"Whoe'er would search the starry sky, Its secrets to divine, sir, Should take his glass--I mean, should try A glass or two of wine, sir! True virtue lies in golden mean, And man must wet his clay, sir; Join these two maxims, and 'tis seen He should drink his bottle a day, sir!
"Old Archimedes, reverend sage! By trump of fame renowned, sir, Deep problems solved in every page, And the sphere's curved surface found,[774] sir: Himself he would have far outshone, And borne a wider sway, sir, Had he our modern secret known, And drank a bottle a day, sir!
"When Ptolemy,[775] now long ago, Believed the earth stood still, sir, He never would have blundered so, Had he but drunk his fill, sir: He'd then have felt[776] it circulate, And would have learnt to say, sir, The true way to investigate Is to drink your bottle a day, sir!
"Copernicus,[777] that learned wight, The glory of his nation, With draughts of wine refreshed his sight, And saw the earth's rotation; {381} Each planet then its orb described, The moon got under way, sir; These truths from nature he imbibed For he drank his bottle a day, sir!
"The noble[778] Tycho placed the stars, Each in its due location; He lost his nose[779] by spite of Mars, But that was no privation: Had he but lost his mouth, I grant He would have felt dismay, sir, Bless you! _he_ knew what he should want To drink his bottle a day, sir!
"Cold water makes no lucky hits; On mysteries the head runs: Small drink let Kepler[780] time his wits On the regular polyhedrons: He took to wine, and it changed the chime, His genius swept away, sir, Through area varying[781] as the time At the rate of a bottle a day, sir!
"Poor Galileo,[782] forced to rat Before the Inquisition, _E pur si muove_[783] was the pat He gave them in addition: {382} He meant, whate'er you think you prove, The earth must go its way, sirs; Spite of your teeth I'll make it move, For I'll drink my bottle a day, sirs!
"Great Newton, who was never beat Whatever fools may think, sir; Though sometimes he forgot to eat, He never forgot to drink, sir: Descartes[784] took nought but lemonade, To conquer him was play, sir; The first advance that Newton made Was to drink his bottle a day, sir!
"D'Alembert,[785] Euler,[786] and Clairaut,[787] Though they increased our store, sir, Much further had been seen to go Had they tippled a little more, sir! Lagrange[788] gets mellow with Laplace,[789] And both are wont to say, sir, The _philosophe_ who's not an ass Will drink his bottle a day, sir!
"Astronomers! what can avail Those who calumniate us; Experiment can never fail With such an apparatus: Let him who'd have his merits known Remember what I say, sir; Fair science shines on him alone Who drinks his bottle a day, sir!
{383} "How light we reck of those who mock By this we'll make to appear, sir, We'll dine by the sidereal[790] clock For one more bottle a year, sir: But choose which pendulum you will, You'll never make your way, sir, Unless you drink--and drink your fill,-- At least a bottle a day, sir!"
Old times are changed, old manners gone!
There is a new Mathematical Society,[791] and I am, at this present writing (1866), its first President. We are very high in the newest developments, and bid fair to take a place among the scientific establishments. Benjamin Gompertz, who was President of the old Society when it expired, was the link between the old and new body: he was a member of _ours_ at his death. But not a drop of liquor is seen at our meetings, except a decanter of water: all our heavy is a fermentation of symbols; and we do not draw it mild. There is no penny fine for reticence or occult science; and as to a song! not the ghost of a chance.
1826. The time may have come when the original documents connected with the discovery of Neptune may be worth revising. The following are extracts from the _Athenaeum_ of October 3 and October 17:
LE VERRIER'S[792] PLANET.
We have received, at the last moment before making up for press, the following letter from Sir John Herschel,[793] {384} in reference to the matter referred to in the communication from Mr. Hind[794] given below:
"Collingwood, Oct. 1.
"In my address to the British Association assembled at Southampton, on the occasion of my resigning the chair to Sir R. Murchison,[795] I stated, among the remarkable astronomical events of the last twelvemonth, that it had added a new planet to our list,--adding, 'it has done more,--it has given us the probable prospect of the discovery of another. We see it as Columbus saw America from the shores of Spain. Its movements have been felt, trembling along the far-reaching line of our analysis, with a certainty hardly inferior to that of ocular demonstration.'--These expressions are not reported in any of the papers which profess to give an account of the proceedings, but I appeal to all present whether they were not used.
"Give me leave to state my reasons for this confidence; and, in so doing, to call attention to some facts which deserve to be put on record in the history of this noble discovery. On July 12, 1842, the late illustrious astronomer, Bessel,[796] honored me with a visit at my present residence. On the evening of that day, conversing on the great work of the planetary reductions undertaken by the Astronomer Royal[797]--then in progress, and since published,[798]--M. Bessel remarked that the motions of Uranus, as he had satisfied {385} himself by careful examination of the recorded observations, could not be accounted for by the perturbations of the known planets; and that the deviations far exceeded any possible limits of error of observation. In reply to the question, Whether the deviations in question might not be due to the action of an unknown planet?--he stated that he considered it highly probable that such was the case,--being systematic, and such as might be produced by an exterior planet. I then inquired whether he had attempted, from the indications afforded by these perturbations, to discover the position of the unknown body,--in order that 'a hue and cry' might be raised for it. From his reply, the words of which I do not call to mind, I collected that he had not then gone into that inquiry; but proposed to do so, having now completed certain works which had occupied too much of his time. And, accordingly, in a letter which I received from him after his return to Koenigsberg, dated November 14, 1842, he says,--'In reference to our conversation at Collingwood, I _announce_ to you (_melde_ ich Ihnen) that Uranus is not forgotten.' Doubtless, therefore, among his papers will be found some researches on the subject.
"The remarkable calculations of M. Le Verrier--which have pointed out, as now appears, nearly the true situation of the new planet, by resolving the inverse problem of the perturbations--if uncorroborated by repetition of the numerical calculations by another hand, or by independent investigation from another quarter, would hardly justify so strong an assurance as that conveyed by my expressions above alluded to. But it was known to me, at that time, (I will take the liberty to cite the Astronomer Royal as my authority) that a similar investigation had been independently entered into, and a conclusion as to the situation of the new planet very nearly coincident with M. Le Verrier's arrived at (in entire ignorance of his conclusions), by a young Cambridge mathematician, Mr. Adams;[799]--who will, I hope, {386} pardon this mention of his name (the matter being one of great historical moment),--and who will, doubtless, in his own good time and manner, place his calculations before the public.
"J. F. W. HERSCHEL."
_Discovery of Le Verrier's Planet._
Mr. Hind announces to the _Times_ that he has received a letter from Dr. Bruennow, of the Royal Observatory at Berlin, giving the very important information that Le Verrier's planet was found by M. Galle, on the night of September 23. "In announcing this grand discovery," he says, "I think it better to copy Dr. Bruennow's[800] letter."
"Berlin, Sept. 25.
"My dear Sir--M. Le Verrier's planet was discovered here the 23d of September, by M. Galle.[801] It is a star of the 8th magnitude, but with a diameter of two or three seconds. Here are its places:
h. m. s. R. A. Declination. Sept. 23, 12 0 14.6 M.T. 328 deg. 19' 16.0" -13 deg. 24' 8.2" Sept. 24, 8 54 40.9 M.T. 328 deg. 18' 14.3" -13 deg. 24' 29.7"
The planet is now retrograde, its motion amounting daily to four seconds of time.
"Yours most respectfully, BRUeNNOW."
"This discovery," Mr. Hind says, "may be justly considered one of the greatest triumphs of theoretical astronomy;" and he adds, in a postscript, that the planet was observed at Mr. Bishop's[802] Observatory, in the Regent's Park, {387} on Wednesday night, notwithstanding the moonlight and hazy sky. "It appears bright," he says, "and with a power of 320 I can see the disc. The following position is the result of instrumental comparisons with 33 Aquarii:
Sept. 30, at 8h. 16m. 21s. Greenwich mean time-- Right ascension of planet 21h. 52m. 47.15s. South declination 13 deg. 27' 20"."
