half more
was required to get the object glasses into perfect shape; then,
in the spring or summer of 1873, I visited Cambridge for the purpose
of testing the glasses. They were mounted in the yard of the Clark
establishment in a temporary tube, so arranged that the glass could
be directed to any part of the heavens.

I have had few duties which interested me more than this. The
astronomer, in pursuing his work, is not often filled with those
emotions which the layman feels when he hears of the wonderful power
of the telescope. Not to say anything so harsh as that "familiarity
breeds contempt," we must admit that when an operation of any sort
becomes a matter of daily business, the sentiments associated with
it necessarily become dulled. Now, however, I was filled with
the consciousness that I was looking at the stars through the most
powerful telescope that had ever been pointed at the heavens, and
wondered what mysteries might be unfolded. The night was of the
finest, and I remember, sweeping at random, I ran upon what seemed
to be a little cluster of stars, so small and faint that it could
scarcely have been seen in a smaller instrument, yet so distant
that the individual stars eluded even the power of this instrument.
What cluster it might have been it was impossible to determine,
because the telescope had not the circles and other appliances
necessary for fixing the exact location of an object. I could
not help the vain longing which one must sometimes feel under such
circumstances, to know what beings might live on planets belonging
to what, from an earthly point of view, seemed to be a little colony
on the border of creation itself.

In his report dated October 9, 1873, Admiral Sands reported
the telescope as "nearly completed." The volume of Washington
observations showed that the first serious observations made with it,
those on the satellites of Neptune, were commenced on November 10
of the same year. Thus, scarcely more than a month elapsed from
the time that the telescope was reported still incomplete in the
shop of its makers until it was in regular nightly use.

Associated with the early history of the instrument is a chapter
of astronomical history which may not only instruct and amuse the
public, but relieve the embarrassment of some astronomer of a future
generation who, reading the published records, will wonder what became
of an important discovery. If the faith of the public in the abso