Page:A Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury.pdf/134

120 The following letter, from an officer of his own rank, will serve to illustrate the feeling in the Navy of officers who were not under the influence of jealousy. It is written after hearing that Maury had applied for sea-service during the Mexican War:—

It was my thought and purpose to have written you this letter a year ago, just before leaving the country, at a time when rumours reached me of efforts being made to supersede you in the charge of the National Observatory; and now that I hear of the possibility or probability of your going to sea, I desire to place upon record my own feelings and humble opinion on that point.

Having been to sea on active service a very large portion of my life, I presume I attach as much importance to the merits and claims of sea service as anyone, having, in fact, but little claim to consideration on any other score, and knowing little about anything else but ships of war and their uses; but I conceive that the services rendered by you in the great results obtained at the Observatory to the service, to the country, and to the world at large, as so far surpassing, in their value and importance to mankind, anything you could possibly accomplish in the sea line of our profession, that it would be with extreme regret I should hear of your relinquishing the charge of that institution voluntarily, or by compulsion—sentiment, I am sure, which would be heartily responded to by scientific men at home and abroad.

For my estimate of your services I do not rely upon my own judgment or opinion, but upon the verdict of the world, literary and scientific, as I have read it in the journals, foreign and native, throughout Christendom.

I am thankful for the honour you have conferred upon my country and profession, with which I am identified as a citizen and member, and as an American I feel more proud