be one of a brotherhood extending
over the world, in which no rivalry exists except that which comes out
of trying to do better work than any one else, while mutual admiration
stifles jealousy. And yet, with all these advantages, the experience of
the astronomer may have its dark side. As he sees his field widening
faster than he can advance he is impressed with the littleness of all
that can be done in one short life. He feels the same want of
successors to pursue his work that the founder of a dynasty may feel
for heirs to occupy his throne. He has no desire to figure in history
as a Napoleon of science whose conquests must terminate with his life.
Even during his active career his work may be such a kind as to require
the co-operation of others and the active support of the public. If he
is disappointed in commanding these requirements, if he finds neither
co-operation nor support, if some great scheme to which he may have
devoted much of his life thus proves to be only a castle in the air, he
may feel that nature has dealt hardly with him in not endowing him with
passions like to those of other men.

In treating a theme of perennial interest one naturally tries to fancy
what the future may have in store If the traveller, contemplating the
ruins of some ancient city which in the long ago teemed with the life
and activities of generations of men, sees every stone instinct with
emotion and the dust alive with memories of the past, may he not be
similarly impressed when he feels that he is looking around upon a seat
of future empire--a region where generations yet unborn may take a
leading part in moulding the history of the world? What may we not
expect of that energy which in sixty years has transformed a straggling
village into one of the world's great centres of commerce? May it not
exercise a powerful influence on the destiny not only of the country
but of the world? If so, shall the power thus to be exercised prove an
agent of beneficence, diffusing light and life among nations, or shall
it be the opposite?

The time must come ere long when wealth shall outgrow the field in
which it can be profitably employed. In what direction shall its
possessors then look? Shall they train a posterity which will so use
its power as to make the world better that it has lived in it? Will the
future heir to great wealth prefer the intellectual life to the life of
pleasure?

We can have no more hopeful answer to these questions