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If observatories were conducted on these
unsystematic and spasmodic principles they would not be the calm,
accurate, satisfactory places they are.
Of course, if anyone had known that a new planet was to be found for the
looking, _any_ course would have been justified; but no one could know
this. I do not suppose that Adams himself felt an absolute confidence in
his attempted prediction. So there the matter dropped. Adams's
communication was pigeonholed, and remained in seclusion eight or nine
months.
Meanwhile, and quite independently, something of the same sort was going
on in France. A brilliant young mathematician, Urban Jean Joseph
Leverrier, born in Normandy in 1811, held the post of astronomical
professor at the Ecole Polytechnique, founded by Napoleon. His first
published papers directed attention to his wonderful powers; and the
official head of astronomy in France, the famous Arago, suggested to him
the unexplained perturbations of Uranus as a worthy object for his fresh
and well-armed vigor.


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