Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy - George Biddell Airy (best novel books to read TXT) 📗

1881, August 11 .

DEAR SIR,

We cannot allow the official relation which has so long existed between yourself and us to terminate without expressing to you our sense of the admirable manner in which you have, in our opinion, upheld the dignity of the office of Astronomer Royal during the many years that you have occupied that important post.

Your long continued and varied scientific work has received such universal recognition from astronomers in all lands, that it is unnecessary for us to do more than assure you how heartily we join in their appreciation of your labours. We may however add that our position has given us opportunities of seeing that which others cannot equally well know, the untiring energy and great industry which have been therein displayed throughout a long and laborious career, an energy which leads you in retirement, and at fourscore years of age, to contemplate further scientific work.

We would ask you to carry with you into private life the best wishes of each one of us for your future happiness, and that of your family, expressing the hope that the days of retirement may not be few, and assuring you that your name will long live in our remembrance.

We are, dear Sir,
Yours very faithfully,
W.H.M. CHRISTIE, EDWIN DUNKIN, WILLIAM
ELLIS, GEORGE STRICKLAND CRISWICK, W.
C. NASH, A.M.W. DOWNING, EDWARD W.
MAUNDER, W.G. THACKERAY, THOMAS LEWIS.

Sir G.B. Airy, K.C.B., &c., &c.,
Astronomer Royal.

* * * * *

ROYAL OBSERVATORY, GREENWICH,
1881, August 13 .

MY DEAR MR CHRISTIE,
and Gentlemen of the Royal Observatory,

With very great pleasure I have received your letter of August 11. I thank you much for your recognition of the general success of the Observatory, and of a portion of its conduct which--as you remark--can scarcely be known 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