bservation it cannot agree with any one of our
determinations, and it changes our probable error.

[Illustration: BUST OF MARIA MITCHELL.

_From Original made by Miss Emma F. Brigham in 1877_]

"This ignorance of the masses leads to a misconception in two ways; the
little that a scientist can do, they do not understand,--they suppose
him to be godlike in his capacity, and they do not see results; they
overrate him and they underrate him--they underrate his work.

"There is no observatory in this land, nor in any land, probably, of
which the question is not asked, 'Are they doing anything? Why don't we
hear from them? They should make discoveries, they should publish.'

"The one observation made at Greenwich on the planet Neptune was not
published until after a century or more--it was recorded as a star. The
observation had to wait a hundred years, about, before the time had come
when that evening's work should bear fruit; but it was good, faithful
work, and its time came.

"Kepler was years in passing from one of his laws to another, while the
school-boy, to-day, rattles off the three as if they were born of one
breath.

"The scientist should be free to pursue his investigations. He cannot be
a scientist and a school-master. If he pursues his science in all his
intervals from his class-work, his classes suffer on account of his
engrossments; if he devotes himself to his students, science suffers;
and yet we all go on, year after year, trying to work the two fields
together, and they need different culture and different implements.

"1878. In the eclipse of this year, the dark shadow fell first on the
United States thirty-eight degrees west of Washington, and moved towards
the south-east, a circle of darkness one hundred and sixteen miles in
diameter; circle overlapping circle of darkness until it could be mapped
down like a belt.

"The mapping of the dark shadow, with its limitations of one hundred and
sixteen miles, lay across the country from Montana, through Colorado,
northern and eastern Texas, and entered the Gulf of Mexico between
Galveston and New Orleans. This was the region of total eclipse. Looking
along this dark strip on the map, each astronomer selected his bit of
darkness on which to locate the light of science.

"But for the distance from the large cities of the country, Colorado
seemed to be a most favorable part of the shadow; it was little subject
to storms, and reputed to be enjoyable in cl