“One observatory is so much like another that it does not seem worth while to describe Father Secchi’s.  This observatory has a telescope about the size of that at Washington (about twelve inches).  Secchi had no staff, and no prescribed duties.  The base of the observatory was the solid foundation of the old Roman building.  The church was built in 1650, and the monastery in part at that time, certainly the dome of the room in which was the meridian instrument.

“The staircase is cut out of the old Roman walls, which no roll of carriage, except that of the earthquake chariot, can shake.

“Having no prescribed duties, Secchi could follow his fancies—­he could pick up comets as he picked up bits of Mosaic upon the Roman forum.  He learns what himself and his instruments can do, and he keeps to that narrow path.

“He was at that time much interested in celestial photography.

“Italy must be the very paradise of astronomers; certainly I never saw objects so well before; the purity of the air must be very superior to ours.  We looked at Venus with a power of 150, but it was not good.  Jupiter was beautiful, and in broad daylight the belts were plainly seen.  With low powers the moon was charming, but the air would not bear high ones.

“Father Secchi said he had used a power of 2,000, but that 600 was more common.  I have rarely used 400.  Saturn was exquisite; the rings were separated all around; the dusky ring could be seen, and, of course, the shadow of the ball upon the ring.

“The spectroscopic method of observing starlight was used by Secchi as early as by any astronomer.  By this method the starlight is analyzed, and the sunlight is analyzed, and the two compared.  If it does not disclose absolutely what are the peculiarities of starlight and sunlight, relatively, it traces the relationship.

“In order to be successful in this kind of observation, the telescope must keep very accurately the motion of the earth in its axis; and so the papal government furnishes nice machinery to keep up with this motion,—­the same motion for declaring whose existence Galileo suffered!  The two hundred years had done their work.

“I should have been glad to stay until dark to look at nebulae, but the Father kindly informed me that my permission did not extend beyond the daylight, which was fast leaving us, and conducting me to the door he informed me that I must make my way home alone, adding, ’But we live in a civilized country.’

“I did not express to him the doubt that rose to my thoughts!  The Ave Marie bell rings half an hour after sunset, and before that time I must be out of the observatory and at my own house.”

CHAPTER VIII

1858-1865

FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR CONCLUDED—­MRS. SOMERVILLE—­HUMBOLDT—­MRS. MITCHELL’S DEATH—­REMOVAL TO LYNN, MASS.—­PRESENT OF AN EQUATORIAL TELESCOPE-EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS