Not being greedy of delusion ourselves, neither would we lead others into error; but, on the contrary, are desirous to avoid all deception, as we may be considered over studious to give the most rational origin, and where we cannot get at the history of those objects which engage our attention—whenever this is uncertain we resort to nature, experience, and reason, and furnish the most correct explanation our contracted circle of information will permit. Whenever we discover the clue of history, we collect the most satisfactory detail our limits will afford us to insert. Guided by the preceding notions, and directed by those principles, we have endeavoured correctly to conceive, and faithfully to portray our own conceptions in the best manner our experience might enable us, to make a just distinction between metaphorical allusion and literal application; ever endeavouring to discriminate between serious assertion and studied fable.

We fully coincide with the just remark of the learned author of “Indian Antiquities,” who says “that in respect to the early ages of the world, all the remains of genuine history, except that contained in the sacred annals, is only to be obtained through the mazes of Mythology.”

It must be confessed, that to sift this grain of corn from the bushel of chaff with which it is surrounded, where every effort which the ingenuity of Greece could devise to render fable as current as truth, was resorted to, is no small task; that it requires the operation of the best exercised reason, and the assistance of extraordinary judgment, which is only to be attained through the medium of extensive experience and the exercise of clear and discriminative powers: then we pretend not to possess the best of possible acquisitions of this kind, but the best in our power, we have endeavoured to collect, and summoned to our assistance; and the value of our labours we will leave the public to judge.

If the application of observations like the preceding ever come apropos, surely they apply to the present article; since from the sideral science, all the errors of an idolatrous race proceeded in the major part of the population of the ancient world: from thence also proceeded the most sublime imagery which embellishes the syren voice of poetic song, the grandest metaphors, and the sweetest allegories, which ornament the transendent eloquence of the most able rhetoricians of Greece and Rome; the fire of exquisitely natural and most noble allusions which enliven and embellish their historic pages. The sweetest philosophical explications also flowed from thence, which ornament the various immortal works of their most excellent poets, orators, historians, natural and moral philosophers; and, in brief, of every description of the sublimest genius of ancient Greece and Rome, in their most divine effusions.

It will appear, we believe, that the first astronomers of Chaldea, Phoenicia, and Egypt, are not now known as astronomers, by name, if we except the person of the royal Nimrod, the founder of the Chaldean empire, which name is often confounded with Belus; sometimes one is put for the other, and often Belus is called the son of Nimrod. How the truth of this was, we shall not at present determine: be it as it may, it is allowed on all hands that the sideral science claims for its inventor no less a person than the founder of the first monarchy in the world. That this science was first introduced by the founder of the Tower of Babel is not questioned, because it is more evident, that in that country there must have existed from necessity, the expediency of the most approved observation, which could be made upon this eminently useful science; where, on account of the excessive solar heat, people generally travel by night: where, for hundreds of miles, are nothing but pathless deserts, with a horizon as boundless and little impeded as that of the ocean; assuredly under such circumstances, the local situation of the site of the immense Observatory of Babel must point out the expediency of procuring some intelligence from the position which the inhabitants discovered the host of heaven to appear in at the rising, setting, &c.; for from what will appear in the course of this article, it will be very evident that the Tower of Babel was constructed for the purpose of an astronomical observatory; farther, that the climate of Chaldea was most favourable to the exercise of that sublime art, will not admit of a question, when we consider the atmosphere is so pure, so clear, so free from exhalation, that at night the sky is said to resemble an immense canopy of black velvet studded with embossed gold, from the appearance of the stars; and that it was not only the appearance of the stars, their rising, setting, and motion, by which they knew time was to be measured; but also the distinction between one star and another could be correctly ascertained from the usual colour—here it was the various planets, zodiacal constellations, and the other asterisms in both hemispheres, received their primary names.

The preceding circumstance, it is conceived, fixes the local place where the science had its origin.

The Tower of Babel was a parallelogram, with sides of unequal length. Herodotus thus describes it.—“The Temple of Jupiter Belus occupies the other [square of the city], whose huge gates of brass may be seen. It is a square building; in the midst rises a tower of the height of one furlong, upon which resting as a base, seven other turrets are built in regular succession. The ascent is on the outside, which, winding from the ground, is continued to the highest tower: in the middle of the whole structure there is a convenient resting place.”

Diodorus Siculus says, this tower was decayed in his time; but, in his description of Babylon, he thus speaks of it—describing it as the act of Semiramis, who flourished two thousand nine hundred and forty-four years before Christ:—“In the middle of the city, she built a temple to Jupiter-Belus; of which, since writers differ amongst themselves, and the work is now wholly decayed through length of time, there is nothing that can with certainty be related concerning it; yet it is apparent it was of an exceeding great height; and that, by the advantage of it, the Chaldean astrologers exactly observed the rising and setting of the stars. The whole was built of brick, cemented with bitumen, with great art and cost. Upon the top she placed three statues of beaten gold, of Jupiter, Juno, and Rhea: that of Jupiter stood upright, in the posture as if he was walking; it was forty feet in height, and weighed one thousand Babylonish talents. The statue of Rhea was of the same weight, sitting on a golden throne, having two lions standing on either side, one at her knees, and near to them were two exceeding great serpents of silver, weighing thirty talents each. Here, too, the image of Juno stood upright, and weighed eight hundred talents, grasping a serpent by the head in her right hand, and holding a sceptre adorned with precious stones in her left. For all these deities there was placed a table made of beaten gold, forty feet long and fifteen broad, weighing five hundred talents, upon which stood two cups, weighing thirty talents, and near to them as many censers, weighing three hundred talents: there were likewise placed three drinking bowls of gold—the one to Jupiter weighed two hundred talents, and the others six hundred each.”

We have been thus circumstantial in our description of Babylon, for obvious reasons. First—that it was the first local situation where, since the deluge, men had associated for civil purposes; and secondly—because it was the original station where the astronomical science was cultivated. From Chaldea, Astronomy travelled to Egypt, where she was studied for many ages; she also went to Phoenicia, where she was regarded with equal attention. But the peculiar occasion which the Phoenician people had to improve their acquaintance with this science, will appear, upon reflecting that these people occupied a narrow and barren tract of land between the Mediterranean and Arabian seas; therefore, they found it essentially necessary to improve their situation by those means which Divine Providence had apparently marked out for them to resort unto; we accordingly find them applying to mercantile industry; as a commercial people, in this character, they were the ready medium of communication between every part of the then known world. In consequence, they had factories or mercantile stations up the Mediterranean; but particularly on its European side, on the shores of the Atlantic, and even in the British sea: we recognise their occupying Marseilles, and others, on the coast of France; Cadiz, on that of Spain; the Lizard Point, and other places, in Cornwall, where they traded for tin in the British Isles. In brief, their commercial spirit carried them to every part of the globe: by the by, admitting that rational belief be allowed to Plato and Solon, we shall find that they had, in the first ages, explored the Atlantic Ocean, and even discovered America. A great variety of authorities may be adduced to prove the assertion—that the Phoenicians made three descents on the American coast; and others, who say that the inhabitants discovered there by the Spaniards, gave the same names to the plants as had been assigned them in Asia; that their religious rites were similar, and general customs and manners the same,—we refer to Joseph Da Costa’s “History of the Indies,” published in 1694.

This author was an eye-witness, and wrote from actual observation. The Phoenicians, in the exercise of their mercantile functions, had the most obvious necessity to cultivate the sideral science. We find that they accordingly did so, and made various improvements and very important discoveries by their exercise. From the northern hemisphere being more known to them than it was to the Chaldeans, they discovered that splendid and beautiful asterism, CynosurÆ, or the polar-star,—an asterism of the most singular service, before the properties of the magnet were discovered, and which star was sometimes called, from them, Phoenice.

From Phoenicia and Egypt the celestial science of astronomy was brought into Greece, with which people the Phoenicians were intimate; for they, by trade, having occasion to converse with the Greeks, and also from uniting in one national resemblance, the three opposite characteristics of soldiers, sailors, and men of science, the communications between the two people were very frequent. At every period, from the first establishment of the Grecian states, that highly eminent and intellectual people collected from all others every particular they could obtain in all matters having relation to sciences and arts; those they cultivated with a success worthy of the motive which first induced them to make these collections.—Loving Knowledge for herself, they succeeded beyond all others in obtaining her favours.

The first Greek who appears on record to have cultivated the celestial science with success, was Thales, born at Miletus, in Asia Minor, six hundred and forty one years before Christ; he explained the causes of eclipses, and predicted one. He also taught that the earth was round, and divided into five zones; he discovered the solstices and equinoxes, and likewise divided the year into three hundred and sixty-five days. He had travelled into Egypt in search of knowledge, where he ascertained the height of one of the pyramids, from its shade. He looked upon water as the principle of all things. From him the sect called the Ionic had their origin.

Anaximander, his pupil, followed him, and supported the opinions of his great master; he was born before Christ six hundred and ten years; he invented maps and dials, and is said to have constructed a sphere. His ideas of the planets were, however, erroneous.

Anaximenes was a scholar of Anaximander, and born five hundred and fifty-four years before Christ. He taught that air was the origin of all things, and many erroneous notions; among others, that the earth was a plane, and the heavens a solid concave sphere, with the stars affixed to it like nails.

Anaxagoras of Clazomene, the pupil of, and successor to, Anaximenes, born before Christ five hundred and sixty years. The doctrines he supported are a strange association of important truths, mixed with the most gross absurdities. He taught that the world was made by a being of infinite power; that mind was the origin of motion; that the upper regions, which he called ether, were filled with fire, that the rapid revolution of this ether had raised large masses of stone from the earth, which, being inflamed, formed the stars, which were kept in their places, and prevented from falling by the velocity of their motion.

His ideas of the solar orb were extremely erroneous; alleging, according to different authors, various uncertain positions respecting the materials of which that planet is composed: one says, he said it was a vast mass of fire; another states his opinion, that it was red-hot iron; and a third, that it was of stone. He taught that the comets are an assemblage of planets; that winds are produced in consequence of highly rarified air; that thunder and lightning are a collision of clouds; earthquakes, by subterraneous air forcing its passage upwards; that the moon is inhabited, &c.

This philosopher removed his school from Miletus to Athens, which was thenceforth the grand seat of all learning. He had taught there for thirty years, when he was prosecuted for his philosophical opinions, particularly for his just ideas relative to the Deity, and condemned to death. When sentence was pronounced, he said:—“It is long since Nature condemned me to that.” However, according to the laws of Athens, he was permitted an appeal to the people, in which his scholar, the immortal Pericles, saved his life by his eloquence. His sentence of death was changed into banishment. Whilst in prison he determined exactly the proportion of the circumference of the circle to its diameter, denominated “squaring the circle.” He died at Lampsacus. Archelaus, his scholar, was the preceptor of the divine Socrates.

Pythagoras was another scholar of Thales. The place of his nativity is uncertain; but having settled in the island of Samos, he is generally reckoned of that place. He travelled in search of knowledge through Phoenicia, Chaldea, Egypt, and India; however, meeting with little encouragement on his return to Samos, he passed over to Italy, in the time of Tarquin the Proud, and opened a school at Croto, a city in the Gulf of Tarentum, where he had a number of students, and gained much reputation. His pupils were obliged to listen in silence for at least two years; if talkative, longer; sometimes, for five years, before they were permitted to ask him any questions; for which time they were mathematicoi, because they were set to study geometry, dialling, music, and other high sciences, called by the Greeks mathemata. But the name of mathematici was commonly applied to those who cultivated the stellary science, and who predicted the fortunes of men, by observing the stars under which they were born.

This luminary of science first assumed the appellation of philosopher; before him, those whose pursuits have now that title, were called sages or wise men; he was the founder of the sect called the Italic. He was so much honoured whilst living, and his memory honoured when dead, by the Romans, that they attributed to him the learning of Numa, who lived much earlier. About the year of the city 411, the Delphian oracle having directed the Romans to erect statues to the bravest and wisest of the Greeks, they conferred that honour upon Alcibiades and Pythagoras.

He taught publicly that the earth is the centre of the universe; but to his scholars he gave his real opinions; similar to those afterwards adopted by Copernicus, that the earth and all the planets moved round the sun, as their co-centre, and which doctrine he is presumed to have derived from either the Chaldeans or Indians. He thought that the earth is round, and everywhere inhabited. Hence, he admitted that we might have antipodes, which name is said to have been invented by Plato.

Pythagoras was distinguished for his skill in music, which he first reduced to certain firm principles, and likewise for his discoveries in geometry. He first proved, that in a right-angled triangle, the square of the hypothenuse, or side subtending the right angle, is equal to the two other sides; also that of all plain figures having equal circumference, the circle is largest; and of all solids having equal surfaces, the sphere is the largest. Pythagoras likewise taught that all things were made of fire. That the Deity animated the universe, as the soul does the body; which doctrine, with that of the metempsychosis, or transmigration, he likewise taught; and which thoughts were adopted by Plato, and are most beautifully expressed by Virgil; that the sun, the moon, the planets, and fixed stars, are all actuated by some divinity, and move each in a transparent solid sphere in the order following:—next to the Earth, the Moon, then Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn; the sphere of the fixed stars last of all; that those move with a sound inconceivably beautiful, which ears cannot comprehend. Those eight spheres he imagined to be analogous to the eight notes in music.

Empedocles, the chief scholar of Pythagoras, entertained the same sentiments with his teacher, concerning astronomy. He is said to have thrown himself into the crater of Mount Etna, to make himself pass for a god; or, perhaps, which may approach nearer the truth, because he could not discover the cause of the eruption: or else in his endeavours to discover the cause. One of his iron sandals being thrown up by the volcano, revealed the mode in which he had perished.

Philolaus, also a scholar of Pythagoras, first taught publicly the diurnal motion of the earth upon its axis, and its annual motion round the sun; which first suggested to Copernicus the idea of that system which he established.

Meteon, born at LeuconÆ, a village near Athens, first introduced into Europe the Lunar Cycle, consisting of nineteen solar years, or nineteen lunar years, and seven intercalary months. It had been first adopted by the Chaldeans. Meteon published it at the Olympic games, where it was received with so great applause that it was then universally adopted through the Grecian States, and their colonies, and got the name of the Cycle, or Golden Number, to denote its excellence, which name it still retains.

It was also called the Great Year; which name was likewise applied to various spaces of time by different authors; by Virgil, to the solar year, to distinguish it from the monthly revolution of the moon; by Cicero and others, to the revolution of six hundred years, or three thousand six hundred years; called also several ages, when all the stars shall come to the same position, with respect to one another, as they were in at a certain time before; called likewise Annus Mundanus, or Vertens.

The lunar cycle begun four hundred and thirty-two years before the commencement of our era, and according to it, the Greek calendars, which determined the celebration of their annual feasts, &c. were adjusted. Meteon is said to have derived his knowledge of this subject from Chaldea.

The opinions of the subsequently registered astronomer, Xonophanes, founder of the Eleatic school, are so truly monstrous, that after the light which had appeared, he must have travelled with his eyes shut; or else the rage for novelty alike affected the scientific of Greece, as it did their literati; choosing to travel a long way for new thoughts, when they might have found much better at hand. Xonophanes, among other whimsical opinions, maintained that the stars were extinguished every morning, and illuminated every evening; that the sun is an inflamed cloud; that eclipses happen by the extinction of the sun, which is afterwards lighted up; that the moon is ten times larger than the earth; that there are many suns and moons to illumine different climates.

The Eleatic school was chiefly famous for the study of logic, or the art of ratiocination, first invented by Zeno. Those of this sect paid but little attention to science, or the study of Nature. Philosophy was anciently divided into three parts, natural, moral, and the art of reasoning. Xonophanes was succeeded by Parmenides, his scholar, who, in addition to his master’s absurdities, taught that the earth was habitable in only the two temperate zones; that the earth was suspended in the middle of the universe, in a fluid lighter than air; that all bodies left to themselves light on its surface. This bore a slight resemblance to the Newtonian doctrine of attraction.

Democritus, of Abdera, a scholar of Leucippus, who flourished four hundred and fifty-six years before Christ, was the first publisher of the Atomic Cosmogony, invented by Mochus, the Phoenician, said to have been received by his master Leucippus. Both admitted plurality of worlds. Democritus was the first who taught that the milky way is occasioned by the confused light of an infinite number of stars; which doctrine is still maintained by the best informed of philosophers. He also extended that idea to comets; the number of which Seneca says the Greek philosophers did not know; and that Democritus suspected there were more planets than we could see. This was also the opinion of many others, the truth of which has been verified in the discoveries of Pallas, Juno, Vesta, and the Georgium Sidus.

Democritus is considered as the parent of experimental philosophy; the greatest part of his time was devoted to it; and he is said to have made many discoveries. He, like Meteon, and Newton, maintained the absurd idea of the existence of a vacuum, which was denied by Thales and Descartes. Democritus also maintained that the sea was constantly diminishing. He declared that he would prefer the discovery of one of the causes of the works of Nature, to the possession of the Persian monarchy. Often laughing at the follies of mankind, he was thought by the vulgar to be out of his mind; but Hippocrates, being sent to cure him, soon found him to be the wisest man of the age; and Seneca reckons him the most acute and ingenious of the ancients, on account of his many useful inventions; particularly his ingenious making of artificial emeralds, tinging them of any colour; of softening ivory, dissolving stones, &c.

Although the chief attention of Plato and Aristotle was directed to other grand objects, yet they much contributed to the improvement of astronomy. Notwithstanding the most famous in this respect was Eudoxus, the scholar of Plato, who was famous for his skill in astrology, natural and judicial, or the art of foretelling future events by the relative situations of the stars, of their various influences, an art which prevailed for many ages among the ancients, and is yet assiduously cultivated by the modern Arabians and other orientals, although in a great measure exploded in European nations. By the former or which divisions in this science are foretold the changes of seasons, rain, wind, thunder, cold, heat, famine, diseases, &c., from a knowledge of the causes that are believed to act upon the earth and its atmosphere; whilst the latter foretold the characters, fortunes, &c., of men, from the stellary disposition at the moment of their respective nativities.

The philosopher, Eudoxus, spent much of his time on the top of a high mountain, to observe the motion of the stars. He regulated the Greek year as CÆsar did the Roman. Had the ancient Grecian astronomers been equally attached to experiment with Democritus, they might have arrived at more certain conclusions; but they were content with speculative theory, and spoke rather from conjecture than observation; whence both Strabio and Polybius treated as fabulous the since recognised assertion of Pythius, a famous navigator to the north, who had sailed to a country supposed to be Iceland, where he said the sun, in the middle of summer, never set.

The most important improvements in astronomy were made in the school of Alexandria, founded by Ptolemy Philadelphus; and which seminary flourished for nine hundred and twenty-three years, till the invasion of the Saracen army, under the command of Amrou. Those astronomers were chiefly Greeks, or of Grecian extraction—the most learned men being invited here by the liberality of the Ptolemies. The first who distinguished themselves were Timocarus and Aristillus, prior to the foundation of the library, which was founded three hundred years before Christ. Those two men endeavoured to determine the places of the different stars, and thus to trace the course of the planets. The next and most eminent man was Aristarchus, about two hundred and sixty-four years before Christ; who taught, that the sun was about nineteen times further from the earth than the moon (which is not the twentieth part of its real distance), although the philosophers of the Pythagorean school did not consider it above three times, and perhaps only one and a half further distant. Aristarchus also taught, that the moon was fifty-six diameters of our earth from this globe, which opinion comes near to the truth: he believed it to be scarcely one-third of its real size. He was widely erroneous in his conception of the sun’s dimensions. He also, in conformity to the doctrines of Pythagorus and Philolaus, supposed the sun to be placed in the centre, and that the earth moved round it; on which account he was accused of impiety, as disturbing the repose of the Vesta and the Lares. This opinion was not, however, retained by his successors in the Alexandrian school. Contrary to the doctrine of the Greek philosophers, he taught that the stars were at different distances, and that the orbit of the earth round the sun was an insensible point, in consequence of the immense distance of the stars. The only work of Aristarchus which remains, is on the magnitude and distance of the sun and moon.

Very nearly contemporary with Aristarchus was Euclid, the celebrated geometrician of Alexandria; Manetho, an astrologer and historian; and Aratus and Cleanthus, disciples of Zeno, the stoic philosopher; all of whom contributed to the enlargement of astronomical knowledge; but particularly the two first named. Eratosthenes, born at Cyrene, succeeded Aristarchus, being invited by Ptolemy Euergetes. This professor is said to be the inventor of the Armillary sphere, an instrument or machine composed of moveable sides, representing the equator, the two colures, with the meridian; all of which turned round on an axis directed to the two poles of the world, each of which circles were anciently called armilla, and the whole machine, astrolabus. All instruments which could be contrived for the promotion of this science, were furnished at the public expense, and placed within the observatory of Alexandria. Assisted by these instruments, Eratosthenes first undertook to measure the obliquity of the ecliptics, or rather the double of that obliquity, that is, the distance from the tropics, which he made to be about 47 degrees; the obliquity, or half of this distance, 23½ degrees. This grand attempt was to ascertain the exact distance of a degree of the meridian, and thus to determine the circumference of the earth; which he accomplished with wonderful exactness, considering the period at which he lived; and he performed this by the same method since adopted by the moderns who have succeeded him. He is also said to have discovered the true distance of the sun from the earth.

The great Archimedes lived contemporary with Eratosthenes, that eminent geometrician of Syracuse, whose inventive genius in mechanics had constructed engines which protracted the fall of that capital, with its Island Sicily, to the almost omnipotent power of Rome for a considerable period.

The most illustrious astronomer which had as yet appeared at Alexandria was Hipparchus, who flourished between one hundred and sixty and one hundred and twenty-five years before Christ. He first brought this science into a tangible elementary form, rendering it systematic. He discovered, or was the first who observed the difference between the autumnal and the vernal equinox; the former being seven days longer than the latter, which proceeds from the eccentricity of the earth’s orbit, first discovered from observing the inequality of the solar motion. He framed tables for what is called equation of time, or to ascertain the difference between the shade on a well constructed dial and a perfectly regulated clock. He made great progress in explaining the motions and phases of the moon; however, he was not so successful with respect to the planets.

His greatest work was his ascertaining the number of the stars, marking their distances, and arriving at the means by which their precise places on the hemisphere of Alexandria could be known. He marked one thousand six hundred stars, in seventy-two signs, into which the heavens were divided. Pliny says this was a labour which must have been difficult even to a god. The appearance of a new star induced him to set about and accomplish this work, which he did in a catalogue for the benefit of future observers.

Hipparchus does not mention comets, whence it has been conjectured he had never seen any; it has also been suggested, that he considered them with meteors, which are not objects of astronomical observation. He divided the heavens into forty-nine constellations, viz., twelve in the ecliptic, twenty-one in the north, and sixteen in the south. To one of these he gave the name of Berenice’s Hair, in honour of the wife of Ptolemy Soter, who had consecrated her hair, which was very beautiful, to Venus Urania, if her husband should return from a war in Asia victorious; it being hung up in the temple of the goddess, soon after disappeared, and is said to have been carried off by the gods.

Hipparchus likewise constructed a sphere, or celestial globe, on which all the stars visible at Alexandria were depicted; and thought to have been similar to the Faranese globe at Rome, still extant. In his observations on the stars, he discovered that, when viewed from the same spot, their distance always appeared the same from each other; but he discovered the distance of the moon to be different in various parts of the heavens; for instance, in the horizon and zenith. This he conceived to be owing to the extent of the globe; he, therefore, contrived a method of reducing appearances of this kind, to what they would be if viewed from the centre of the earth, which is called a parallax; and the discovery of it was of the greatest importance to astronomy. He took this idea from observing that a tree, in the middle of a plain, appeared in different parts of the horizon, when viewed from different situations; so does a star appear in the various points of the heavens, when viewed in different parts of the globe. Hipparchus was the first who connected geography with astronomy, and this fixed both the sciences on certain principles.

After the overthrow of the Roman empire, the first encourager of learning was Charles the Great, or Charlemagne; but little could be done in his time; after his death the former ignorance prevailed. Beda, or Bede, from his piety and modesty termed venerabilis, and his scholar, Alcinius, both Englishmen, greatly excelled in general literature; among other qualifications they were eminent in the astronomy of the preceding period. The first step towards the revival of knowledge, or the translation of the Astronomical Elements of Alfergan, the Arab, by order of Frederick II., chosen Emperor of Germany in 1212. About the same time Alphonso X., King of Castile, assembled from all parts the most famous astronomers, who at his desire, composed what are called the Alphonsine Tables, founded on the hypothesis of Ptolemy.

About the same period John Sacrobosco, of Holywood, a native of Halifax, in Yorkshire, who was educated at Oxford, and taught mathematics and philosophy at Paris, made an abridgment of the amalgamist of Ptolemy, and of the commentaries of the Arabs, which was long famous as an elementary book under the title of “De Sphira Mundi.” He died at Paris, in the year 1235. In the same year, Roger Bacon, an English Franciscan friar, made astonishing discoveries in science for the time he lived. He perceived the error in the Kalendar of Julius CÆsar, and proposed a plan, for the correction of it, to Pope Clement IV. in 1267. He is presumed from his writings to have known the use of optical glasses, and the composition and effects of gunpowder. He believed in planetary influence on men’s fortunes, and the transmutation of metals. On account of his vast knowledge in astronomy, mathematics, and chemistry, he was called Doctor Mirabilis; but, for the same reason, he was suspected of magic. Under this pretext, whilst at Paris, he was put in prison by order of the Pope’s legate; and after a long and severe confinement, he was at last, by the interest of several noble persons, liberated, returned to England, and died at Oxford in 1292, in the seventy-eighth year of his age.

In the fifteenth century two events happened which changed the face of the sciences; the invention of printing, about 1440, and the taking of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453. The learned men of that city having escaped from the cruelty of the victors, fled into Italy, and again introduced the taste for classical literature; which was greatly promoted by the munificence of the Emperor Frederick III., Pope Nicholas V., and particularly of Cosmo de Medici, who justly merited the title of Father of his Country, and Patron of the Muses.

The restoration of astronomy began in Germany. The first who distinguished himself, was George Purbach, born at Purbach, on the confines of Austria and Bavaria, in 1423, who was cut off in the flower of his age—only thirty-eight years old. He was succeeded by a scholar more skilful than himself, John Muller, born at Konigsberg, in 1436, who taught mathematics and astronomy with great reputation at Vienna. In February, 1471, appeared a comet, on which he published his observations. Being called to Rome by Pope Sextus IV., to assist in correcting the Kalender, he was cut off by the plague, in 1476. Bernard Waltherus, a rich citizen of Nuremberg, his friend and associate, succeeded him, who is said to have first made use of clocks in his astronomical observations, in 1484, and to have been the first of the moderns who perceived the effects of the refraction of light.

Fracastorius, born at Verona, in 1483, was a celebrated astronomer, and an eminent poet and good philosopher; he made considerable discoveries in this science, and with all his abilities may be considered as the precursor of the celebrated Copernicus.

Nicholas Copernicus, the restorer of the Pythagorean philosophy, and the modern discoverer of the rational and true system of astronomy, as now universally received, under the title of his name, was born at Thorn, a city of Royal Prussia, 19th February, 1473. Having learnt the Latin and Greek Languages in his father’s house, he was sent to Cracow, to be instructed in philosophy and physic, where he was honoured with the degree of doctor; showing a greater predilection for mathematics than medicine. His uncle by his mother’s side was a bishop, who gave him a canonry upon his return from Italy, whither he had gone to study astronomy, under Dominic Maria, at Bologna, and had afterwards taught mathematics with success at Rome. In the repose and solitude of an ecclesiastical life, he bent his chief attention to the study of astronomy. Dissatisfied with the system of Ptolemy, which had prevailed fourteen centuries, he laboured to form a juster one. What led him to discover the mistakes of Ptolemy was his observations on the motions of Venus; he is said to have derived his first notion on this subject from various passages in the classics, which mention the opinions of Pythagoras and his followers, as, indeed, he himself acknowledges in his address to Pope Paul III. He established the rotation of the earth round its axis, and its motion round the sun; but to explain certain irregularities in the motion of the planets, he retained the epicicles and eccentrics of Ptolemy. His work was first printed at Nuremberg, in 1543, a short time before his death.

The doctrines of Copernicus were not at first generally adopted. The most eminent professors in Europe adhered to the old opinions.

Among the astronomers of this period, the Landgrave of Hesse deserves particular praise, who erected a magnificent observatory at the top of the Castle of Cassel, and made many observations himself, in conjunction with Christopher Rothman and Justus Burge, concerning the place of the sun, of the planets, and of the stars.

But the person who enriched astronomy with the greatest number of facts of any modern who had yet appeared, was Tycho Brahe, a Dane of noble extraction, born in 1546, designed by his parents for the study of the law; but attracted by an eclipse of the sun in 1560, at Copenhagen, whither he had been sent to learn philosophy, he was struck with astonishment in observing that the phenomenon happened at the very moment it had been predicted.

He admired the art of predicting eclipses, and wished to acquire it. At first, for want of proper instruments, he fell into several mistakes, which, however, he afterwards corrected. Having early perceived his future improvements must depend on instruments, he caused some to be constructed larger than usual, and thus rendered more exact. On the 11th November, 1572, he perceived a new star in Cassiopeia, which continued without changing its place till spring 1574, equal in splendour to Jupiter or Venus. It last it changed colours and entirely disappeared. Nothing similar to this had been observed since the days of Hipparchus.

Tycho, in imitation of that illustrious astronomer, conceived a design of forming a catalogue of the stars. To promote his views, the King of Denmark ordered a castle to be built in Hueun, an island between Seonia and Zealand, which Tycho called Uranibourg, “the city of heaven,” and where he placed the finest collection of instruments that had ever yet appeared; most of them invented or else improved by himself. He composed a catalogue of seven hundred and seventy-seven stars, with greater exactness than had ever been done before; and constructed tables for finding the place of the most remarkable stars at any given time. He was the first who determined the effect of refraction, whereby we see the sun or any star above the horizon, before it is so in reality; as we see the bottom of a vessel when filled with water, standing at a distance, which we could not see when empty. He made several other improvements and important discoveries, which he published in a work entitled “Progymnasmata.” The labours of Tycho attracted the attention of Europe; the learned went to consult him, and the noble to see him. James VI. of Scotland, when he went to espouse the sister of Frederic, King of Denmark, paid Tycho a visit, with all his retinue, and wrote some Latin verses in his praise.

But these honours were of short continuance. After the death of his protector, King Frederic, the pension assigned him was withdrawn, and he was compelled to exile himself from his native country. Having hired a ship, he transported his furniture, books, and instruments to a small place in Hamburgh, in 1597. The Emperor Rodolphus invited him into his dominions, settled a large pension upon him, gave him a castle near Prague, to prosecute his discoveries, and appointed him Longomatus, a native of Jutland, and the celebrated Kepler, to assist him. But Tycho was not happy in his new situation; he died 14th October, 1601, repeating several times, “I have not lived in vain.”

Kepler was one of the greatest philosophers that ever lived, and ought to be considered as the discoverer of the true system of the world. He was born in Germany, at Wiel, near Wirtemberg, 27th December, 1571. He early imbibed the principles of Copernicus. After the death of Tycho, he was employed to finish the tables which he had begun to compose from his observations. Kepler took twenty years to finish them. He dedicated them to the emperor, under the title of the “Rodolphine Tables.”

Kepler united optics with astronomy, and thus made the most important discoveries. He was the first who discovered that the planets move not in a circle, but in an ellipse; and that altogether they move sometimes faster and sometimes slower, yet that they describe equal areas in equal times; that is, that the spaces through which they move in different parts of their orbit, are of equal times, though of unequal length; yet when two straight lines are drawn from the extremity of either space to the centre of the sun, they form triangles which include equal areas. He likewise demonstrated that the squares of the periodical times of the revolution of the planets round the sun, are in proportion to the cubes of their distance from him; a theorem of the greatest use in astronomical calculations: for having the periodical times of two planets given, and if the distance of one of them be known, by the rule of proportion, the distance of the other can be ascertained.

Kepler is said to have used logarithms in framing his “Rodolphine Tables.” This great man died in poverty, 15th November, 1631, at Ratisbon, whither he had gone to solicit the arrears of his pension, which had been very ill paid: he left nothing to his wife and children but the remembrance of his virtues.

Contemporary with Kepler was Galileo, born at Pisa, in Italy, in 1564; illustrious for his improvements in mechanics, for his application of the effects of gravity, and for the invention, or at least, the improvement of telescopes.

The use of spectacles, or reading glasses (convex for long-sighted; and concave for short-sighted persons,) had been invented by one Spina, a monk at Pisa, in 1290; or, as some say, by our countryman Roger Bacon. The use of telescopes or glasses for viewing objects at a distance, was invented by Zachary Janssen, a spectacle-maker, at Middleburg, or rather, as it is said, from the accidental discovery of a child. The honour of this invention is also claimed by others. It is certain that Galileo first improved them so as to answer astronomical purposes. He also first made use of the single pendulum for measuring time in making his observations; to which he was led, by considering one day the vibrations of a lamp suspended from the vaulted roof of a church. He likewise discovered the gravity of the atmosphere from the rising of water in a pump, by the action of a piston, which led the way to the invention of the barometer, by his scholar Toricelli.

The use of telescopes opened, in a manner, a new world to Galileo. He observed with astonishment the increased magnitude and splendour of the planets and their satellites, formerly invisible: which afforded additional proofs of the veracity of the Copernican system, particularly the satellites of Jupiter, and the phasis of Venus. He discovered an innumerable multitude of fixed stars, which the naked eye could not discern, and what greatly excited his wonder, without the least increase in their size or brightness. About the same time, John Napier, of Merchiston, in Scotland, invented what are called “Logarithms,” first published at Edinburgh in 1614, afterwards improved by Mr. Briggs, Professor of Geometry, at Oxford, in which, by a very ingenious contrivance, addition is made to answer for multiplication, and subtraction for division; an invention of the greatest utility in astronomical calculations.

Galileo was not afflicted with poverty, but with persecution. At seventy years of age he was called before the Holy Inquisition, for supporting opinions contrary to Scripture,—and was obliged, on the 11th of June, 1633, formally to abjure them, to avoid being burnt as a heretic. The system of Copernicus had yet gained but few converts; and the bulk of professions and learned men in Europe, attached to the philosophy of Aristotle, supported the old doctrine. Galileo was condemned to prison, and confined to the small city of Arcem, with its territory, where he consoled himself by the study of astronomy. He contrived a method of discovering the longitude by the satellites of Jupiter, which, however, has not been productive of all the advantages he expected. He died in prison, or rather in exile, in 1642.

Although there were a great number of astronomers contemporary with Kepler and Galileo, none made any conspicuous figure. John Bayer, of Augsburg, introduced the Jewish method of marking the stars with letters of the Greek and Latin alphabets; this the Jews use because their law does not permit the use of figures, the produce of fancy.

In 1732, astronomers were very attentive to observe the transit of Venus over the disc of the sun, which Kepler had predicted, as a confirmation of the system of Copernicus. Mercury was observed by Gassendi in France, and some others; but the transit of Venus did not then take place for their inspection.

The transit of Venus was first seen by Jeremiah Horrox, of Hoole, an obscure village, fifteen miles north of Liverpool, on the 24th of November, 1639, and at the same time by his friend, William Crabtree, at Manchester. Horrox was born in 1619, and died in 1641, in the twenty-third year of his age. He wrote an account of his observations, which were published after his death, under the title of “Venus in Sole visa,” by Hevelius.

The Copernican system was first publicly defended in England, by Dr. Wilkins, in 1660; in France, by Gassendi, the son of a peasant in Provence, who published many valuable works on Philosophy. He was born in 1592, and died in 1655. He was violently opposed by Morin, a famous astrologer.

Descartes, descended from a noble family, the son of a counsellor of Brittany, in France, born at Haye, in Tourraine, 31st of March, 1596, early distinguished himself by his knowledge in algebra and geometry. He attacked and overturned the philosophy of Aristotle, in his own country. He attempted to establish certain principles, which, though founded in theory, he took for granted, by which he accounted for all appearances. Like Mochus and Democritus, he imagined all space to be filled with corpuscules, or atoms, in continual agitation, and denied the possibility of a vacuum. He explained everything by supposing vortices, or motions round a centre, according to the opinions of Democritus, and thus discovered the centrifugal force in the circular motion of the planets. But the system of Descartes not being founded on facts or experiments, did not subsist long: although at first it had many followers. His astronomical opinions were much the same with those of Copernicus.

Although the lively notions of Descartes led him into error, yet his exalted views greatly contributed to the improvement of science. Men were led to observation and experiments, in order to overturn his system, and astronomy was cultivated by persons of ability; viz., Bouillard, at Paris; Ward, at Oxford, 1653; and by Helvelius, at Dantzic, 1643, who constructed a fine observatory, and collected a great many facts by his long assiduous observation, for fifty years, during which he made many discoveries concerning the planets, fixed stars, and particularly comets. Colbert, in the name of Louis XIV., sent him a sum of money and a pension. Hevelius published a catalogue of fixed stars, entitled, “Firmamentum Sobieskianum,” dedicated to John Sobieski, King of Poland, at that time justly famous for having raised the siege of Vienna, when attacked by the Turks, 1683. In honour of whom Helvelius formed a new constellation between Antinonus and Serpenterius, called Sobieski’s Shield.

But the most distinguished astronomer of that time was Christian Huygens, son to the secretary of the Prince of Orange, born at the Hague, 14th of April, 1629, and educated at Leyden, under Schooten, the commentator on Descartes,—famous for the application of pendulums to clocks and springs to watches, for the improvement of telescopes and microscopes, and for the great discoveries he made, in consequence of these improvements in astronomy.

The establishment of academies, or societies, at this time, contributed greatly to the advancement of science.

The Royal Society, in London, was begun in 1659, but did not assume a regular form till 1662. Its transactions were first published in 1665. The Academy of Sciences, at Paris, was founded in 1686, by Louis XIV., who invited to it Roemer, from Denmark, Huygens and Cassini from Italy.

Cassini was born at Perinaldo, in the county of Nice, on the 8th of June, 1625, and was appointed first professor in the Royal Observatory at Paris, where he prosecuted his discoveries till his death, in 1712, and was succeeded by his son. He was assisted by Picard, Auzoul, and La Hire.

By the direction of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, a voyage was undertaken by Riecher and Meurisse, at the king’s expense, to the island of Caienne, in South America, almost under the equator, in 1672, to ascertain several philosophical facts;—the refraction of light, the parallax of Mars, and of the Sun, the distance of the tropics, the variation in the motion of the pendulum, &c.

The parallax of the sun is the angle under which an observer at the sun would see the earth: this Cassini fixed at 9½ seconds, and the angle under which we see the sun, at 16 minutes and 6 seconds, or 966 seconds; hence he concluded that these semi-diameters, are as 9½ to 966, or as 10 to 1932. So that, according to Cassini, the semi-diameter of the earth is one hundred times less than that of the sun; and consequently the sun is a million times larger than the earth.

The parallax of the sun has since, from the transit of Venus, 6th of June, 1761, and 3rd of June, 1769, been discovered to be but about 8 seconds, consequently his comparative bulk to that of the earth, and his distance from it, to be proportionably greater. The method of finding the distance of the earth from the sun, and consequently of the other planets, was first proposed by Dr. Halley, who had never seen, and was morally certain he would never see, this appearance.

Meurisse died during the voyage. Riecher returned in 1676. His answer to the parallax of Mars was not satisfactory. Cassini calculated it at 15 seconds.

The distance of the tropics was found to be 46 degrees, 57 minutes, 4 seconds. The chief advantage resulting from the voyage was ascertaining the vibration of the pendulum. In 1669, Placard remarked that clocks went slower in summer than in winter, owing to, as since ascertained, that it is the property of heat to dilate bodies, which consequently lengthens the pendulum; that cold produces an opposite effect. Riecher found that the pendulum made forty-eight vibrations less at Caienne than at Paris; that it went two minutes and twenty seconds a day slower; hence, to adjust, he was obliged to shorten the pendulum.

The same fact was confirmed by Halley, while at St. Helena, 1676. But an additional reason for this variation is presumed to exist, from the machinery being further removed from the central axis of the earth; the gravitating principle is presumed to be diminished at the equator more than it is when nearer the poles.

About this time the French Jesuit missionaries, having got admission into China, contributed greatly to the improvement of their astronomy. Father Schaal, one of their number, on account of his merit, and particularly for his skill in astronomy, was so highly honoured by the court of China, that the emperor, upon his death-bed, made him preceptor to his son and successor. Schaal reformed the Kalendar, a matter of great importance to that country. It was further improved by Verbiest, who succeeded Schaal, about 1670. The most eminent astronomers in England during this period were Flamstead, Halley, and Hook.

Sir Isaac Newton was born at Woolstrope, in Lincoln, December 25, 1642; after due preparation he was admitted in the University of Cambridge. The rapidity of his progress in mathematical knowledge was truly astonishing. At the age of twenty-four, he had laid the foundation of the most important mathematical discoveries. He is the first who gave a rational and complete account of the laws which regulate planetary motion, on the principles of attraction and gravitation. Newton was as remarkable for a modest diffidence of his own abilities, as for the superiority of his genius. In 1704, he published his “Optics;” in 1711, his “Fluxions;” and in 1728, his “Chronology.” He received in his life time the honour due to his singular merit. In 1703, he was elected President of the Royal Society. In 1705, he received the honour of knighthood by Queen Anne.—He was twice member of parliament. In 1669, he was made master of the mint, which, with the presidency of the Royal Society, he held till his death, in 1726. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, where there is an appropriate monument to his memory.

The system of Newton had an eminent supporter and able annotator in the very eminent Scottish professor, Colin Mac Laurin, who was born in the month of February, 1698. In 1719, he travelled to London, where he was introduced to the illustrious Newton, whose notice and friendship he obtained, and ever after reckoned as the greatest honour and happiness of his life. In 1734, Dr. Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, published his treatise, called “The Analyst,” in which he attempted to charge mathematicians with infidelity in matters of religion. This work was the occasion of Mac Laurin’s elaborate “Treatise on Fluxions,” published at Edinburgh, in 1742, which is reckoned the most ample treatise on that branch of novel mathematics which has yet appeared. So very eminent was Mac Laurin’s skill in mathematics, and the principles of anatomical science, and he possessed such excellent instruments for these purposes, that a new theory never appeared, nor did anything transpire in the scientific world, which was uncommon, but his friends constantly resorted to him for explanation and experiment, and their laudable curiosity was sure to be satisfactorily gratified.

One of the greatest names in the modern history of astronomical discovery is that of the late Sir William Herschel; and, much to his praise, he was self-instructed in the science in which he earned his high reputation. Herschel was born at Hanover, in 1736, and was the son of a musician in humble circumstances. Brought up to his father’s profession, at the age of fourteen he was placed in the band of the Hanoverian Guards. A detachment of this regiment having been ordered to England in the year 1757, he and his father accompanied it; but the latter returned to Germany in a few months, and left his son to try his fortune in London. For a long time he had many difficulties to contend with, and he passed several years principally in giving lessons in music in the different towns in the North of England. At last, in 1765, through the interest of a gentleman to whom his merits had become known, he obtained the situation of organist at Halifax; and next year, having gone to fulfil a short engagement at Bath, he gave so much satisfaction by his performances, that he was appointed to the same office in the Octagon Chapel of that city, upon which he went to reside there. The place which he now held was of some value; and from the opportunities which he enjoyed of adding to its emoluments, by engagements at the rooms and private concerts, as well as by taking pupils, he had had the prospect of deriving a good income from his profession, if he had made that his only or his chief object.

During his residence at Bath, although greatly occupied with professional engagements, the time he devoted to his mathematical studies was surprising. Often, we are told, after a fatiguing day’s work of fourteen or sixteen hours among his pupils, he would, on returning home at night, repair for relaxation to what many would deem these severer exercises. In this manner, in the course of time, he attained a competent knowledge of geometry, and found himself in a condition to proceed to the study of the different branches of physical science which depend upon the mathematics. Among the first of the latter that attracted his attention, were the kindred departments of astronomy and optics. Having applied himself to these sciences, he became desirous of beholding with his own eyes those wonders of the heavens of which he had read so much, and for that purpose he borrowed from an acquaintance a two-feet Gregorian telescope. This instrument interested him so greatly, that he determined to procure one of his own, and commissioned a friend in London to purchase one for him, of a somewhat larger size. But he found the price was beyond what he could afford. To make up for this disappointment, he resolved to construct a telescope for himself; and after encountering innumerable difficulties in the progress of his task, he at last succeeded, in the year 1774, in completing a five-feet Newtonian reflector. This was the commencement of a long and brilliant course of triumphs in the same walk of art, and also in that of astronomical discovery. Herschel now became so much more ardently attached to his philosophical pursuits, that, regardless of the sacrifice of emolument he was making, he begun gradually to limit his professional engagements, and the number of his pupils.

Meanwhile he continued to employ his leisure in the fabrication of still more powerful instruments than the one he had first constructed; and in no long time he produced telescopes of seven, ten, and even twenty feet focal distance. In fashioning the mirrors for these instruments, his perseverance was indefatigable. For his seven-feet reflector, we have been informed that he actually finished and made trial of no fewer than two hundred mirrors before he found one that satisfied him. When he sat down to prepare a mirror, his practice was to work at it for twelve or fourteen hours, without quitting his occupation for a moment. He would not even take his hand from what he was about, to help himself to food; and the little he ate on such occasions was put into his mouth by his sister. He gave the mirror a proper shape, more by a certain natural tact than by rule; and when his hand was once in, as the phrase is, he was afraid that the perfection of the finish might be impaired by the least intermission of his labours.

It was on the 13th of March, 1781, that Herschel made the discovery to which he owes, perhaps, most of his reputation. He had been engaged for nearly a year and a half in making a survey of the heavens, when, on the evening of the day that has been mentioned, having turned his reflector (an excellent seven feet reflector of his own constructing) to a particular part of the sky, he observed among the other stars one which seemed to shine with a more steady radiance than those around it; and on account of that and other peculiarities in its appearance, which excited his suspicions, he determined to observe it more narrowly. On reverting to it after some hours, he was a good deal surprised to find that it had perceptibly changed its place—a fact which the next day became more indisputable. At first he was somewhat in doubt whether or not it was the same star which he had seen on these different occasions; but, after continuing his observations for a few days longer, all uncertainty upon that head vanished. He now communicated what he had observed to the astronomer royal, who concluded the luminary could be nothing else than a new comet. Continued observation of it, however, for a few months, dissipated this error; and it became evident that it was in reality a hitherto undiscovered planet. This new world so unexpectedly found to form a part of the system to which our own belongs, received from Herschel, the name of the Georgium Sidus, or Georgian Star, in honour of the King of England; but by continental astronomers it has been more generally called either Herschel, after its discoverer, or Uranus. Subsequent observations, made chiefly by Herschel himself, have ascertained many particulars regarding it, some of which are well calculated to fill us with astonishment at the powers of the sublime science which can wing its way so far into the immensity of space, and bring us back information so precise and various. In the first place, the diameter of this new globe has been found to be nearly four and a half times larger than that of our own. Its size altogether is about eighty times that of our earth. Its year is as long as eighty-three of ours.

Its distance from the sun is nearly eighteen hundred millions of miles, or more than nineteen times that of the earth. Its density, as compared with that of the earth, is nearly as twenty-two to one hundred; so that its entire weight is more than eighteen times that of our planet. Finally the force of gravitation near its surface is such, that falling bodies descend only through fourteen feet during the first second, instead of thirty-two feet as with us. Herschel afterwards discovered no fewer than six satellites, or moons, belonging to his new planet.

The announcement of the discovery of the Georgium Sidus at once made Herschel’s name universally known. In the course of a few months the king bestowed on him a pension of three hundred pounds a year, that he might be able entirely to relinquish his engagements at Bath; and upon this he came to reside at Slough, near Windsor. He now devoted himself entirely to science; and the construction of telescopes, and observations of the heavens, continued to form the occupations of the remainder of his life. Astronomy is indebted to him for many other most interesting discoveries besides the celebrated one of which we have just given an account, as well as a variety of speculations of the most ingenious, original, and profound character. But of these we cannot here attempt any detail. He also introduced some important improvements into the construction of the reflecting telescope—beside continuing to fabricate that instrument of dimensions greatly exceeding any that had been formerly attempted, with the powers surpassing in nearly a corresponding degree, what had ever been before obtained. The largest telescope which he ever made, was his famous one of forty feet long, which he erected at Slough for the king. It was begun about the end of the year 1785, and on the 28th of August, 1789, the enormous tube was poised on the complicated but ingeniously contrived mechanism by which its movements were to be regulated, and ready for use. On the same day a new satellite of Saturn was detected by it, being the sixth which had been observed attendant upon that planet. A seventh was afterwards discovered by means of the same instrument. This telescope has been taken down and replaced by another of only half the length, constructed by Mr. J. Herschel, the distinguished son of the subject of our present sketch. Herschel himself eventually became convinced that no telescope could surpass, in magnifying power, one of from twenty to twenty-five feet in length. The French astronomer, Lalande, states that he was informed by George III. himself, that it was at his desire that Herschel was induced to make the telescope at Slough of the extraordinary length he did, his own wish being that it should not be more than thirty feet long.

So extraordinary was the ardour of this great astronomer in the study of his favourite science, that for many years it has been asserted, he never was in bed at any hour during which the stars were visible. And he made almost all his observations, whatever was the season of the year, not under cover, but in his garden, in the open air—and generally without an attendant. There was much that was peculiar to himself, not only in the process by which he fabricated his telescopes, but also in his manner of using them. One of the attendants in the king’s observatory at Richmond, who had formerly been a workman in Ramsden’s establishment, was forcibly reminded, on seeing Herschel take an observation, of a remark which his old master had made. Having just completed one of his best telescopes, Ramsden, addressing himself to his workman, said, “This, I believe, is the highest degree of perfection we opticians by profession will ever arrive at; if any improvement of importance shall ever after this be introduced in the making of telescopes, it will be by some one who has not been taught by us.”

Some years before his death, the degree of LL.D. was conferred upon Herschel by the University of Oxford; and in 1816, the Prince Regent bestowed upon him the Hanoverian and Guelphic Order of Knighthood. He died on the 23rd of August, 1822, when he was within a few months of having completed his eighty-fourth year.

We have been thus particular in the enumeration of particulars in the lives of those great men, who have cultivated this sublime science, for the purpose of availing ourselves of a suggestion furnished by Dr. Priestly, who observed, “That we could only see Newton in two points of his career: at the bottom of the ladder, and at the top; having left no account of his progress, it appeared as though he had broken the steps by which he had ascended, that none should follow.”

From the facts collected by the many eminent men whose names have ornamented our pages, we are enabled to state the following particulars concerning that part of the universe denominated the Solar system.

The Sun, a luminous body diffusing light and heat; whose diameter is computed at 890,000 miles; diurnal rotation on axis 25 days 6 hours; performs his annual revolution in orbit in 365 days 6 hours; progressive equatorial motion in orbit per hour, 3818 miles.

Mercury, whose diameter is 3,000 miles, revolves in an orbit 36,481,448 miles from that of the sun. He performs his annual period round that planet in 87 days 23 hours; his hourly equatorial motion in orbit is 109,699 miles.

Venus,—her diameter is 9,330 miles; revolves in an orbit 68,891,486 miles distant from the sun; performs her annual revolution in 224 days 17 hours; diurnal rotation on axis 24 days 8 hours: hourly equatorial motion in orbit 80,295 miles.

The Earth,—its diameter 7970 miles; distance of orbit from the sun 95,173,000 miles; revolves on its axis once in 24 hours; performs her annual period round the sun in the same time the sun completes his revolution; hourly equatorial and progressive motion in orbit 80,295 miles.

The Moon is a satellite to the earth; her diameter is 2180 miles; her diurnal rotation on axis is performed in 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes; she performs her annual revolution round the sun in precisely the same time as does the earth, her superior planet; her motion in orbit per hour is 22,290 miles.

Mars,—his diameter is 5400 miles; distance from the sun, 145,014,148 miles; annual period round the sun 671 days, 17 hours; diurnal rotation on axis 19 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes; hourly motion in orbit 55,287 miles.

Jupiter,—his diameter 94,000 miles; distance from the sun 494,990,976 miles; annual period in 11 years, 314 days, 18 hours; diurnal rotation on axis 9 hours, 56 minutes; hourly motion in orbit 29,803 miles.

Saturn,—his diameter 78,000 miles; distance from the sun 907,956,130 miles; annual revolution in orbit 22 years, 167 days, 6 hours; hourly motion in orbit 22,101 miles.

It should be observed that Jupiter has four moons, or satellites, with a large and very luminous belt at a great distance from his surface. Saturn also has seven moons, with a very luminous ring about 21,000 miles broad, from its uppermost to its undermost edge; and about the same distance from its surface.

Georgium Sidus,—the distance of the orbit from the sun, 1,758,000,000 miles; annual revolution 28 years, 289 days; diameter 56,726 miles; has two satellites, or moons.

About 1801, 2, and 4, there were discovered three other small planets in the system of the sun, called Vesta, Juno, and Pallas.

The fixed stars composing the Zodiacal Signs, are divided into twelve constellations, one to each month; which asterisms were discovered by Flamstead to consist of the following number of stars to each:

Aries, the Ram, 66; Taurus, the Bull, 141; Gemini, the Twins, 85; Cancer, the Crab, 83; Leo, the Lion, 95; Virgo, the Virgin, 110; Libra, the Scales, 51; Scorpio, the Scorpion, 44; Sagitarius, the Archer, 69; Capricornus, the Goat, 51; Aquarius, the Water-Carrier, 108; Pisces, the Fishes, 113.

A comparative idea of the extent of the works of Omnipotence may be perhaps collected, on our being informed, that the sphere where the fixed stars appear, is presumed to be placed far beyond the most remote planetary orbit; and that some of them are supposed to serve as suns to illumine other systems, or worlds, to us unknown.