Somerville.
American men of science did not know her, and there had been unpleasant
passages between the savants of Europe and those of the United States
which made my friends a little reluctant about giving me letters.
"Professor Henry offered to send me letters, and said that among them
should be one to Mrs. Somerville; but when his package came, no such
letter appeared, and I did not like to press the matter,--indeed, after
I had been in England I was not surprised at any amount of reluctance.
They rarely asked to know my friends, and yet, if they were made known
to them, they did their utmost.
"So I went to Europe with no letter to Mrs. Somerville, and no letter to
the Herschels.
"I was very soon domesticated with the Airys, and really felt my
importance when I came to sleep in one of the round rooms of the Royal
Observatory. I dared give no hint to the Airys that I wanted to know the
Herschels, although they were intimate friends. 'What was I that I
should love them, save for feeling of the pain?' But one fine day a
letter came to Mrs. Airy from Lady Herschel, and she asked, 'Would not
Miss Mitchell like to visit us?' Of course Miss Mitchell jumped at the
chance! Mrs. Airy replied, and probably hinted that Miss Mitchell 'could
be induced,' etc.
"If the Airys were old friends of Mrs. Somerville, the Herschels were
older. The Airys were just and kind to me; the Herschels were lavish,
and they offered me a letter to Mrs. Somerville.
"So, provided with this open sesame to Mrs. Somerville's heart, I called
at her residence in Florence, in the spring of 1858.
"I sent in the letter and a card, and waited in the large Florentine
parlor. In the open fireplace blazed a wood fire very suggestive of
American comfort--very deceitful in the suggestion, for there is little
of home comfort in Italy.
"After some little delay I heard a footstep come shuffling along the
outer room, and an exceedingly tall and very old man entered the room,
in the singular head-dress of a red bandanna turban, approached me, and
introduced himself as Dr. Somerville, the husband.
"He was very proud of his wife, and very desirous of talking about her,
a weakness quite pardonable in the judgment of one who is desirous to
know. He began at once on the subject. Mrs. Somerville, he said, took
great interest in the Americans, for she claimed connection with the
family of George Washington.
"Washington's half-brother, Lawrence, married Anne Fairfax, who was one
of the Scotch family. When Lieutenant Fairfax was ordered to America,
Washington wrote to him as a family relative, and asked him to make him
a visit. Lieutenant Fairfax applied to his commanding officer for
permission to accept, and it was refused. They never met, and much to
the regret of the Fairfax family the letter of Washington was lost. The
Fairfaxes of Virginia are of the same family, and occasionally some
member of the American branch returns to see his Scotch cousins.
"While Dr. Somerville was eagerly talking of these things, Mrs.
Somerville came tripping into the room, speaking at once with the
vivacity of a young person. She was seventy-seven years old, but
appeared twenty years younger. She was not handsome, but her face was
pleasing; the forehead low and broad; the eyes blue; the features so
regular, that in the marble bust by Chantrey, which I had seen, I had
considered her handsome.
"Neither bust nor picture, however, gives a correct idea of her, except
in the outline of the head and shoulders.
"She spoke with a strong Scotch accent, and was slightly affected with
deafness, an infirmity so common in England and Scotland.
"While Mrs. Somerville talked, the old gentleman, seated by the fire,
busied himself in toasting a slice of bread on a fork, which he kept at
a slow-toasting distance from the coals. An English lady was present,
learned in art, who, with a volubility worthy of an American, rushed
into every little opening of Mrs. Somerville's more measured sentences
with her remarks upon recent discoveries in _her_ specialty. Whenever
this occurred, the old man grew fidgety, moved the slice of bread
backwards and forwards as if the fire were at fault, and when, at
length, the English lady had fairly conquered the ground, and was
started on a long sentence, he could bear the eclipse of his idol no
longer, but, coming to the sofa where we sat, he testily said, 'Mrs.
Somerville would rather talk on science than on art.'
"Mrs. Somerville's conversation was marked by great simplicity; it was
rather of the familiar and chatty order, with no tendency to the essay
style. She touched upon the recent discoveries in chemistry or the
discovery of gold in California, of the nebulae, more and more of which
she thought might be resolved, and yet that there might exist nebulous
matters, such as compose the tails of comets, of the satellites, of the
planets, the last of which she thought had other uses than as
subordinates. She spoke with disapprobation of Dr. Whewell's attempt to
prove that our planet was the only one inhabited by reasoning beings;
she believed that a higher order of beings than ourselves might people
them.
"On subsequent visits there were many questions from Mrs. Somerville in
regard to the progress of science in America. She regretted, she said,
that she knew so little of what was done in our country.
"From Lieutenant Maury, alone, she received scientific papers. She spoke
of the late Dr. (Nathaniel) Bowditch with great interest, and said she
had corresponded with one of his sons. She asked after Professor Peirce,
whom she considered a great mathematician, and of the Bonds, of
Cambridge. She was much interested in their photography of the stars,
and said it had never been done in Europe. At that time photography was
but just applied to the stars. I had carried to the Royal Astronomical
Society the first successful photograph of a star. It was that of Mizar
and Alcor, in the Great Bear. (Since that time all these things have
improved.)
"The last time I saw Mrs. Somerville, she took me into her garden to
show me her rose-bushes, in which she took great pride. Mrs. Somerville
was not a mathematician only, she spoke Italian fluently, and was in
early life a good musician.
"I could but admire Mrs. Somerville as a woman. The ascent of the steep
and rugged path of science had not unfitted her for the drawing-room
circle; the hours of devotion to close study have not been incompatible
with the duties of wife and mother; the mind that has turned to rigid
demonstration has not thereby lost its faith in those truths which
figures will not prove. 'I have no doubt,' said she, in speaking of the
heavenly bodies, 'that in another state of existence we shall know more
about these things.'
"Mrs. Somerville, at the age of seventy-seven, was interested in every
new improvement, hopeful, cheery, and happy. Her society was sought by
the most cultivated people in the world. [She died at ninety-two.]
"Berlin, May 7, 1858. Humboldt had replied to my letter of introduction
by a note, saying that he should be happy to see me at 2 P.M., May 7. Of
course I was punctual. Humboldt is one of several residents in a very
ordinary-looking house on Oranienberge strasse.
"All along up the flight of stairs to his room were printed notices
telling persons where to leave packages and letters for Alexander
Humboldt.
"The servant showed me at first into a sort of anteroom, hung with
deers' horns and carpeted with tigers' skins, then into the study, and
asked me to take a seat on the sofa. The room was very warm; comfort was
evidently carefully considered, for cushions were all around; the sofa
was handsomely covered with worsted embroidery. A long study-table was
full of books and papers.
"I had waited but a few moments when Humboldt came in; he was a smaller
man than I had expected to see. He was neater, more 'trig,' than the
pictures represent him; in looking at the pictures you feel that his
head is too large,--out of proportion to the body,--but you do not
perceive this when you see him.
"He bowed in a most courtly manner, and told me he was much obliged to
me for coming to see him, then shook hands, and asked me to sit, and
took a chair near me.
"There was a clock in sight, and I stayed but half an hour. He talked
every minute, and on all kinds of subjects: of Dr. Bache, who was then
at the head of the U.S. Coast Survey; of Dr. Gould, who had recently
returned from long years in South America; of the Washington Observatory
and its director, Lieutenant Maury; of the Dudley Observatory, at
Albany; of Sir George Airy, of the Greenwich Observatory; of Professor
Enke's comet reputation; of Argelander, who was there observing variable
stars; of Mrs. Somerville and Goldschmidt, and of his brother.
"It was the period when the subject of admitting Kansas as a slave State
was discussed--he touched upon that; it was during the administration of
President Buchanan, and he talked about that.
"Having been nearly a year in Europe, I had not kept up my reading of
American newspapers, but Humboldt could tell me the latest news,
scientifically and politically. To my ludicrous mortification, he told
me of the change of position of some scientific professor in New York
State, and when I showed that I didn't know the location of the town,
which was Clinton, he told me if I would look at the map, which lay upon
the table, I should find the town somewhere between Albany and Buffalo.
"Humboldt was always considered a good-tempered, kindly-natured man, but
his talk was a little fault-finding.
"He said: 'Lieutenant Maury has been useful, but for the director of an
observatory he has put forth some strange statements in the 'Geography
of the Sea.'
"He asked me if Mrs. Somerville was now occupied with pure mathematics.
He said: 'There she is strong. I never saw her but once. She must be
over sixty years old.' In reality she was seventy-seven. He spoke with
admiration of Mrs. Somerville's 'Physical Geography,'--said it was
excellent because so concise. 'A German woman would have used more
words.'
"Humboldt asked me if they could apply photography to the small
stars--to the eighth or ninth magnitude. I had asked the same question
of Professor Bond, of Cambridge, and he had replied, 'Give me $500,000,
and we can do it; but it is very expensive.'
"Humboldt spoke of the fifty-three small planets, and gave his opinion
that they could not be grouped together; that there was no apparent
connection.
"Having lost all his teeth, Humboldt's articulation was indistinct--he
talked very rapidly. His hair was thin and very white, his eyes very
blue, his nose too broad and too flat; yet he was a handsome man. He
wore a white necktie, a black dress-coat, buttoned up, but not so much
so that it hid a figured dark-blue and white waistcoat. He was a little
deaf. He told me that he was eighty-nine years old, and that he and
Bonpland, alone, were living of those who in early life were on
expeditions together; that Bonpland was eighty-five, and much the more
vigorous of the two.
"He said that we had gone backwards, morally, in America since he was
there,--that then there were strong men there: Jefferson, and Hamilton,
and Madison; that the three months he spent in America were spent almost
wholly with Jefferson.
"In the course of conversation he told me that the fifth volume of
'Cosmos' was in preparation. He urged me to go to see Argelander on my
way to London; he followed me out, still urging me to do this, and at
the same time assured me that Kansas would go all right.
"It was singular that Humboldt should advise me to use the sextant; it
was the first instrument that I ever used, and it is a very difficult
one. No young aspirant in science ever left Humboldt's presence
uncheered, and no petty animosities come out in his record. You never
heard of Humboldt's complaining that any one had stolen his thunder,--he
knew that no one could lift his bolts.
"When I came away, he thanked me again for the visit, followed me into
the anteroom, and made a low bow."
In 1855 Mrs. Mitchell was taken suddenly ill, and although partial
recovery followed, her illness lasted for six years, during which time
Maria was her constant nurse. For most of the six years her mother's
condition was such that merely a general care was needed, but it used to
be said that Maria's eyes were always upon her. When the opportunity to
go to Europe came, an older sister came with her family to take Maria's
place in the home; and when Miss Mitchell returned she found her mother
so nearly in the state in which she had left her, that she felt
justified in having taken the journey.
Mrs. Mitchell died in 1861, and a few months after her death Mr.
Mitchell and his daughter removed to Lynn, Mass.--Miss Mitchell having
purchased a small house in that city, in the rear of which she erected
the little observatory brought from Nantucket. She was very much
depressed by her mother's death, and absorbed herself as much as
possible in her observations and in her work for the Nautical Almanac.
Soon after her return from Europe she had been presented with an
equatorial telescope, the gift of American women, through Miss Elizabeth
Peabody. The following letter refers to this instrument:
LETTER FROM ADMIRAL SMYTH.
ST. JOHN'S LODGE, NEAR AYLESBURY, 25-7-'59.
MY DEAR MISS MITCHELL: ... We are much pleased to hear of your
acquisition of an equatorial instrument under a revolving roof,
for it is a true scientific luxury as well as an efficient
implement. The aperture of your object-glass is sufficient for
doing much useful work, but, if I may hazard an opinion to you,
do not attempt too much, for it is quality rather than quantity
which is now desirable. I would therefore leave the
multiplication of objects to the larger order of telescopes, and
to those who are given to sweep and ransack the heavens, of whom
there is a goodly corps. Now, for your purpose, I would
recommend a batch of neat, but not over-close, binary systems,
selected so as to have always one or the other on hand.
I, however, have been bestirring myself to put amateurs upon a
more convenient and, I think, a better mode of examining double
stars than by the wire micrometer, with its faults of
illumination, fiddling, jumps, and dirty lamps. This is by the
beautiful method of rock-crystal prisms, not the Rochon method
of double-image, but by thin wedges cut to given angles. I have
told Mr. Alvan Clark my "experiences." and I hope he will apply
his excellent mind to the scheme. I am insisting upon this point
in some astronomical twaddle which I am now printing, and of
which I shall soon have to request your acceptance of a copy.
There is a very important department which calls for a zealous
amateur or two, namely, the colors of double stars, for these
have usually been noted after the eye has been fatigued with
observing in illuminated fields. The volume I hope to
forward--_en hommage_--will contain all the pros and cons of
this branch.
There is, for ultimate utility, nothing like forming a plan and
then steadily following it. Those who profess they will attend
to everything often fall short of the mark. The division of
labor leads to beneficial conclusions as well in astronomy as in
mechanics and arts.
Mrs. Smyth and my daughter unite with me in wishing you all
happiness and success; and believe me
My dear Miss Mitchell,
Yours very faithfully,
W. H. SMYTH.
In regard to the colors of stars, Miss Mitchell had already begun their
study, as these extracts from her diary show:
"Feb. 19, 1853. I am just learning to notice the different colors of the
stars, and already begin to have a new enjoyment. Betelgeuse is
strikingly red, while Rigel is yellow. There is something of the same
pleasure in noticing the hues that there is in looking at a collection
of precious stones, or at a flower-garden in autumn. Blue stars I do not
yet see, and but little lilac except through the telescope.
"Feb. 12, 1855.... I swept around for comets about an hour, and then I
amused myself with noticing the varieties of color. I wonder that I have
so long been insensible to this charm in the skies, the tints of the
different stars are so delicate in their variety. ... What a pity that
some of our manufacturers shouldn't be able to steal the secret of
dyestuffs from the stars, and astonish the feminine taste by new
brilliancy in fashion. [Footnote: See Chapter XI.]
[NANTUCKET], April [1860].
MY DEAR: Your father just gave me a great fright by "tapping at
my window" (I believe Poe's was a door, wasn't it?) and holding
up your note. I was busy examining some star notices just
received from Russia or Germany,--I never knew where Dorpat
is.--and just thinking that my work was as good as theirs. I
always noticed that when school-teachers took a holiday in order
to visit other institutions they came home and quietly said, "No
school is better or as good as mine." And then I read your note,
and perceive your reading is as good as Mrs. Kemble's. Now,
being _modest_, I always felt afraid the reason I thought you
such a good reader was because I didn't know any better, but if
all the world is equally ignorant, it makes it all right....
I've been intensely busy. I have been looking for the little
inferior planet to cross the sun, which it hasn't done, and I
got an article ready for the paper and then hadn't the courage
to publish--not for fear of the readers, but for fear that I
should change my own ideas by the time 'twas in print.
I am hoping, however, to have something by the meeting of the
Scientific Association in August,--some paper,--not to get
reputation for myself,--my reputation is so much beyond me that
as policy I should keep quiet,--but in order that my telescope
may show that it is at work. I am embarrassed by the amount of
work it might do--as you do not know which of Mrs. Browning's
poems to read, there are so many beauties.
The little republic of San Marino presented Miss Mitchell, in 1859, with
a bronze medal of merit, together with the _Ribbon_ and _Letters Patent_
signed by the two captains regent. This medal she prized as highly as
the gold one from Denmark.
"Nantucket, May 12, 18[60].... I send you a notice of an occultation;
the last sentence and the last figures are mine. You and I can never
occult, for have we not always helped one another to shine? Do you have
Worcester's Dictionary? I read it continually. Did you feast on 'The
Marble Faun'? I have a charming letter from Una Hawthorne, herself a
poet by nature, all about 'papa's book.' Ought not Mr. Hawthorne to be
the happiest man alive? He isn't, though! Do save all the anecdotes you
possibly can, piquant or not; starved people are not over-nice.
LYNN, Jan. 5 [1864].
... I very rarely see the B----s; they go to a different church,
and you know with that class of people "not to be with us is to
be against us." Indeed, I know very little of Lynn people. If I
can get at Mr. J., when you come to see me I'll ask him to tea.
He has called several times, but he's in such demand that he
must be engaged some weeks in advance! Would you, if you lived
in Lynn, want to fall into such a mass of idolaters?
I was wretchedly busy up to December 31, but have got into quiet
seas again. I have had a great deal of company--not a person
that I did not want to see, but I can't make the days more than
twenty-four hours long, with all my economy of time. This week
Professor Crosby, of Salem, comes up with his graduating class
and his corps of teachers for an evening.
They remained in Lynn until Miss Mitchell was called to Vassar College,
in 1865, as professor of astronomy and director of the observatory.