et undertaken to any great
extent, a regular even if slow improvement is going on in the general
character of the observations and researches, which must bear fruit
in due time.

One of the curious facts we learned at Greenwich was that astronomy
was still supposed to be astrology by many in England. That a belief
in astrology should survive was perhaps not remarkable, though I
do not remember to have seen any evidence of it in this country.
But applications received at the Royal Observatory, from time to
time, showed a widespread belief among the masses that one of the
functions of the astronomer royal was the casting of horoscopes.

We went to Edinburgh. Our first visit was to the observatory,
then under the direction of Professor C. Piazzi Smyth, who was also
an Egyptologist of repute, having made careful measurements of the
Pyramids, and brought out some new facts regarding their construction.
He was thus led to the conclusion that they bore marks of having been
built by a people of more advanced civilization than was generally
supposed,--so advanced, indeed, that we had not yet caught up to them
in scientific investigation. These views were set forth with great
fullness in his work on "The Antiquity of Intellectual Man," as well
as in other volumes describing his researches. He maintained that the
builders of the Pyramids knew the distance of the sun rather better
than we did, and that the height of the Great Pyramid had been so
arranged that if it was multiplied by a thousand millions we should
get this distance more exactly than we could measure it in these
degenerate days. With him, to believe in the Pyramid was to believe
this, and a great deal more about the civilization which it proved.
So, when he asked me whether I believed in the Pyramid, I told him
that I did not think I would depend wholly upon the Pyramid for the
distance of the sun to be used in astronomy, but should want its
indications at least confirmed by modern researches. The hint was
sufficient, and I was not further pressed for views on this subject.

He introduced us to Lady Hamilton, widow of the celebrated
philosopher, who still held court at Edinburgh. The daughter of the
family was in repute as a metaphysician. This was interesting,
because I had never before heard of a female metaphysician,
although there were several cases of female mathematicians
recorded in history. First among them was Donna Maria Agnesi,
who wrote one