President Quincy, in making his overture, was dealing with no novice, and, certainly, no stranger. Some intimation of what Mr. Bond had attained to is contained in the remarks of Prof. Benjamin Peirce spoken in the obituary proceedings of the American Academy in 1859, consequent upon Mr. Bond’s decease, though the reference is to a longer period. The instrument alluded to is the great equatorial at Cambridge. Prof. Peirce said: “In his original investigations he naturally restrained himself to those forms of observation which were fully within the reach of his own resources. He did not, therefore, seek those inquiries which could only be accomplished by long, intricate, and profound mathematical computations, but preferred those which were purely dependent upon the thorough discipline of the senses. He consequently availed himself less of the remarkable capacity of his instrument for delicate and refined measurements than of its exquisite optical qualities. But when observations were required which must be passed over to the computer, his skill was not wanting to the occasion. Thus, in conjunction with Major Graham, he made that choice series of observations from which the latitude of the observatory was determined.”
THE BOND HOUSE, DORCHESTER.
View looking to the southwest. The Observatory stood contiguous to the west end.
To this testimony as to Prof. Bond’s skill as an observer maybe added that of Mr. G. P. Bond as to his diligence and zeal: “There is something to my mind appalling in the contemplation of my father’s labors, from the time when he was first enabled to indulge freely his passion for observation. The accumulated volumes filled with manuscript records give me a shudder at the thought of the weary frame and straining eye, the exposure, and the long, sleepless nights that they suggest.”
Ex-President Quincy, upon the obituary occasion referred to, made this interesting statement as to the initiation of his project for Mr. Bond’s removal to Cambridge: “This proposal, so in unison with his pursuits and talents, I expected would be received with pleasure. But it was far otherwise. In the spirit of that innate modesty which predominated in his character, and apparently cast a shadow over all his excellent qualities and attainments, Mr. Bond hesitated, doubted his qualifications for the position. He said his habits were not adapted to public station; that our combined apparatus would be small, and that something great might be expected; that he preferred independence in obscurity to responsibility in an elevated position. He raised many other objections, which need not here be repeated, as they were overcome.”
At the date of this interview the president found Mr. Bond well established in a profitable manufacturing business, happily situated in his domestic and neighborhood surroundings, with an avocation fascinating enough to occupy all his leisure and a fame extensive enough to satisfy his own modest estimate of his abilities. There was no pecuniary betterment for Mr. Bond in the suggested change. Mr. Quincy could only offer him what he had already, a family domicile; so that the proposal might warrant an adaptation of Sidney Smith’s famous phrase and be described as an invitation to come to Cambridge and “cultivate astronomy upon a little oatmeal.” In so phrasing it there is no disparagement of the college; it was the day of small things, of pennies, not dollars, in the college treasury. But the event speaks the praises of Mr. Quincy, whose sagacity was unfailing and before whose persuasiveness and energy difficulties in administration were wont to give way, and of Mr. Bond, whose unselfishness and loyalty to science were proof against pecuniary considerations. In mental traits each was in many respects the complement of the other, and it is not too much to say that these two were pre-eminently the founders and builders of the observatory.
The official report for 1846 states that up to that time the labors of Mr. Bond had been “entirely unrequited, except by the gratification of his love of science and of home,” and suggests that this devotion to the institution at Cambridge was the more marked in that during the preceding spring he had declined “the almost unlimited offers made to him by the administration at Washington to induce him to take charge of the observatory there.” It is known, also, that frequent expenditures of his own money were made during this period for current expenses and for things convenient in conducting the observatory, sums small severally, no doubt, but considerable in the total. In 1846 a sum equal to the proposed salaries for the next two years was subscribed by citizens of Boston, and in 1849 the official board was able to report that “through a bequest of $100,000 made by Edward Bromfield Phillips they should thereafter be relieved from anxiety as to the payment of salaries and current expenses.” Various official documents evince that during the first eight years Mr. Bond is to be regarded not in the character of an employee, but a benefactor of the college; that his labors were deemed by those most familiar with them to be indispensable and invaluable, and that his friendship for the college, manifested in all ways, and especially in his declination of the liberal offers coming from Washington, was appreciated and honored. The date of Mr. Bond’s appointment as director of the observatory was Feb. 12, 1840, though the confirmation by the corporation was later. He was given the honorary degree of A.M., by Harvard in 1842.
III.
In resuming consecutively the story of the half-century’s progress of Harvard College Observatory, which was interrupted in the preceding number to give place to a biographical notice of Prof. W. C. Bond, it may be remarked that the period of his official term, which covered 19 years, was fruitful in great discoveries and events in the astronomical department of science. Harvard Observatory contributed its full share, though the greatest of all was that which gave fame to Le Verrier, the French astronomer, the discovery of the planet Neptune. In September, 1844, the observatory building on Summer House hill had been completed to the extent proposed at that time, and the instruments were transferred from the Dana house.