Maria Mitchell: Life, Letters, and Journals - Maria Mitchell
"One of these elliptical halls has its ceiling immensely far off, and of
the deepest black, until our feeble little lights strike upon
innumerable points, when it shines forth like a dark starlight night.
The stars are faint, but they look so exceedingly like the heavens that
one easily forgets that it is not reality.
"The guide asked us to be seated, while he went behind down a descent
with the lights, to show us the creeping over of the shadows of the
rocks, as if a dark cloud passed over the starlit vault. The black cloud
crept on and on as the guide descended, until a fear came over us, and
we cried out together to him to come back, not to leave us in total
darkness. He begged that he might go still lower and show us entire
darkness, but we would not permit it.
"Guin's Dome. What the name means I can't say. The guide tells you to
pause in your scrambling over loose stones and muddy soil,--which you
are always willing to do,--and to put your head through a circular
aperture, and to look up while he lights the Bengal light; you obey, and
look up upon columns of fluted, snowy whiteness; he tells you to look
down, and you follow the same pillars down--up to heights which the
light cannot climb, down to depths on which it cannot fall.
"You shudder as you look up, and you shudder as you look down. Indeed,
the march of the cave is a series of shudders. Geologists may enjoy it,
a large party may be merry in it; but if the 'underground railroad' of
the slaves is of that kind, I should rather remain a slave than
undertake a runaway trip!
"May 18. To-day we retraced our steps from Nashville to Chattanooga. It
had been raining nearly all night, and we found, when not far from the
latter place, that the streams were pouring down from the high lands
upon the car-track, so that we came through rivers. When we dashed into
the dark tunnel it was darker than ever from the darkness of the day,
and it seemed to me that the darkness pressed upon me. I am sure I
should keep my senses a very little while if I were confined in a dark
place.
"As we came out of the tunnel, the water from the hill above dashed upon
the cars; and although it did not break the panes of glass, it forced
its way through and sprinkled us.
"The route, with all its terrors, is beautiful, and the trees are now
much finer than they were ten days ago.
"May 27. There is this great difference between Niagara and other
wonders of the world: that of it you get no idea from descriptions, or
even from paintings. Of the 'Mammoth Cave' you have a conception from
what you are told; of the Natural Bridge you get a really truthful
impression from a picture. But cave and bridge are in still life.
Niagara is all activity and change. No picture gives you the varying
form of the water or the change of color; no description conveys to your
mind the ceaseless roar. So, too, the ocean must be unrepresentable to
those who have not looked upon it.
"The Natural Bridge stands out bold and high, just as you expect to see
it. You are agreeably disappointed, however, on finding that you can go
under the arch and be completely in the coolness of its shade while you
look up for two hundred feet to the rocky black and white ceiling above.
"One of the prettiest peculiarities is the fringing above of the trees
which hang over the edge, and looking out past the arch the wooded banks
of the ravine are very pleasant. From above, one has the pain always
attendant to me upon looking down into an abyss, but at the same time
one obtains a better conception of the depth of the valley. It is well
worth seeing, partly for itself, partly because it can be reached only
by a ride among the hills of the Blue Ridge."
CHAPTER V
1857
FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR--LIVERPOOL--THE HAWTHORNES--LONDON--GREENWICH
OBSERVATORY--ADMIRAL SMYTH--DR. LEE
Shortly after her return from the South, Miss Mitchell started again for
a tour in Europe with the same young girl.
Miss Mitchell carried letters from eminent scientific people in this
country to such persons as it would be desirable for her to know in
Europe; especially to astronomers and mathematicians.
When Miss Mitchell went to Europe she took her Almanac work with her,
and what time she was not sight-seeing she was continuing that work. Her
wisdom in this respect was very soon apparent. She had not been in
England many weeks when a great financial crisis took place in the
United States, and the father of her young charge succumbed to the
general failure. The young lady was called home, but after considering
the matter seriously Miss Mitchell decided to remain herself, putting
the young lady into careful hands for the return passage from Liverpool.
Miss Mitchell enjoyed the society of the scientific people whom she met
in England to her heart's content. She was very cordially received, and
the astronomers not only opened their observatories to her, but welcomed
her into their family life.
On arriving at Liverpool, Miss Mitchell delivered the letters to the
astronomers living in or near that city, and visited their
observatories.
"Aug. 3, 1857. I brought a letter from Professor Silliman to Mr. John
Taylor, cotton merchant and astronomer; and to-day I have taken tea with
him. He is an old man, nearly eighty I should think, but full of life,
and talks by the hour on heathen mythology. He was the principal agent
in the establishment of the Liverpool Observatory, but disclaims the
honor, because it was established on so small a scale, compared with his
own gigantic plan. Mr. Taylor has invented a little machine, for showing
the approximate position of a comet, having the elements.
"He has also made additions to the globes made by De Morgan, so that
they can be used for any year and show the correct rising and setting of
the stars.
"He struck me as being a man of taste, but of no great profundity. He
has a painting which he believes to be by Guido; it seemed to me too
fresh in its coloring for the sixteenth century.
"August 4, 3 P.M. I put down my pen, because old Mr. Taylor called, and
while he was here Rev. James Martineau came. Mr. Martineau is one of the
handsomest men I ever saw. He cannot be more than thirty, or if he is he
has kept his dark hair remarkably. He has large, bluish-gray eyes, and
is tall and elegant in manner. He says he is just packed to move to
London. He gave me his London address and hoped he should see me there;
but I doubt if he does, for I did not like to tell him my address unless
he asked for it, for fear of seeming to be pushing.
"August,... I have been to visit Mr. Lassell. He called yesterday and
asked me to dine with him to-day. He has a charming place, about four
miles out of Liverpool; a pretty house and grounds.
"Mr. Lassell has constructed two telescopes, both on the Newtonian plan;
one of ten, the other of twenty, feet in length. Each has its separate
building, and in the smaller building is a transit instrument.
"Mr. Lassell must have been a most indefatigable worker as well as a
most ingenious man; for, besides constructing his own instruments, he
has found time to make discoveries. He is, besides, very genial and
pleasant, and told me some good anecdotes connected with astronomical
observations.
"One story pleased me very much. Our Massachusetts astronomer, Alvan
Clark, has long been a correspondent of Mr. Dawes, but has never seen
him. Wishing to have an idea of his person, and being a portrait
painter, Mr. Clark sent to Mr. Dawes for his daguerreotype, and from
that painted a likeness, which he has sent out to Liverpool, and which
is said to be excellent.
"Mr. Lassell looks in at the side of his reflecting telescopes by means
of a diagonal eye-piece; when the instrument is pointed at objects of
high altitude he hangs a ladder upon the dome and mounts; the ladder
moves around with the dome. Mr. Lassell works only for his own
amusement, and has been to Malta,--carrying his larger telescope with
him,--for the sake of clearer skies. Neither Mr. Lassell nor Mr. Hartnup
[Footnote: Of the Liverpool Observatory.] makes regular observations.
"The Misses Lassell, four in number, seem to be very accomplished. They
take photographs of each other which are beautiful, make their own
picture-frames, and work in the same workshop with their father. One of
them told me that she made observations on my comet, supposing it to
belong to Mr. Dawes, who was a friend of hers.
"They keep an album of the autographs of their scientific visitors, and
among them I saw those of Professor Young, of Dartmouth, and of
Professor Loomis.
"August 4. I have just returned from a visit to the Liverpool
Observatory, under the direction of Mr. Hartnup. It is situated on
Waterloo dock, and the pier of the observatory rests upon the sandstone
of that region, The telescope is an equatorial; like many good
instruments in our country, it is almost unused.
"Mr. Hartnup's observatory is for nautical purposes. I found him a very
gentlemanly person, and very willing to show me anything of interest
about the observatory; but they make no regular series of astronomical
observations, other than those required for the commerce of Liverpool.
"Mr. Hartnup has a clock which by the application of an electric current
controls the action of other clocks, especially the town clock of
Liverpool--distant some miles. The current of electricity is not the
motive power, but a corrector.
"Much attention is paid to meteorology. The pressure of the wind, the
horizontal motion, and the course are recorded upon sheets of paper
running upon cylinders and connected with the clock; the instrument
which obeys the voice of the wind being outside.
"Aug. 5, 1857. I did not send my letter to Mr. Hawthorne until
yesterday, supposing that he was not in the city; but yesterday when
Rev. James Martineau called on me, he said that he had not yet left. Mr.
Martineau said that it would be a great loss to Liverpool when Mr.
Hawthorne went away.
"I sent my letter at once; from all that I had heard of Mr. Hawthorne's
shyness, I thought it doubtful if he would call, and I was therefore
very much pleased when his card was sent in this morning. Mr. Hawthorne
was more chatty than I had expected, but not any more diffident. He
remained about five minutes, during which time he took his hat from the
table and put it back once a minute, brushing it each time. The
engravings in the books are much like him. He is not handsome, but looks
as the author of his books should look; a little strange and odd, as if
not of this earth. He has large, bluish-gray eyes; his hair stands out
on each side, so much so that one's thoughts naturally turn to combs and
hair-brushes and toilet ceremonies as one looks at him."
Later, when Miss Mitchell was in Paris, alone, on her way to Rome, she
sent to the Hawthornes, who were also in Paris, asking for the privilege
of joining them, as they too were journeying in the same direction. She
says in her diary:
"Mrs. Hawthorne was feeble, and she told me that she objected, but that
Mr. Hawthorne assured her that I was a person who would give no trouble;
therefore she consented. We were about ten days on the journey to Rome,
and three months in Rome; living, however, some streets asunder. I saw
them nearly every day. Like everybody else, I found Mr. Hawthorne very
taciturn. His few words were, however, very telling. When I talked
French, he told me it was capital: 'It came down like a sledge-hammer.'
His little satirical remarks were such as these: It was March and I took
a bunch of violets to Rosa; notched white paper was wound around them,
and Mr. Hawthorne said, 'They have on a cambric ruffle."
"Generally he sat by an open fire, with his feet thrust into the coals,
and an open volume of Thackeray upon his knees. He said that Thackeray
was the greatest living novelist. I sometimes suspected that the volume
of Thackeray was kept as a foil, that he might not be talked to. He
shrank from society, but rode and walked."
EXTRACT FROM A LETTER.
ROME, Feb. 16, 1858.
... The Hawthornes are invaluable to me, because the little ones
come to my room every day and I go there when I like. Mrs.
Hawthorne sometimes walks with us, Mr. H. _never_. He has a
horror of sight-seeing and of emotions in general, but I like
him very much, and when I say I like _him_ it only means that I
like _her_ a little more. Julian, the boy, is in love with me.
When I was last there Mr. H. came home with me; as he put on his
coat he turned to Julian and said, "Julian, I should think with
your _tender interest_ in Miss Mitchell you wouldn't let me
escort her home."
"We arrived in Rome in the evening. Mrs. H. was somewhat of an invalid,
and Mr. Hawthorne tried in vain to make the servant understand that she
must have a fire in her room. He spoke no word of French, German, or
Italian, but he said emphatically, 'Make a fire in Mrs. Hawthorne's
room.' Worn out with his efforts, he turned to me and said, 'Do, Miss
Mitchell, tell the servant what I want; your French is excellent!
Englishmen and Frenchmen understand it equally well.' So I said in
execrable French, 'Make a fire,' and pointed to the grate; of course the
gesture was understood.
"Mr. Hawthorne was minutely and scrupulously honest; I should say that
he was a rigid temperance man. Once I heard Mrs. Hawthorne say to the
clerk, 'Send some brandy to Mr. Hawthorne at once.' We were six in the
party. When I paid my bill I heard Mr. Hawthorne say to Miss S., the
teacher, who took all the business cares, 'Don't let Miss Mitchell pay
for one-sixth of my brandy.'
"So if we ordered tea for five, and six partook of it, he called the
waiter and said, 'Six have partaken of the tea, although there was no
tea added; to the amount.'
"I told Mr. Hawthorne that a friend of mine, Miss W., desired very much
to see him, as she admired him very much. He said, 'Don't let her see
me, let her keep her little lamp burning.'
"He was a sad man; I could never tell why. I never could get at anything
of his religious views.
"He was wonderfully blest in his family. Mrs. Hawthorne almost
worshipped him. She was of a very serious and religious turn of mind.
"I dined with them the day that Una was sixteen years old. We drank her
health in cold water. Mr. Hawthorne said, 'May you live happily, and be
ready to go when you must.'
"He joined in the family talk very pleasantly. One evening we made up a
story. One said, 'A party was in Rome;' another said, 'It was a pleasant
day;' another said, 'They took a walk.' It came to Hawthorne's turn, and
he said, 'Do put in an incident;' so Rosa said, 'Then a bear jumped from
the top of St. Peter's!' The story went no further.
"I was with the family when they first went to St. Peter's. Hawthorne
turned away saying, 'The St. Peter's of my imagination was better.'
"I think he could not have been well, he was so very inactive. If he
walked out he took Rosa, then a child of six, with him. He once came
with her to my room, but he seemed tired from the ascent of the stairs.
I was on the fifth floor.
"I have been surprised to see that he made severe personal remarks in
his journal, for in the three months that I knew him I never heard an
unkind word; he was always courteous, gentle, and retiring. Mrs.
Hawthorne said she took a wifely pride in his having no small vices. Mr.
Hawthorne said to Miss S., 'I have yet to find the first fault in Mrs.
Hawthorne.'
"One day Mrs. Hawthorne came to my room, held up an inkstand, and said,
'The new book will be begun to-night.'
"This was 'The Marble Faun.' She said, 'Mr. Hawthorne writes after every
one has gone to bed. I never see the manuscript until it is what he
calls _clothed_'.... Mrs. H. says he never knows when he is writing a
story how the characters will turn out; he waits for _them_ to influence
_him_.
"I asked her if Zenobia was intended for Margaret Fuller, and she said,
'No;' but Mr. Hawthorne admitted that Margaret Fuller seemed to be
around him when he was writing it.
"London, August. We went out for our first walk as soon as breakfast was
over, and we walked on Regent street for hours, looking in at the shop
windows. The first view of the street was beautiful, for it was a misty
morning, and we saw its length fade away as if it had no end. I like it
that in our first walk we came upon a crowd standing around 'Punch.' It
is a ridiculous affair, but as it is as much a 'peculiar institution' as
is Southern slavery, I stopped and listened, and after we came into the
house Miss S. threw out some pence for them. We rested after the shop
windows of Regent street, took dinner, and went out again, this time to
Piccadilly.
"The servility of the shopkeepers is really a little offensive. 'What
shall I have the honor of showing you?' they say.
"Our chambermaid, at our lodgings, thanks us every time we speak to her.
"I feel ashamed to reach a four-penny piece to a stout coachman who
touches his hat and begs me to remember him. Sometimes I am ready to
say, 'How can I forget you, when you have hung around me so closely for
half an hour?'
"Our waiter at the Adelphi Hotel, at Liverpool, was a very respectable
middle-aged man, with a white neck-cloth; he looked like a Methodist
parson. He waited upon us for five days with great gravity, and then
another waiter told us that we could give our waiter what we pleased. We
were charged L1 for 'attendance' in the bill, but I very innocently gave
half as much more, as fee to the 'parson,'
"August 14. To-day we took a brougham and drove around for hours. Of
course we didn't _see_ London, and if we stay a month we shall still
know nothing of it, it is so immense. I keep thinking, as I go through
the streets, of 'The rats and the mice, they made such a strife, he had
to go to London,' etc., and especially 'The streets were so wide, and
the lanes were so narrow;' for I never saw such narrow streets, even in
Boston.
"We have begun to send out letters, but as it is 'out of season' I am
afraid everybody will be at the watering-places.
THE GREENWICH OBSERVATORY. "The observatory was founded by Charles II.
The king that 'never said a foolish thing and never did a wise one' was
yet sagacious enough to start an institution which has grown to be a
thing of might, and this, too, of his own will, and not from the
influence of courtiers. One of the hospital buildings of Greenwich, then
called the 'House of Delights,' was the residence of Henrietta Maria,
and the young prince probably played on the little hill now the site of
the observatory.
"But Charles, though he started an observatory, did not know very well
what was needed. The first building consisted of a large, octagonal
room, with windows all around; it was considered sufficiently firm
without any foundation, and sufficiently open to the heavens with no
opening higher than windows. This room is now used as a place of deposit
for instruments, and busts and portraits of eminent men, and also as the
dancing-hall for the director's family.
"Under Mr. Airy's [Footnote: The late Sir George Airy.] direction, the
walls of the observing-room have become pages of its history. The
transit instruments used by Halley, Bradley, and Pond hang side by side;
the zenith sector with which Bradley discovered the 'aberration of
light,' now moving rustily on its arc, is the ornament of another room;
while the shelves of the computing-room are filled with volumes of
unpublished observations of Flamstead and others.
"The observatory stands in Greenwich Park, the prettiest park I have yet
seen; being a group of small hills. They point out oaks said to belong
to Elizabeth's time--noble oaks of any time. The observatory is one
hundred and fifty feet above the sea level. The view from it is, of
course, beautiful. On the north the river, the little Thames, big with
its fleet, is winding around the Isle of Dogs; on the left London,
always overhung with a cloud of smoke, through which St. Paul's and the
Houses of Parliament peep.
"Mr. Airy was exceedingly kind to me, and seemed to take great interest
in showing me around. He appeared to be much gratified by my interest in
the history of the observatory. He is naturally a despot, and his
position increases this tendency. Sitting in his chair, the zero-point
of longitude for the world, he commands not only the little knot of
observers and computers around him, but when he says to London, 'It is
one o'clock,' London adopts that time, and her ships start for their
voyages around the globe, and continue to count their time from that
moment, wherever the English flag is borne.
"It is singular what a quiet motive-power Science is, the breath of a
nation's progress.
"Mr. Airy is not favorable to the multiplication of observatories. He
predicted the failure of that at Albany. He says that he would gladly
destroy one-half of the meridian instruments of the world, by way of
reform. I told him that my reform movement would be to bring together
the astronomers who had no instruments and the instruments which had no
astronomers.
"Mr. Airy is exceedingly systematic. In leading me by narrow passages
and up steep staircases, from one room to another of the irregular
collection of rooms, he was continually cautioning me about my
footsteps, and in one place he seemed to have a kind of formula: 'Three
steps at this place, ten at this, eleven at this, and three again.' So,
in descending a ladder to the birthplace of the galvanic currents, he
said, 'Turn your back to the stairs, step down with the right foot, take
hold with the right hand; reverse the operation in ascending; do not, on
coming out, turn around at once, but step backwards one step first.'
"Near the throne of the astronomical autocrat is another proof of his
system, in a case of portfolios. These contain the daily bills, letters,
and papers, as they come in and are answered in order. When a portfolio
is full, the papers are removed and are sewed together. Each year's
accumulation is bound, and the bound volumes of Mr. Airy's time nearly
cover one side of his private room.
"Mr. Airy replies to all kinds of letters, with two exceptions: those
which ask for autographs, and those which request him to calculate
nativities. Both of these are very frequent.
"In the drawing-room Mr. Airy is cheery; he loves to recite ballads and
knows by heart a mass of verses, from 'A, Apple Pie,' to the 'Lady of
the Lake.'
"A lover of Nature and a close observer of her ways, as well in the
forest walk as in the vault of heaven, Mr. Airy has roamed among the
beautiful scenery of the Lake region until he is as good a mountain
guide as can be found. He has strolled beside Grassmere and ascended
Helvellyn. He knows the height of the mountain peaks, the shingles that
lie on their sides, the flowers that grow in the valleys, the mines
beneath the surface.
"At one time the Government Survey planted what is called a 'Man' on the
top of one of the hills of the Lake region. In a dry season they built
up a stone monument, right upon the bed of a little pond. The country
people missed the little pond, which had seemed to them an eye of Nature
reflecting heaven's blue light. They begged for the removal of the
surveyor's pile, and Mr. Airy at once changed the station.
"The established observatories of England do not step out of their
beaten path to make discoveries--these come from the amateurs. In this
respect they differ from America and Germany. The amateurs of England do
a great deal of work, they learn to know of what they and their
instruments are capable, and it is done.
"The library of Greenwich Observatory is large. The transactions of
learned societies alone fill a small room; the whole impression of the
thirty volumes of printed observations fills a wall of another room, and
the unpublished papers of the early directors make of themselves a small
manuscript library.
"October 22, 1857. We have just returned from our fourth visit to
Greenwich, like the others twenty-four hours in length. We go again
to-morrow to meet the Sabines.
"Herr Struve, the director of the Pulkova Observatory, is at Greenwich,
with his son Karl. The old gentleman is a magnificent-looking fellow,
very large and well proportioned; his great head is covered with white
hair, his features are regular and handsome. When he is introduced to
any one he thrusts both hands into the pockets of his pantaloons, and
bows. I found that the son considered this position of the hands
particularly _English_. However, the old gentleman did me the honor to
shake hands with me, and when I told him that I brought a letter to him
from a friend in America, he said, 'It is quite unnecessary, I know you
without.' He speaks very good English.
"Herr Struve's mission in England is to see if he can connect the
trigonometrical surveys of the two countries. It is quite singular that
he should visit England for this purpose, so soon after Russia and
England were at war. One of his sons was an army surgeon at the Crimea.