It is claimed by astronomers that their science is not only the oldest,but that it is the most highly developed of the sciences. Indeed itshould be so, since no other science has ever received such support fromroyalty, from the state and from the private individual. However thismay be, there is no doubt that in recent years astronomers have hadgranted to them greater opportunities for carrying on large pieces ofwork than have been entrusted to men in any other department of purescience. One might expect that the practical results of a science likephysics would appeal to the man who has made a vast fortune through someof its applications. The telephone, the electric transmission of power,wireless telegraphy and the submarine cable are instances of immensefinancial returns derived from the most abstruse principles of physics.Yet there are scarcely any physical laboratories devoted to research, orendowed with independent funds for this object, except those supportedby the government. The endowment of astronomical observatories devotedto research, and not including that given for teaching, is estimated toamount to half a million dollars annually. Several of the largerobservatories have an annual income of fifty thousand dollars.
I once asked the wisest man I know, what was the reason for thisdifference. He said that it was probably because astronomy appealed tothe imagination. A practical man, who has spent all his life in hiscounting room or mill, is sometimes deeply impressed with the vastdistances and grandeur of the problems of astronomy, and the veryremoteness and difficulty of studying the stars attract him.
My object in calling your attention to this matter is the hope that whatI have to say of the organization of astronomy may prove of use to thoseinterested in other branches of science, and that it may lead to placingthem on the footing they should hold. My arguments apply with almostequal force to physics, to chemistry, and in fact to almost every branchof physical or natural science, in which knowledge may be advanced byobservation or experiment.
The practical value of astronomy in the past is easily established.Without it, international commerce on a large scale would have beenimpossible. Without the aid of astronomy, accurate boundaries of largetracts of land could not have been defined and standard time would havebeen impossible. The work of the early astronomers was eminentlypractical, and appealed at once to every one. This work has now beenfinished. We can compute the positions of the stars for years, almostfor centuries, with all the accuracy needed for navigation, fordetermining time or for approximate boundaries of countries. Theinvestigations now in progress at the greatest observatories havelittle, if any, value in dollars and cents. They appeal, however, to thefar higher sense, the desire of the intellectual human being todetermine the laws of nature, the construction of the material universe,and the properties of the heavenly bodies of which those known to existfar outnumber those that can be seen.
Three great advances have been made in astronomy. First, the inventionof the telescope, with which we commonly associate the name of Galileo,from the wonderful results he obtained with it. At that time there waspractically no science in America, and for more than two centuries wefailed to add materially to this invention. Half a century ago thegenius of the members of one family, Alvan Clark