, and Peirce made
his speech. Then a townsman rose and took the opposite side,
expressing the hope that the meeting would not allow itself to be
dictated to by these nabobs of Harvard College. When he sat down,
Peirce remained in placid silence, making no reply. When the meeting
broke up, some one asked Peirce why he had not replied to the man.

"Why! did you not hear what he called us? He said we were nabobs!
I so enjoyed sitting up there and seeing all that crowd look up to
me as a nabob that I could not say one word against the fellow."

The first of the leading astronomers whose acquaintance I made
was Dr. Benjamin Apthorp Gould. Knowing his eminence, I was
quite surprised by his youthful vivacity. His history, had I time
to recount it, might be made to serve well the purpose of a grave
lesson upon the conditions required, even by the educated public, of
a scientific investigator, capable of doing the highest and best work
in his branch. The soul of generosity and the pink of honor, ever
ready to lend a hand to a struggling youth whom he found deserving
of help, enthusiastically devoted to his favorite science, pursuing
it in the most exalted spirit, animated by not a single mean motive,
it might have been supposed that all the facilities the world could
offer would have been open to him in his career. If such was not the
case to the extent one might have wished, I do not mean to intimate
that his life can be regarded as a failure. In whatever respect
the results may have fallen off from his high ideal, it is more to
be regretted on the score of science than on his own.

Scorning pretense and charlatanry of all kinds, believing that
only the best were to be encouraged, he was far from being a man
of the people. Only a select few enjoyed his favor, but these few
well deserved it. That no others would have deserved it I should
be far from intimating. The undisguised way in which he expressed
his sentiments for any one, no matter how influential, who did not
come up to the high standard he set, was not adapted to secure the
favor even of the most educated community. Of worldly wisdom in
this matter he seemed, at least in his early days, to know nothing.

He graduated at Harvard in 1845, in one of the very distinguished
classes. Being fond of astronomy, he was struck with the backward
condition of that science in our country. He resolved to devote his
life to building up the science in America. He we