An astronomical observatory of today looks more like a factory plant than an abode for philosophers. The poetry of constellations has given way to the lure of plate libraries, and the angel of cosmogenic speculation has been caught in a cobweb of facts insistently clamoring for explanations.

Theoretical Astrophysics: Atomic Theory and the Analysis of Stellar, Atmospheres and Envelopes, Introduction (p. xi), At The Clarendon Press. 1936