Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy, George Biddell Airy [dark books to read TXT] 📗

except to those who are every day engaged in it: but I thank you still more for the kind tone of your letter, which seems to shew that the terms on which we have met are such as leaves, after so many years' intercourse, no shadow of complaint on any side.

Reciprocating your wishes for a happy life, and in your case a progressive and successful one,

I am,
My dear Mr Christie and Gentlemen,
Yours faithfully,
G.B. AIRY.

* * * * *

Throughout his tenure of office Airy had cultivated and maintained the most friendly relations with foreign astronomers, to the great advantage of the Observatory. Probably all of them, at one time or another, had visited Greenwich, and to most of them he was well known. On his retirement from office he received an illuminated Address from his old friend Otto Struve and the staff of the Pulkowa Observatory, an illuminated Address from the Vorstand of the Astronomische Gesellschaft at Berlin signed by Dr Auwers and the Secretaries, a complimentary letter from the Academy of Sciences at Amsterdam, and friendly letters of sympathy from Dr Gould, Prof. Newcombe, Dr Listing, and from many other scientific friends and societies. His replies to the Russian and German Addresses were as follows:


ROYAL OBSERVATORY, GREENWICH,
_1881, August 5_.

MY DEAR SIR,

I received, with feelings which I will not attempt to describe, the Address of yourself and the Astronomers of Pulkowa generally, on the occasion of my retirement from the office of Astronomer Royal. I can scarcely credit myself with possessing all the varied claims to your scientific regard which you detail. I must be permitted to attribute many of them to the long and warm friendship which has subsisted so long between the Directors of the Pulkowa Observatory and myself, and which has influenced the feelings of the whole body of Astronomers attached to that Institution. On one point, however, I willingly accept your favourable expressions--I have not been sparing of my personal labour--and to this I must attribute partial success on some of the subjects to which you allude.

In glancing over the marginal list of scientific pursuits, I remark with pleasure the reference to _Optics_. I still recur with delight to the Undulatory Theory, once the branch of science on which I was best known to the world, and which by calculations, writings, and lectures, I supported against the Laplacian School. But the close of your remarks touches me much more--the association of the name of W. Struve and my own. I respected deeply the whole character of your Father, and I believe that he had confidence in me. From our first meeting in 1830 (on a Commission for improvement of the Nautical Almanac) I never ceased to regard him as superior to others. I may be permitted to add that the delivery of his authority to the hands of his son has not weakened the connection of myself with the Observatory of Poulkova.

Acknowledging gratefully your kindness, and that of all the Astronomers of the Observatory of Poulkova, and requesting you to convey to them this expression,

I am, my dear Sir,
Yours most truly,
G.B. AIRY.

_To M. Otto von Struve,
Director of the Observatory of Poulkova
and the Astronomers of that Observatory._

* * * * *

ROYAL OBSERVATORY, GREENWICH,
_1881, August 3_.

MY DEAR SIR,

With very great pleasure I received the Address of the Astronomische Gesellschaft on occasion of my intended resignation of the Office of Astronomer Royal: dated July 27, and signed by yourself as President and Messrs Schoenfeld and Winnecke as Secretaries of the Astronomische Gesellschaft. I thank you much for the delicacy of your arrangement for the transmission of this document by the hands of our friend Dr Huggins. And I think you will be gratified to learn that it arrived at a moment when I was surrounded by my whole family assembled at my _jour-de-fete_, and that it added greatly to the happiness of the party.

I may perhaps permit myself to accept your kind recognition of my devotion of time and thought to the interests of my Science and my Office. It is full reward to me that they are so recognized. As to the success or utility of these efforts, without presuming, myself, to form an opinion, I acknowledge that the connection made by the Astronomische Gesellschaft, between my name and the advance of modern astronomy, is most flattering, and will always be remembered by me with pride.

It is true, as is suggested in your Address, that one motive for my resignation of Office was the desire to find myself more free for the prosecution of further astronomical investigations. Should my health remain unbroken, I hope to enter shortly upon this undertaking.

Again acknowledging the kindness of yourself and the Vorstand of the Astronomische Gesellschaft, and offering my best wishes for the continued success of that honourable institution,

I am, my dear Sir,
Yours very truly,
G.B. AIRY.

_To Dr Aimers and the Vorstand of the Astronomische Gesellschaft._


CHAPTER X.

AT THE WHITE HOUSE, GREENWICH. FROM HIS RESIGNATION
OF OFFICE ON AUGUST 15TH, 1881, TO HIS
DEATH ON JANUARY 2ND, 1892.

HISTORY OF HIS LIFE AFTER HIS RESIGNATION OF
OFFICE.

On the 16th of August 1881 Airy left the Observatory which had been his residence for nearly 46 years, and removed to the White House. Whatever his feelings may have been at the severing of his old associations he carefully kept them to himself, and entered upon his new life with the cheerful composure and steadiness of temper which he possessed in a remarkable degree. He was now more than 80 years old, and the cares of office had begun to weigh heavily upon him: the long-continued drag of the Transit of Venus work had wearied him, and he was anxious to carry on and if possible complete his Numerical Lunar Theory, the great work which for some years had occupied much of his time and attention. His mental powers were still vigorous, and his energy but little impaired: his strong constitution, his regular habits of life, the systematic relief which he obtained by short holiday expeditions whenever he found himself worn with work, and his keen interest in history, poetry, classics, antiquities, engineering, and other subjects not immediately connected with his profession, had combined to produce this result. And in leaving office, he had no idea of leaving off work; his resignation of office merely meant for him a change of work. It is needless to say that his interest in the welfare and progress of the Observatory was as keen as ever; his advice was always at the service of his successor, and his appointment as Visitor a year or two after his resignation gave him an official position with regard to the Observatory which he much valued. The White House, which was to be his home for the rest of his life, is just outside one of the upper gates of the Park, and about a quarter of a mile from the Observatory. Here he resided with his two unmarried daughters. The house suited him well and he was very comfortable there: he preferred to live in the neighbourhood with which he was so familiar and in which he was so well known, rather than to remove to a distance. His daily habits of life were but little altered: he worked steadily as formerly, took his daily walk on Blackheath, made frequent visits to Playford, and occasional expeditions to the Cumberland Lakes and elsewhere.

The work to which he chiefly devoted himself in his retirement was the completion of his Numerical Lunar Theory. This was a vast work, involving the subtlest considerations of principle, very long and elaborate mathematical investigations of a high order, and an enormous amount of arithmetical computation. The issue of it was unfortunate: he concluded that there was an error in some of the early work, which vitiated the results obtained: and although the whole process was published, and was left in such a state that it would be a comparatively simple task for a future astronomer to correct and complete it, yet it was not permitted to the original author of it to do this. To avoid the necessity of frequent reference to this work in the history of Airy's remaining years, it will be convenient to summarize it here. It was commenced in 1872: "On Feb. 23rd in this year I first (privately) formed the notion of preparing a Numerical Lunar Theory by substituting Delaunay's numbers in the proper Equations and seeing what would come of it." From this time forward till his power to continue it absolutely failed, he pursued the subject with his usual tenacity of purpose. During his tenure of office every available opportunity was seized for making progress with his Lunar Theory, and in every Report to the Visitors