These were the experiences which Prof. Benjamin Peirce had in mind when in later years he spoke in eulogy of Prof. Bond, then deceased, in phrase which is both of historical and biographical interest. Having mentioned some of the early difficulties, he said: “When, in 1839, Mr. Bond was drawn to Cambridge by the strong hand of President Quincy, when the cause of the observatory was undertaken by the unflinching and irresistible vigor of our friend J. Ingersoll Bowditch, when even the heavens came to our assistance, and that wonderful comet of 1843 excited most opportunely a universal interest in celestial phenomena,—it was then apparent that the affection for Mr. Bond was the chief strength of the occasion, and to that we were mainly indebted for the successful attempt to obtain the unrivalled equatorial and to lay the foundations of the observatory.” No proper biography of Mr. Bond, whose career was an honor to his country, has ever been published. A sketch, the facts for which have largely been derived from original sources, may fittingly be given as the next number in this series. II. A casual glance at the circumstances of the beginning of the famous observatory in the neighboring city of Cambridge will show that a most important contribution to the success of that enterprise was made by the first director of the observatory, Prof. W. C. Bond. The more diligently those circumstances are studied, the stronger will be the conviction that his work, while it was that of designer and organizer, was also somewhat better in the sense of being more rare in quality; that his presence and enthusiasm gave the institution vitality. The record of his life gives him title to rank among eminent Americans.