I now had an opportunity of having a good view of my new and distinguished acquaintance. His long hair and beard were quite white; yet he was of full countenance, and his eyes, which were large and thoughtful, retained all the clearness and brilliancy of youth. After a few casual observations about unimportant matters, he inquired if our scientists were far advanced in astronomy. I replied that as yet I could not speak comparatively, but was of the opinion they were. "The principal planets and their movements were well known to the ancients," I said. "Yet it was only within modern times that really great progress had been made."
I now happened to look at one of the instruments. This led to an inquiry oh his part if ours were like them. I answered that I had seen instruments like some of those before, but that the majority were strange to me.
"The large ones," he said, "are used for viewing the most distant planets, and members of other systems."
I observed that the movements of the distant planets were well known to our astronomers, who could calculate them with great accuracy. Yet they were wholly in the dark as to whether the
