thousand and one other means of amusing and instructing himself.
Nature has opened in the heavens as interesting a volume as she has
opened on the earth, and with but little trouble any one may learn to
read in it.

I trust it has been shown that expensive telescopes are not
necessarily required for practical work. My advice to an intending
purchaser would be to put into the objective for a refractor, or into
the mirror for a reflector, all the money he feels warranted in
spending, leaving the mounting to be done in the cheapest possible
manner consistent with accuracy of adjustment, because it is in the
objective or in the mirror that the _value_ of the telescope alone
resides. In the shops may be found many telescopes gorgeous in
polished tubes and brass mountings which, for effective work, are
absolutely worthless. On this subject, I consulted the most eminent of
all discoverers of double stars, an observer who, even as an amateur,
made a glorious reputation by the work done with a six inch telescope.
I refer to Mr. S.W. Burnham, of the Lick Observatory, who, in reply,
kindly wrote: "You will certainly have no difficulty in making out a
strong case in favor of the use of small telescopes in many
departments of important astronomical work. Most of the early
telescopic work was done with instruments which would now be
considered as inferior to modern instruments, in quality as well as in
size. You are doubtless familiar with much of the amateur work, in
this country and elsewhere, done with comparatively small apertures.
_The most important condition is to have the refractor_, whatever its
size may be, _of the highest optical perfection_, and then the rest
will depend on the zeal and industry of the observer." The italics are
mine.