"The beginning of 1856 found me teaching in the family of a planter named Bryan, residing in Prince G..." — Simon Newcomb

Though born in Nova Scotia, I am of almost pure New England descent.

So far as the economic condition of society and the general mode of living and thinking were concerned, I might claim to have lived in the time of the American Revolution.

I had not yet gotten into the world of light. But I felt as one who, standing outside, could knock against the wall and hear an answering knock from within.

Whenever a total eclipse of the sun was visible in an accessible region parties were sent out to observe it.