[ 22 ] give. The minimum sun-spot period bad been passing ; but a few that he saw made him reflect upon them a long while. None can read his life without gaining a fresh insight into the marvellous thoroughness with which our ancestors devoted themselves to their studien, our university-men being only surface deep in subjects more than one. The living breath of science has departed from India with the departure of men whom Chandrasekhara had made his ideal. He is an adherent of truth obtained by direct observation, and with all his respect. for the ancients, would not hesitate to denounce a Sástrie authority if a proof to the contrary were obtained. Were he placed in a well equipped observatory of modern days, I doubt not he would enrich science with his assiduous labour and valuable observations. Unaided and surrounded, as he was, by pratical dificulties, what patient labour he must have undergone in his early days to observe and work out practically the astronomical elements of the planeta. What numberless observations must he have made to test every figure used in the Siddhantas, in order to see if it Temained true or not. Night after night passed away in the all- absorbing business of star-measurement. An eclipse of the sun or of the moon was an event in his life .ver to jorgotten Thus it was that his early days pasd. lolo urinmutev, his was a frivolous work fit for children in want of better em- ployment. Those who cared to understand his business failed to appreciate it. What, if the planets moved out of their path ? Besides, was it not the work of professional astrologers? And was it not uubecoming one in his position ? He began to be Digitized by Google
