“Some of these opportunities, indeed, arising out of my visits to observatories both in Europe and America, have been remarkable enough to warrant a more particular mention of them. That which most strongly clings to my memory is an evening I passed with Encke and Galle in the observatory at Berlin, some ten or twelve days after the discovery of the planet Neptune on this very spot; and when every night’s observations of its motions had still an especial value in denoting the elements of its orbit. I had casually heard of the discovery at Bremen, and lost no time in hurrying on to Berlin. The night in question was one of floating clouds, gradually growing into cumuli; and hour after hour passed away without sight of the planet which had just come to our knowledge by so wonderful a method of predictive research. Frustrated in this main point, it was some compensation to stay and converse with Encke in his own observatory, one signalized by so many discoveries, the stillness and darkness of the place broken only by the solemn ticking of the astronomical clock, which, as the unfailing interpreter of the celestial times and motions, has a sort of living existence to the astronomer. Among other things discussed, while thus sitting together in a sort of tremulous impatience, was the name to be given to the new planet. Encke told me he had thought of ‘Vulcan,’ but deemed it right to remit the choice to Leverrier, then supposed to be the sole indicator of the planet and its place in the heavens; adding that he expected Leverrier’s answer by the first post. Not an hour had elapsed before a knock at the door of the observatory announced the letter expected. Encke read it aloud; and, coming to the passage where Leverrier proposed the name of ‘Neptune,’ exclaimed, ‘_So lass den Namen Neptun sein._’ It was a midnight scene not easily to be forgotten. A royal baptism, with its long array of titles, would ill compare with this simple naming of the remote and solitary planet thus wonderfully discovered. There is no place, indeed, where the grandeur and wild ambitions of the world are so thoroughly rebuked and dwarfed into littleness as in the astronomical observatory. As a practical illustration of this remark, I would add that my own knowledge of astronomers--those who have worked themselves with the telescope--has shown them to be generally men of tranquil temperament, and less disturbed than others by worldly affairs, or by the quarrels incident even to scientific research.” The same reasoning which has been used in reference to Jupiter and his moons, and to Saturn and his moons, might perhaps be applied also to Uranus and Neptune and their moons.