Great Astronomers
GREAT ASTRONOMERS by SIR ROBERT S. BALL D.Sc. LL.D. F.R.S. Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry in the University of Cambridge Author of "In Starry Realms" "In the High Heavens" etc. [PLATE: GREENWICH OBSERVATORY.] PREFACE. It has been my object in these pages to present the life of each astronomer in such detail as to enable the reader to realise in some degree the man's character and surroundings; and I have
But no man who begins the use of alcohol in any form can tell what, in
the end, is going to be its effect on his body or mind. Thousands and
tens of thousands, once wholly unconscious of danger from this source,
go down yearly into drunkards' graves. There is no standard by which any
one can measure the latent evil forces in his inherited nature. He may
have from ancestors, near or remote, an unhealthy moral tendency, or
physical diathesis, to which the peculiarly disturbing influence of
alcohol will give the morbid condition in which it will find its
disastrous life. That such results follow the use of alcohol in a large
number of cases, is now a well-known fact in the history of inebriation.
During the past few years, the subject of alcoholism, with the mental
and moral causes leading thereto, have attracted a great deal of earnest
attention. Physicians, superintendents of inebriate and lunatic asylums,
prison-keepers, legislators and philanthropists have been observing and
studying its many sad and terrible phases, and recording results and
opinions. While differences are held on some points, as, for instance,
whether drunkenness is a disease for which, after it has been
established, the individual ceases to be responsible, and should be
subject to restraint and treatment, as for lunacy or fever; a crime to
be punished; or a sin to be repented of and healed by the Physician of
souls, all agree that there is an inherited or acquired mental and
nervous condition with many, which renders any use of alcohol
exceedingly dangerous.
The point we wish to make with the reader is, that no man can possibly
know, until he has used alcoholic drinks for a certain period of time,
GREAT ASTRONOMERS by SIR ROBERT S. BALL D.Sc. LL.D. F.R.S. Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry in the University of Cambridge Author of "In Starry Realms" "In the High Heavens" etc. [PLATE: GREENWICH OBSERVATORY.] PREFACE. It has been my object in these pages to present the life of each astronomer in such detail as to enable the reader to realise in some degree the man's character and surroundings; and I have