On Astronomy (1850-1874)

"He must have studied astronomy to little purpose, who can suppose man to be the only object of his Creator's care, or who does not see in the vast and wonderful apparatus around us provision for other races of animated beings." (John Herschel, "A Treatise on Astronomy", 1851)

"Mathematics is the Queen of the Sciences, and arithmetic the Queen of Mathematics. She frequently condescends to do service for astronomy and other natural sciences, but to her belongs, under all circumstances, the foremost place." (Sartorius von Waltershausen, "Gauss zum Gedächtniss", 1856) 

"The great problems which offer themselves on all hands for solution, problems which the wants of the age force upon us as practically interesting, and with which its intellect feels itself competent to deal, are far more complex in their conditions, and depend on data which to be of use must be accumulated in far greater masses, collected over an infinitely wider field, and worked upon with a greater and more systematized power than has sufficed for the necessities of astronomy. The collecting, arranging, and duly combining these data are operations which, to be carried out to the extent of the requirements of modern science, lie utterly beyond the reach of all private industry, mean, or enterprise. Our demands are not merely for a slight and casual sprinkling to refresh and invigorate an ornamental or luxurious product, but for a copious, steady, and well-directed stream, to call forth from a soil ready to yield it, an ample, healthful, and remunerating harvest." (Sir John F W Herschel, "Essays from the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews with Addresses and Other Pieces", 1857)

"The ideas which these sciences, Geometry, Theoretical Arithmetic and Algebra involve extend to all objects and changes which we observe in the external world; and hence the consideration of mathematical relations forms a large portion of many of the sciences which treat of the phenomena and laws of external nature, as Astronomy, Optics, and Mechanics. Such sciences are hence often termed Mixed Mathematics, the relations of space and number being, in these branches of knowledge, combined with principles collected from special observation; while Geometry, Algebra, and the like subjects, which involve no result of experience, are called Pure Mathematics." (Whewell, William, "The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences" , 1858)

"Astronomy is the science of which the human mind may most justly boast. It owes this indisputable pre-eminence to the elevated nature of its object, to the grandeur of its means of investigation, to the certainty, the utility, and the unparalleled magnificence of its results." (François Arago, "Biographies of Distinguished Scientific Men", [Eulogy on Laplace] 1859)

"There are some questions in Astronomy, to which we are attracted rather on account of their peculiarity, as the possible illustration of some unknown principle, than from any direct advantage which their solution would afford to mankind." (James C Maxwell, "On the Stability of the Motion of Saturn's Rings" 1859) 

"On certain occasions, the eyes of the mind can supply the want of the most powerful telescopes, and lead to astronomical discoveries of the highest importance." (François Arago, "Biographies of Distinguished Scientific Men", 1859)

"Like astronomy, which with mathematical certainty has measured the spaces of the heavens, so does modern geology, by taking a retrospective view of the millions of years which have passed, lift the veil which has so long concealed the history of the earth and has given rise to all kinds of religious and mysterious dreams." (Ludwig Büchner, "Force and Matter", 1864) 

"The degree in which each mind habitually substitutes signs for images will be, CETERIS PARIBUS [with other conditions remaining the same], the degree in which it is liable to error. This is not contradicted by the fact that mathematical, astronomical, and physical reasonings may, when complex, be carried on more successfully by the employment of signs; because in these cases the signs themselves accurately represent the abstractness of the relations. Such sciences deal only with relations, and not with objects; hence greater simplification ensures greater accuracy. But no sooner do we quit this sphere of abstractions to enter that of concrete things, than the use of symbols becomes a source of weakness. Vigorous and effective minds habitually deal with concrete images." (George H Lewes, "The Principles of Success in Literature", 1865)

"The periodic law has given to chemistry that prophetic power long regarded as the peculiar dignity of its sister science, astronomy," (Dmitri Mendeleev. "Principles of Chemistry", 1871) 

"Astronomy is one of the sublimest fields of human investigation. The mind that grasps its facts and principles receives something of the enlargement and grandeur belonging to the science itself. It is a quickener of devotion." (Horace Mann, "Thoughts Selected From the Writings of Horace Mann", 1872)

"Astronomy, although the oldest and in many respects the most perfect of the sciences, in many of its questions is still in its infancy." (François Arago, "Scientific Miscellany, The Galaxy" Vol. XIII, 1872)