Similar aid will be rendered to astronomers engaged in
teaching, and to any one, professional or amateur, capable of doing work
of the highest grade. As a fundamental condition for success, no
restrictions will be made that will interfere with the greatest
scientific efficiency, and no personal or local prejudices that will
restrict the work.
These plans may seem to you visionary, and too Utopian for the twentieth
century. But they may be nearer fulfilment than we anticipate. The true
astronomer of to-day is eminently a practical man. He does not accept
plans of a sensational character. The same qualities are needed in
directing a great observatory successfully, as in managing a railroad,
or factory. Any one can propose a gigantic expenditure, but to prove to
a shrewd man of affairs that it is feasible and advisable is a very
different matter. It is much more difficult to give away money wisely
than to earn it. Many men have made great fortunes, but few have learned
how to expend money wisely in advancing science, or to give it away
judiciously. Many persons have given large sums to astronomy, and some
day we shall find the man with broad views who will decide to have the
advice and aid of the astronomers of the world, in his plans for
promoting science, and who will thus expend his money, as he made it,
taking the greatest care that not one dollar is wasted.
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