It is difficult to say whether Astronomy still offers such rewards to industry. It is probable, however, that it still yields more to character, as distinguished from ability, than any other science, and incomparably more, alas! than the arts. THE AMATEUR ASTRONOMER The indifference of the Englishman is, considered pragmatically, the same thing as tolerance. It bestows freedom and leaves every man, within fairly wide limits, at ease to pursue his bent. There is doubtless a relation between this English characteristic and the fact that England, above any other country, is the home of the amateur. In England, compared with the Continent, there are comparatively few men whose dominant activity is their exclusive activity. There are many fair specialists, but there are few specialised men. There are countries such as France, where the _Gemeinplatz_ of intelligent men is probably larger and more richly furnished than it is in England, but it is comparatively difficult to meet the type of man who is an eminent lawyer, an authority on Eastern poisons, and a really good judge of horseflesh. Such manifestations of a national quality may sometimes appear almost grotesque, but we believe that the quality of which they are partial manifestations is the most splendid and individual characteristic of the English intellect. It is not a quality which produces many thrice-armed specialists, but it is a quality which produces a great number of amateurs. The English amateur in the arts belongs to a family well worth consideration, but our more immediate concern is with the amateur in science. There was a time when the scientific amateur abounded in England. In the time of Huxley and his contemporaries, as we see from their letters, amateur zoologists, botanists, and, more rarely, amateur mathematicians and physicists, were scattered all over England and occasionally had something of interest, or even of value, to report. In the days when R. A. Proctor edited _Knowledge_ the country seemed to be full of reverend gentlemen who owned small observatories and home-made telescopes. This large and interesting family seems now to be making towards extinction. The increasing complexity of the various sciences, to say nothing of the variety and cost of modern apparatus, has made anything but trifling discoveries difficult to the verge of impossibility for an amateur equipment. Perhaps the amateur who has suffered least from these changes is the amateur astronomer. There is good reason for supposing that his numbers have increased. In this branch of science the English amateur has always been particularly strong, and this cannot be attributed to the official encouragement accorded astronomy in this country. There are many more amateur astronomers in England than in France, although astronomy counts for more in France than in England, and although, since Newton, France has played the leading rôle in the history of astronomy.