, permanent secretary of the
Academy of Sciences. I was especially interested in the latter,
as we had started in life nearly at the same time, and had done
much work on similar lines. It was several days before I made his
acquaintance, as I did not know that the rule on the Continent
is that the visitor must make the first call, or at least make
it known by direct communication that he would be pleased to see
the resident; otherwise it is presumed that he does not wish to
see callers. This is certainly the more logical system, but it is
not so agreeable to the visiting stranger as ours is. The art of
making the latter feel at home is not brought to such perfection on
the Continent as in England; perhaps the French understand it less
than any other people. But none can be pleasanter than the Germans,
when you once make their acquaintance; and we shall always remember
with pleasure the winter we passed in Berlin.

To-day, Auwers stands at the head of German astronomy. In him is
seen the highest type of the scientific investigator of our time,
one perhaps better developed in Germany than in any other country.
The work of men of this type is marked by minute and careful research,
untiring industry in the accumulation of facts, caution in propounding
new theories or explanations, and, above all, the absence of effort
to gain recognition by being the first to make a discovery. When men
are ambitious to figure as Newtons of some great principle, there is
a constant temptation to publish unverified speculations which are
likely rather to impede than to promote the advance of knowledge.
The result of Auwers's conscientiousness is that, notwithstanding
his eminence in his science, there are few astronomers of note whose
works are less fitted for popular exposition than his. His specialty
has been the treatment of all questions concerning the positions and
motions of the stars. This work has required accurate observations
of position, with elaborate and careful investigations of a kind that
offer no feature to attract public attention, and only in exceptional
cases lead to conclusions that would interest the general reader.
He considers no work as ready for publication until it is completed
in every detail.

The old astronomical observations of which I was in quest might
well have been made by other astronomers than those of Paris, so
while awaiting the end of the war I tried to make a thorough search
of the writing