other
continents, owing mainly to the advantages of air and climate. Among
the observers was the celebrated Rittenhouse, to whom is due the
distinction of having been the first American astronomer whose work has
an important place in the history of the science. In addition to the
observations which he has left us, he was the first inventor or
proposer of the collimating telescope, an instrument which has become
almost a necessity wherever accurate observations are made. The fact
that the subsequent invention by Bessel may have been independent does
not detract from the merits of either.

Shortly after the transit of Venus, which I have mentioned, the war of
the Revolution commenced. The generation which carried on that war and
the following one, which framed our Constitution and laid the bases of
our political institutions, were naturally too much occupied with these
great problems to pay much attention to pure science. While the great
mathematical astronomers of Europe were laying the foundation of
celestial mechanics their writings were a sealed book to every one on
this side of the Atlantic, and so remained until Bowditch appeared,
early in the present century. His translation of the Mecanique Celeste
made an epoch in American science by bringing the great work of Laplace
down to the reach of the best American students of his time.

American astronomers must always honor the names of Rittenhouse and
Bowditch. And yet in one respect their work was disappointing of
results. Neither of them was the founder of a school. Rittenhouse left
no successor to carry on his work. The help which Bowditch afforded his
generation was invaluable to isolated students who, here and there,
dived alone and unaided into the mysteries of the celestial motions.
His work was not mainly in the field of observational astronomy, and
therefore did not materially influence that branch of science. In 1832
Professor Airy, afterwards Astronomer Royal of England, made a report
to the British Association on the condition of practical astronomy in
various countries. In this report he remarked that he was unable to say
anything about American astronomy because, so far as he knew, no public
observatory existed in the United States.

William C. Bond, afterwards famous as the first director of the Harvard
Observatory, was at that time making observations with a small
telescope, first near Boston and afterwards at Cambridge. But with so
meagre an outfit