unfavorable to the cultivation of science, which requires above all what the Romans called otium. Moreover, as the Jesuits lost in several expulsions even their libraries, museums, and observatories, v. g. the famous Museo Kircheriano in Rome, and the observatory where Secchi had served the cause of science for so many years, they were greatly hampered in their researches. It is all the more remarkable to see that the Jesuits achieved so much in the various fields of science, in spite of these difficulties. It betokens almost a heroic enthusiasm for science that these men patiently continue their investigations and start new enterprises, even in countries where the hostile attitude of legislative assemblies is like the sword of Damocles hanging over them.
In this brief sketch of Jesuit scholars we mention only such as were distinguished for productive scholarship within the last twenty-five or thirty years. Among the scientists of this period we mention first Father Angelo Secchi, who was one of the foremost astronomical observers of the nineteenth century. Educated and trained from early youth by the Jesuits, he soon became known by his publications on solar physics and meteorology.[1] He wrote several important works, among them Le Soleil, a standard work on the sun, Les Étoiles, L'Unité des Forces physiques, and more than eight hundred articles in scientific periodicals of Italy, France, England and Germany.[2] He has been called "the Father of Astro-physics", on
