( 21 ) He had measured the onlarged image of the moon as seen through the telescope and had compared it with the apparent diameter well-known to him. The planet Jupiter was next shown through the telescope I should rather say that he directed the instrument to the planet and aw it himself. The apparent motion of the planet, quickened by about a hundred times through the instrument, was followed by him for some time till he could see the belta and the satellites to his heart's content. It was at this moment that he gave went to his bitter regret that be had not had the advantage of such instruments in his younger days Next morning we had a talk about tithis. I said that the almanac-makers of Bengal would not believe in any variation in the accepted duration of the tithir. Hearing this, he was Kilent for a minute or two, as if he doubted the fact. Being pressed for his opinion, he quoted a line from his work, meaning that arguments can never defeat the results of direct observa- tion." He had read in a vernacular text book that the sun nome times exhibited dark spots on his padiaat ord, and was anxious to see if it was really 80. I asked him to accept the fact as- true ; but he said he would not believe it unless he saw spots with his owneyes. To this I retorted by asking if he had ever believed in the existence of the seven atmospheres of the Siddhantas. His reply was that the statement was to be taken at what it was worth, and he had no opinion of his own to UTM nifi Digitized by Google
