instrument to-day would cost at least twice as much, and there would probably be an interval of several months between the order and the delivery. One large firm of optical instrument makers announces that it is not now making astronomical telescopes at all. At the present time, when astronomy is entering on perhaps the most pregnant phase in its history, and when men are more than ever attracted by anything which promises escape from the fret of daily life, this lessening of the opportunities for acquaintance with the most serene of the sciences is a minor calamity. The decline in amateur astronomy will probably have no appreciable reaction on the progress of science, but it will lead to a real, if small decrease in the intellectual pleasures and spiritual wealth of the nation. SCIENTIFIC CITIZENS It would be an entertaining pursuit to compile the characteristics of the man of science--usually a Professor--as he is depicted in popular fiction, on the stage, and in the writings of exasperated conservatives in religious and social matters. It would be found that these characteristics combine to give one dominant and entirely untruthful impression: the man of science is represented as being scientific on all occasions. We may ignore the inferior school that portrays him as being constantly obsessed by his work--like Dickens’ learned gentleman who mistook the nature of a dark lantern--and confine our attention to the Professor who is represented, not as imbecile, but merely as homogeneous. This imaginary individual is never to be diverted from his passion for precise statement and strictly logical inference. Whether the subject be politics or the state of the weather, he brings the same preliminary scepticism, the same demands for verification, that he carries into his scientific researches. As we have said, this picture is untruthful; we think, however, that this is an unfortunate fact, and that it is highly desirable that men of science should begin to live up to the story-teller’s conception of them.