Evening journal., 1888-09-25

equally at home in the club and in tho
drawing room, boing attractive to men
and women alike His manners were,
from an American standpoint, unusually
good for an Englishman, and in converse
tion as well as IN quickness Of apprehen-
sion, he was far more like an American
than like Briton. He used even to ap-
preciate American jokes about Boston,
for he had been in that city and had had
his own experience among the lion hunt
ers there. Ono of these, q lady Of ''cul-
chgw, he told the writer about, who, as
az Anglomaniac, thought il fnc to decry
America In comparison with Europe. She
specially objected to the climate on this
side, and spoke rapturously Of the beauty
Of italian skies. Il shall never forget,
sho said, "tho sight Of the crescent moon
over the Bay Of Naples, with big star
blazing exactly in tho center of the eres-
cent line"
The astronomer lost his breath for an
instant, but said promptly, yes, in
deed. Tho atmosphere is so pure that the
moon itself in those climates becomes
transparent" -
II is not, perhaps, very widely known
that his dream in life was to be connected
with series, or rather an associated set,
OF mammoth obscrvatories in this coun-
try. These, as he planned the outline Of
the scheme, were to be located-one in
Florida, one on some elevated point in the
rocky mountains, and one possibly in
Alaska, II any site could be found there
where the atmosphere is sufficiently clear
With this chain Of obssrvatories, in con
nection with the Lick Observatory in
California, he deemed that Americas
part Of the worlds astronomical work
could be done. The final perfection Of the
dream was, Of course, to be the establish
ment Of such obSeryatories all over the
world, under different governments. His
ambition was to be identified, under tho
sanction OF the American government.
with tho three mentioned, and no was
sanguine Of the carly realization of at
least the beginning Of tho work He be-
loved and had told some OF his intimate
friends that the year 1891 or 1892 would
see the work Of establishing the Florida
observatory fairly under way. BY his
death Of q disease undoubtedly contracted
in Florida that state lost one fits warrnest
and most influential friends, who would
doubtless have become one of her citizens
il he had lived. He had filed his declara-
tion Of becoming q citizen Of the United
States, and he was making his home in
Florida
The work Of these observatories, he
firmly believed would corroborate the
theories he advanced in "Other Worlds
than Ours" In that book no stated his
belief that the other planets were in a
condition similar to that Of the earth in
past geologic ages, and, wild as the belief
may seem, he thought that telescope OBJ
servation would confirm this belief. In
Brooklyn, during his first course Of lect-
ures. he predicted that Jupiter would be
found to be in an intensely heated condi-
tion, similar TO what the earth must have
been IN the nte-metamorphic periods, and
that the planets Mars and Venus would.
If tbs telescopes power could be sufii-
ciently increased, show condition analo-
gous TO that Of our own globe in compar-
atively recent geologic epochs These
predictions have been partially confirmed
BY the latest observations Of the planet
Mars. =
Another theory which he maintained In
private conversation was that the old
division Of heavenly bodies into nebulm.
suns, planets and satellites would be done
away with by telescopes Of higher power
and greater accuracy, and that with these
1t would be found that every stage Of
cosmical growth was exhibited in the
heavens. He oven went so far as to sug-
/ gest that tho astronomy of the future
would recognize, first, unorranized nebu-
1 lR; second, centered nebulz, similar to
4 tho solar system Il tho beginning accord.
/ ing to Ia Place; third, nebular systems
dissimilar to the foregoing, IN which the
law OF development would be more CON-