The New York Herald Newspaper, August 29, 1856, Page 2

landed and passed a with the natives, greeted all sorts ‘gks ous bospitality—the land ‘the finest for cultivation be ever set foot onthe natives so kind and genile tuat, when they found he would not remain with them over mrgbt, feared that he jeft them, poor children of na- ture, because he was afraid of their weapons—he, whose ywarter deck was beavy with ordnance—they ‘ broke Sar arrows in pieces, acd threw them iu the fire.” Oo the following morning, wih the early tlood tide, on the 19th of September, 1600, the Half Moon * ran higher up two leagues above the Shoals,” and came to anchor in deep water, near the site of the present citv of Albany. Happy if he could have closed bis gallant career on the Danks of the strear, which eo justly bears his name, and thus have escape: (oe sorrowful and mysterious catas- which awaited bim the next year. But the discovery of your great river and of tt site of your ancient city "is not the only eveat whic! renders the year 1609 memorable in the annals of America and the world. It was one of those years fm which @ eort of sympathetic movement toward reat results unconscio pervades the races and winds of men, While Hudson discovered this hty river and this vast region for the Dutch East India - ¥, Chamylatr, in same year, carned the lilies of to the beautiful lake which bears his name on r northern limits, the languishing establishments of wiand in Virginia were strengthened by the second charter granted to that colony; the little church of Robin- son removed from Amsterdam to Leyden, from which, in ‘a few years, they wont forth to lay the foundations of New land on Plymouth Rock; the seven United Pro- ‘vinces of the Netherlands, after that terrific struggle of Sorty years, (the commencement of which bas just been emba'med in a record worthy of the event by an American historian), wrested from Spain the virtual acknowledgment of their independence in the Twelve Years’ truce; and James the first, in the same year, granted to the British East India Company their first permwent charter; corner stone of an empire de tined in ‘wo centuries to overshadow the East. One more incident is wanting to complete the list ¢f the memorable occurrences which signalige the year 1609, and one most worthy to be remembered by us on this eccasion. Contemporancously with the events which [ have enumerated—eras of history, dates of empires the Starting pont in some of the greatest political, social and moral revolutions ip our apnais—an Italian astronomer, who had heard of the magnifying glasses which had been made in Holland, by which distant objects could be Drought seemingly near, caught at the idea, constructed @telescope, snd ported it to the heavens. Yes, my friends, in the same year in which Hudson discovered river and the site of your ancient town—in which jobinson made his melancholy Hegira from Amsterdam to Ley den, Galileo Galilei, with a telescope, the work of hhis own bands, discovered the pbases of Venus ani the Batellites of Jupiter; and now, after the lapee of loss than » Bwo centuries and a half, on a spot then embosomed in the wilderness—the covert of the least civilized of ail the Faces of men, we are assembled—deecendants of the Ho) anders, descendants of the Pilgrims—in this ancient and Prosperous city, to inaugurate the establishment of a arst class Astronomical Observatory. One more glance at your early history Three years after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, Fort Orange was erected, in the cevtre of what is now the business art of the city of Albany, aad a few years later, the little hamlet of Beverswyck began to nestle wa- der its walls. Two centuries ago, my Albanian friends, ‘this very year, and | believe this very month of August, your fore‘athera agsembied, not to inaugurate an obser: ‘yatory, but to iy the foundations of a new church in ‘the piace of the rude cabin which had hitherto served ‘thew in that capacity. Jt was built at the intersection of Yonker’s and Haadelaar’s, better known to you as Siate gad Market streets. Public and private liberality co ope- vated in tho important work. Tne authorities at the fort ve fifteen hundred guilders; the patroon of that early &. with the liberality coeval with the namo and the Face, contributed a thousand; while the inbabitants, tor ‘whose benefit it was erected, whose numbers were small ‘and their resources smaller, subscribed twenty beavers, efor the ase of an oaken pulpit in Holland.’’ Whe- ther the et part of this subscription was bestowed Dy some liberal beuelactress, tradition has not informed us. Nor is the year 1666 memorable in the annals of Albany alone. In that same year, your imperial metropolis, then mumbering about three hundred inhabitants, was drst laid eat as a city by the name of New Amsterdam In cight more, New Netherland becomes New York; Fort ge and its dependant hamiet assumes the name of Albany—a century of various fortune succeeds, the scourge of French and Indian war is rarely absent {rom ‘he land—every shock of European policy vibrates with electric rapiaity across the Atlantic, but the year 1756 Ands a pop 300,008 in your growing province. Albany, b« still be regare almo-t aga fron Ber settlerner welve cou < ito which the Province was spdred years ag>, the couaty of Alba: pri ded ail that lay north and west of the olty ioe culy itseu! Contained but about three hundred y boures. Ove more century; another act in the great drama of ire; another Freuch and Indias war beneath the ban- { England, a successful revolution, of which some Shats® POBLAPSTRERH® aS Ri BY Poa PAP Po SSPE ment, your population carried to the St. Lawrence and the great lakes, and their waters poured into the Hudson; your territory covered with a network of canals and rail Foads—filed with life and action and power—witb all She works of peaceful art and prosperous enterprise—with al) the institutions which censtitute and advance the civi Bization of the age—its population exceeding that of the Walon at the date of the Revolution—your own numbers twice as large as those of the largest city of that day, you ave met together, my friends, just two handred years ‘since the erection of the little church of Beverswycs, 0 dedicate a noble tempie of science and to take a becoalag Pablic notice of the establishment of an institation, destined, as we trust, to exert @ benedcial indacoce on the progress of useful knowledge at home and abroad, ‘and through that on the general cause of civilization. ‘You wilt observe that | am careful y the progress eof science ‘‘at bome and abroad,’’ for the su fuvestigaiion, discovery and speculation; and there ts not mow « single department of the science in which the mames of American observers and mathematicians are ‘with the most eminent of their European contemperaries. This state of things is certainly recent. During the colonial period and in the Grst generation alter the Revo bution, no department of science was for obrions causes ‘very extensively cultivated in America—astronomy per eps as much as the kindred branches. The improve. ment in the quadrant commonly known as Hadley’s had been made at Philadelphia by Godirey, in the early part of the last century, and the beaatifal invention 1 the collimating telescope was made at a later period, by Ritenbouse, ‘an astronomer of distinguished repute. Venus of 1761 and 1769 were ob- eerved, and orreries were’constructed in different parts of the country; and some respectable scientific essays are comtained, apd valuable observations are recorded in the early volumes of the transactions of the Philosophica! Society at Philadelphia and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at Boston and Cambridge. But in the edsence of a numerous class of men of science to encov Little of importance could be ex- of astronomics! research. enterprise commenced in the early part of the preseat oeotary, and which would reflect houor on the oat any country and any age—I mean the translation and commentary on | aplace’s ** Mecanique Celeste," by Bow @itcb—a work of whose merit [am myself unad! toform an epinion, but which | suppose places leara od translater and commentator on a level with the ablest astronomers and boyy A The work may oe new era in the bistory of Am» rican rcience. country was rtil almost wholly deficient in instramental power; but the want was generally fe): by men of science, and the pablic mind in ‘Various part of the country yan to be turned towards fe means of supplying it. In 1825, President Jobo Quincy Adams brought the subject of a national observa nz renee Congrens. Political considerations preveated ts being favorably entertained at that time; and it was pot til) 1842, and as an incident of the exploring expesi fom, that an appropriation was made for a depot for the charts and instrument the navy. On this modest bans has been reared the National Observatory at Wasbington, ap ipstitution which bax already taken and fuily sustains fan honorable position among the scientific establishments of the age. Besides the institution at Washi |, fifteen or twenty observatories have, within the last few years, been estav- Rebed in diferent 3 of the country, some of them ona Modest scale. for ratification‘of Ube scientific taste aod weal of individuals, T# 00 a broad (oundation of expense Gnd ucefiiner#, In these establishments, public and pri- ‘Wate, the means are provided for the highest order of astro. Bomical ol servation, research aud instruction. There {+ already in the country an amount of instrumental Power, (to which addition is constantly makiog,) and of ‘Mathematical skill, on the part of our men of scieace, @dequate to a manly competition with their Earopean contemporaries. The fruits are already before the world fm the triangulation of several of the Stutes, in the great ‘work of the const survey, in the numerous acientific sur ‘yeys of the interior of the con twent, in the astronomical of the exploring expedition, in the scientific expedition to Chili—in the brilliant aydrographical la bors of the Observatory at Washiogton, in published observations of Was hin, and Cambridge; in the jou mal conducted by the Nestor of American science, sm its eighth lustrim, in the “Sidereal Messenger,’ tne A Jourpal,’’ and the ‘Naticnal Ephemeris,"in the chronometrical expeditions to determine the \ouy of Cambridge, better ascertained than Paris was ll q@ithin the last year; in the prompt rectification of the errors in the priedicted oie ments of Neptune, in its identification with Lalande’: of Miesing star, and in the cnioulation of its epheme. ris, the discovery of the satellite of Neptune. of the eighth satellite of Saturn, and establishment, both innermost of ite rin by observation and theory, of the nom-solid Saturn's rings; in the ion and measurement of Many double and triple stars, amenable only to superior instruments! power $n the immense labor already per- formed in preparing star catalogues, and im numerous ac- urate observations of standard stars; in the dil aod successful observation of the meteo: ic showers; in an ex tensive series of magnetic observations, in the discovery ‘of an asteroid and ten oF twelve telescopic comets; in the resolution of nebule, which had defled everything in Eu- rope but Lord Rosse’s great reflector. in the of electricity to the measurement of ditterencea in longi- ip the ascertainment of the velocity of the electro- fluid, and its truly wonderful uses in ding ‘astronomical obser vations. are bat a a of alee een of Americar asironomical science with ip or twenty years, and fully justify the most san- guine anticipations of ite farther How far oar astronomers may ‘ogress. the wo are called ggg tay Tre us of severa) citizens ancient city, smong the first place is due to the generous: whose name has with great propriety been given to institut bas furnished the meaas for the toundation of the Ob- eervatory at A’bapy. On @ commanding elevation, on the rorthern edge of the city, linerally given for that pur- pore by the bead of a family in which the patronage of science is hereditary, @ butidimg or ample dimensions has been erected, upon & plan which combines all the vequisites of solidity, convenience, and taste, A large portion of ihe expense of the structure has been defray ed by Mrs Blandina Dudley, to whcse generosity, aud that of eeveral other public spirited individuals, the insti tution ws also indebted for the provision which has been made for an adequate supply of first claas instraments, to be exeouted by the most eminent makers in Europe and America; and which, it is confidently expected, will pield to nope of their class in any observatory in the world.—(Prot. Loomis in “Harper's Magazine” for June, pao with a liberal supply of instrumental power, establish: ed ima community to whore inteligence and’ generosity port may be safely contided ,and whose educational institutions are rapidly realiziog the conception of a uni- versity; countenanced by the gentleman who conducts the United States coast survey with such scientific skill and administrative energy; committed to the immediate supervision of an astronomer to whose distinguished talent bas been added the advantage of a thorough scien tide education in the most renowned universiues of Eu rope, and who, aa the editor of the American Astronomé- cai Journal, has shown himself to be fully qualtied for the bigh trust; under thesd favorable circumstances, the Dudley Observatory, at Albany, now takes its place o—- the ecientific founcations of the country and the world. It is no affected modesty which leads me to express the Tegret that this interesting occasion could not have takea lace uncer somewhat dillerent ausoices. I feel that the juty of addressing this great and enlightened assembly, comprising 80 much of the intelligence of the community and of the science of the country, ought to have been elsewhere assigned ; that ‘t should have devclved upon some one of the ewinent persons, many of whom! see before me, to whom you bave been listening the past week, who, as observers and geome'ers, could have treated the subject with & master’s power; astronomers, whore teleecop2s have pt netrated the depths of the hra- vens, or mathematicians, whese analyéis unthreads the maze of their wondrous mechanism. 1, instead of com- manding, as you easily could haye done, qualifica- tions ot this kind, your choice has rather fallen on one making no pretensions to the honorable name of a man of science—>ut whoee delight it has always been to turn aside from the dusty paths of active lie, for an interval of recreation im the green flelds of sacred Nature in all ber kingdoms—it ie, I presume, because you have desired on an occasion of this kind, necesearily of a popular charaster, that those views of the subject ehould be presented which address them- selves to tbe general intelligence of the community, and not to its select ecientific circ! ere is, perhaps, no branch of science, which to the same extent as astrono my, exhibits phenomena, which, while they task the highest powers of philosophical research, are also well adapted to arrest the attention of minds barely tinctured ‘with scientific culture, and even to touch the sensibilines of the whelly uninstructed observer, The profound in vestigations of the chemist into the ultimate constitution of material nature, the minute researcbes of the physio logist into the secrets of animal lite, the transcendental logic of the geometer clothed in @ notation, the very sight of Which terrifies the uninitiated, are“lost on the common understanding. But the unspeakable glories of the rising and the setting sup, the serene majesty of the moon, as she walks in full orbed brightness h the heavens; tbe soft witchery of the morning and the evening star; the imperial splendors of the firmament on a bright uo clouded night ; the comet, whose streaming banner floats over balf the sky, these are objec’s which charm and as- tonish alike the philosepher and the peasaat ; the mathe matician who weighs the masees and defines the orbits of ee ee and the Aen ap Cgrly er who sees nothing bey ¢ images painted upon the eye. An natrencmsinal observatory, in the general accepta- tien of the word, is a building ‘erected for the reception and appropriate use of astronomical instruments and the accomm«< dation of the men of ecievce employed in mak- ing and reducing observations of the heavenly bodies. These instrumerts are mainly of three classes, to which I believe all others of a strictly astronomical character may be referred: — lst. The instruments by which the heavens are inspect- ed, with a view to discover the existence of those celes- tial bodies which are not visible to the naked eye, (be- yond al! comparison more numerous than those which are,) and the magnitude, shapes and otber sensible quali ties, both of those which are and those which are not thus visible to the unaided sight. The instruments of this class are designated by general name ot teles cope, ard are of two kinds—the refracting telescope, which derives its wifying power trem a system of convex lenses, and the reflecting telescope, which re cetves the image of the heavenly body upon a concave mirror. ‘2d, The second class of instruments consitts of those which are designed principally to measure the angular distances of the he !y bodies from each other, and Sa tne of yoming Se een, Deacon ter, and the sextant belong to this class. The brilliant ditcoveries of astronomy are for the most part made with the first class of mstruments; ite practical resulis wrought out by the second. - 8d. the third class contains the clock, with its subsidi- ary apparatus for measuring the time and making ite sub- divieiops, with the Rreatest possible accuracy—indispen eable auxiliary of all the instruments, by which the posi- ors and motions of the beavenly bodies are observed, spa messured, and recor fed. The tclercope may be likened to a wondrous Cyclopean ese, endued with superbuman power, by which the astronomer «xtends the reach of his vision to the further heavens, and surveys “galaxies and uni verses compared which the solar system is but an atom floating the air. The transit may be compared to the measuring rod which he lay from planet to t, and from star to star, to ascertain and mark cffthe heavenly spaces, and transfer them to his note book; the clock is that marvellous us by which be equalizes and divides into nicely measured paris & portion of that unconceived infiaity of duration, without Degirning and witnout end, in which all existence floats as ch a shorele<s and bottomless sea. In the contrivance and the execution of these instru ments the utmest stretch of inventive skill and mechan) eal ingenuity bax been pat forth. To such perfection have they been carried, (hate single second of magnitude or space is rendered « distinetiy visibie and appreciable quattity. ‘The arc of a circle,” says Sir J. Herschel, “subtended by one second, is leas than the 200,000th part of the radius, #0 that on a circle of six feet in diameter, it would occopy po greater linear extent than 1 5700 part of an inch, a quantity requiring @ powertul micrescope to be discerned at re . 6ec. 131.) The largest body in our system, the sun, whose real diameter is $82,000 miles, subtenda, at @ distance of 96,000,000 miles, but an angle of a little more than 32 miautes, while so admirably are the best instrumenis constructed, tbat both in Furope and America a satellite of Neptune, ap object of comparatively inconsiderable diameter, has been discovered at a distance of 2,850 milione of miles. The object of an gp eee] erected and supplied with instruments of this admirable construction and at pro- portionate expense, is, as 1 have already inti |, to ‘ovide for am accurate and systematic survey of the yeavenly bodies, with a view to @ more correct and ex- tensive acquaintance with those already known, and, as instrumental power and ekill in using it increase, to the discovery of bodies hitherto invisi-ie, and in both « lasses to the determination of their d-stances, their relations to each other, ard the laws which govern their movements. Why ebould we wish to o¥tain this knowledge? What inc ueement is there to expend large sums of money in the erection of observatories, and in furnishing them with costly instraments, and in the sapport of the men of sci ence employed ia making, discussing and recording, for successive generations, hese minute observations of the beav bodies ? Tn an exclusively scientific treatment of this subject, an Inquiry Into its utilitarian relations would be saperfia our—eved weartome. Bot on an occasion lik: re pe sent, yca will not, perhaps, think it out of place if! briefly answer the question, what i the use of an observatory and what bene/ii may be expected from the operations of such an ettablisbment in ® community like ours / Ist. In the first piace, then, we derive from the obser- vations of the heavenly bodies, which are made at an observatory, our only adequate measures of time, and our only means of com ‘the time of one place with the time of another. Tr artificial time Reepers—clocks, and chronometers—bowever ingeviously con trived and admirably fabricated, are but a transcript, so to say, of the celestial motions, and would be of no value without the means of regulating them by observa tion. It is impossible for them, under any circumstances, to escape the imperfection of all machinery, the work of buman hands; and the moment remove with eaet Or west, it faite us. It will keep like the fond traveller who leaves his beart behind him. The artiGcial instrament is of incalcu lable otility, but must itself be regulated by the cternal clockwork of the skies. ‘This single consideration is sufficient to show how com pletely the daily business of life is affected and controlled by the heavenly bodies. It is they, and not our mainaprings —our ex] jon balances and our compensation pendu- joms—which give us our time. To reverse the lines of Pope Tis with our watches as our judgmenta— None go just alike, but each believes his own. But for all the kind rede and tribes and tongues of mea— each upon their own meridian—frotm the Arctic pole to the equator. from the equator to the Antartic pole, the eternal fun strikes tw at poop, and the glorious constella- vons, far up in the ever! belfrys of the skies, chime twelve at midnight—twelve the pale student over yee amid the flaming giories 's belt, it he crosses the meridian at that hour —twelve oy the weary couch of ham: twelve in the star paved courts of the empyrean; twel for he heaving tides of the ocean; twelve for the weary arm of Inbor, twelve fer the totling brain; twelve for the watching, waking, broken heart, twelve for the me ‘eor which blazes for a moment and expires; tweive for the comet whose period is measured by centuries; twelve for every substantial, for every imaginary thiag which exists in the tense, the intellect or the fancy, aad whi.h the speech of thought of man, atthe given meridian, refers to the lape@ef time. Not only do we resort to the observation of the ies for the meana of regulating and rec of heavenly tifving our clocks, apd month and year are derived from the same source. By the constitution of our nature the ele- ments of our ¢xistence are closely connected with the Celestial Umes. Partly by bie ph partly by the experience of the of as be NEW YORK HERALD, FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 1856. earth exerta mean exhibit man tn the harmo- Tei tp bronaaucg of tee mouth, i lase coanect a i 4 Be ee ro" race batched 7 tothe pregrems of civilisation and culture. But indispensable as are these heavenly measures of time to our life and progress, and obvious as are the phenomena on which they rest, yet owing to the circum- +tance that, in the economy of nature, the day, the month, and the year are not commensurabie, some 0 the most difficult questions in practical astronomy are those by which an accurate division of time, applicable tothe various uses of life, Is derived from the observa. tuon of the heavenly bodies. I have no doubt that, to the Supreme Intelligence which created and rules the uni verse, there is a hidden to us in the numerical relation to each other of ; months and yoars—bat rm our ignorance their practical adjust- fucnt to each other is 8 work of diftculty. ‘The great em- barrassment which attended the reformation of the ca- jendar, after the error of the Julian period had, in the lapse of centuries, reached ten (or rather twelve) days, stfficieatly illustrates this remark. It 15 most true that scientific difficulties did not form the chief obstacle, Having been proposed un- cer the auspices of the Roman Pontiff, the Protestant world, for a century and more, rejected the tew style, It was in various piaces the subject of con- troversy, collision and blocdshed. (Stern's “ Him- meiskunde,” p. 72.) It was not adopted in England tli bearly two centuries after its introduction at Rome; and in the country of Struve and the Pulkova equatorial’ they sereist at the present day in adding eleven minutes ud welve seconds to the lepgth of the tropical year. 2d The second great practical use of an astronomical cbeervatory is connected with the science of geography. The firet page of the bie: of our continent declares this truth. Profound meditation on the ephericity of the arth was one of the main reasons which led Columbus 10 undertake his momentous voynge, and his thorough sequaintance with the astronomical science of that day war, in his own judgment, what enabled him to over- come the almost nnumerable obstacles whick attended its progecution, (Humboldt, ‘Histoire de la Géographe,”” &c. Tom, 1, p.1%.) 1a return, I find that,Copervicus, in the very Commencement of his immortal work, (‘De Revo- lutionibus orbium cw-lesttum,” fol. 2) appeals to the diaco- very of America as comple.ivg the demonstration of the sphericity of tre varth. Much of our knowledge of the Sgure, size density and position of the earth as a member the solar system 1s derived from this ecience, aad it furpiebes us the means of performing the most important operations of practical gecerephy: Latitude and longi tude, which lie at the basis of all descriptive geography, are determined by observation. Ne map deserves the pame, op which the position or important points has not ‘Deen astronomically cevermined. Some even of our most important political and administrative arrangements de- pend upon thelco-operation of this science. Among these 1 may mention the land system of the United States, and the determination of the boundaries of the coun try. I beheve that till it was don® by the federal overpment a uniform system of mathematical survey d ever in any country been applied to an extene sive territory. large grants and sales of public land took place before the Revolution, and in the interval between the peace and the adoption of the constitution; but the limits of these grauts and sales were ascertained ty ecnsible objects, by trees, streams, rocks, hills, and by reference to adjacent portions of ter- ritory previously surveyed. The uncertainty of boun- darics thus deflaed was a never failing source of L'tiga tion. Large tracts of land im the Western ccuntry granted by Virginia, under whis old syetem of special and local su vey, were covered with conflictipg claims, and the controversies to which they gave rise? formed no smati part of the business of the Federal Court, after its or ization. But tke adoption of the present land system rought order out of chaos. The entire public domain 1s now scientifically surveyed before it is offered for sale, it ig laid off into ranges, townships, sections and smaller divisions with unerripg accuracy, resting on the founda tion of base and meridian lines; and 1 have been in- formed that under this system scarce acase of con- tested location and bo ry bas ever presented it- self in court. The general Land office contains may and plans, in which every quarter section of public land is laid down with mathematical pre- cision, The superficies of half a continent 1s thus trans- ferred in miniature to the bureaus at Washington, while the local land offices contain transcripts of these plans, copies of which are furnished to the individ’ chaser. When we consicer the tide of population ao Bvaliy flowing mto the public domain, and the immense importance of its efficient and economica! administration, the utihty of this applicauon of astronomy wili be duly estimated. I will here venture to repeat an anccdote which I heard lately trom a son of the late Hon. Timothy Pickering. Mr. Octavius Pickering, on bebalt of his father, had ap- lied to Mr. David Putnam, of Marietta, to act as nis gal adviser, with res] to certain land claims in the Virginia military distrist, in the State of Ohio. Mr. Putnam declined the agency. He had had mach to ao with business of that kind and found it beset with endless huigation. ‘I have never,” he adds, ** succeeded but in ‘ingle case, and that was a iocation and survey made by encral Wagbington betore the Revolution, and Tam not squainted with aby surveys, except thos> made by nim, Dut Wias weve veen nugaied.” At this moment a most important survey of the coast of ‘the United States is in progrese—an operation of the ut- ‘mort consequence in reference to the commerve, naviga tion ard bydrograpby of the country. The entire work, 1 peed scarce tay, is one of practical astronomy. Toe ecrentific establishment which we this day inaugurate is looked to for important co-operation in this great under- taking, and will no doubt contribute efficiently to ite pro s«cution. Astronomical observation furnishes by far the best means of detining the boundaries of States, especially when the lines are of great length and run through unset ted countries. Natu al indications like rivers and moun tains, however distinst in appearance, are in practice tubject to unavoidable error. By the treaty of 1783 a boundary was established between the United States and Great Britain, depending chiefly on the course of rivers and highlands dividing the waters which flow ito the Atlantic ecean trom those which flow into the St. Lawrence. It took twenty years to find ont which piver was the tue St. Croix, that being the start jug point. England then baving made the extraordinary discovery that the Bay of Fundy is nota part of the at lantic Ocean, forty years more were passed in the unsue cessful attempt to re-create the Highlands, which this strange theory bad annibiatsd; and jast as the two coun tries were op the verge of a war the coutroversy was set compromise. Had the boundary been accurately by jimes ef latitude and jongitade, no dispute could have arisen, No dispute arose as to the bound sry Detween the United Mates and Spain, and her succ“ssor. Mexico, where it runs through the untrodcen deserts and over pathiess mountains alocg the 42d degree of latitude ‘The identity of rivers may be di* puted, as in the case of the St. Croix, the course of mountain chains is too broad for & dividing lu e; the division of streams, as experience has shown, is uncertain; but a degree ot latitude is written on the heaverly sphere, and noibing but an observation as required to read the record. But scientific elements, tike sharp instruments, must be handled with scientific accuracy. A part of our boun dary between the British provinces ran upon the forty. Afth degree of latitude; and about forty years ago, an ex pensive fortress was commenced by the government of the United States at Rouse’s Point, on Lake Champlain, ‘on @ spot jatended to be just within our limits. When a line came to be more carefully surveyed, the fortress turned out to be on the wrong side of the line; we had been build pg an expensive fortideation for our neighbor. pomp ci po oe womens nes fo Washing ton by the Webstr shburton treaty in 1842, the tor tress ‘was left our limits. Errors stilt more serious had nearly resulted a fow years since in a war with Mexico. By the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, im 1848, the boundary line be tween the United States and that countr; part described by reference to the towa as laid down on a specified map of the United States, was appended to the treaty. This bdoufdary was to be surveyed and rua by a joiat Tt soon aj ved that er rors of two or three degrees existed in Projection of the map. Its lines of latitude and je did not con- form to the topography of the region; so that it became impossible to execute the text of the treaty. The fi mous Mesilla Valley wae a part of the debatable ground and the sum of t lilions of dollars paid to the Mexican government for that and for an additional strip of on the eouthwert was the emart money which expiated the gee A of the map; the necessary result es of want of good matirials for its coa It became my official duty in London, to apply tothe British government tor an ment of their claim to jurisdiction over New Zealand official Gazette for the 24 of Uctober, 1840, was gent from the Foreign office, #8 affording the desired infor mation. This number of the Gazetic contained the pare ‘of Normanby, one ofher Majesty's principal Secretaries of Mate,” asserting the jurisdiction of his government over the islands of New Zealand, and declaring them to extend “from thirty-four degrees Chirty minutes North, to fort seven degrees ten B inutes South lattade.”” It is pearoal necessary to say that South latituce was intended in instances. This error ot ~~ nine degrees of latitade, ° tion over the whole breadth of the Facitic, had apparentl; the notice of that government d It would be easy to muitiply illustrations in proot of the great practical impo tance of accurate scientific de signations drawn from astronomical observations, in various relations connected wi.h boundaries, surveys, and other geographical purposes, but | must hasten to 4. A third important department, in which the services rendered by astronomy are equally con- I refer to commerce and navigation. It owing to the resuite of astronomical obser- at modern commerce has attamed such @ pansion, compared wita that of the ancient world. I bave already reminded you that accurste ideas in this respec! contributed materially to the conceztion in the mind of Columbus of his immortal enterprise, aad to the practical success with which ji conducted. It was mainly bis ekitl im the use of astronomical instre ments. impe as they were, which enabled pim, in spite of the bewildering variation of the compass, io ith the progress of the true - of the universe toward general adoption, the prob! of finding the lon- gitude at ea presented itecif. This was the avowed o' Jeet of the foundation of the observatory a\ Greanwich (Grant's Physical surenamy, 9. 460;) and noone sub ject bas received more of attention of astronomers than those investigations of the lunar theory, on wh) " the requisite tables of the navigator are founded. The Pg Fg Pa ee Se. eternal lights of the heaven the only Pharos whore beams never fail; which no vempest can shake'from its fuundat on. Within it was deemed | 3 i 328 F i f f : bave ‘This, however, is an gene- ous minds will reject, in this as in Cae Ais cba tof bumaa knowledge. In astronomy, a6 rery- ting else, the discoveries already Ueoretionl or tical, Instead of exha: the science, or putting a Fmt to ite ne, bat furnish the means ani instruments of fur ress. 1 bave no doubt we live ‘a the verge Fe Cnet me oo tions in every department, as brilliant us any ve ever been made; that there are new truths, new facts ready to start into recognition on every side; and it seems to me there never was an age since the dawn of time, when men ought to be less dis} to reat satisfed with the progress already made, the in which we live; for there never was an age more tinguished for ingenious research, for novel result and bold generaliza ‘That no further improvement is desirable in the means and methods of ascertaining the ship's place at sea, no one, | think, will trom experience be disposed to assert. ‘The last time I crossed the Atlantic, I walked the quarter deck with the officer in charge of the noble vessel, omone occasion, when we were driving seue before a leading breeze, and under a head of steam, beneath a starless sky at midnight, at the rate certainly of ten or eleven = an hour, There is something sublime, but ap- ppacking tie, terrible, in such @ scene—the rayless gloom—the midnight chill—the awful swell of the deep— the dismal moan of the wind through the rigging all but volcanic fires within the hold of the ship; I scarce kbow an occasion in ordinary life in which a reflecting mind feels more keenly its hopeless dependence on irra \ional forces beyond its own control. asked my com- panion how nearly he could determine his ship’s place at sea under fay le circumstances. Theoretically, be answered, I think within a mile; practically and usually, within three or four, My next question was, how near do you think we may be-to Cape Race, that dangerous headland which pushés its irom bound unlighted bastions from the shores of Newfoundland far ioto the Avaatic, first land fall to the homeward bound American vessel’ ‘We must, saia he, by our last observations and reckon ing, be within three or four miles of Cape Race. A com parison of these two remarks, under the circumstance: in which we were placed at the moment, brought my mind to the conclusion that it is greatly to be wisbed that the means should be discovered of finding the ship’s place more accurately, or that navigators would give Cape Race a littie wider berth. But I do not remember that one of the steam packets between England aud America was ever lost on that formidable point. Jt appears to me b7 no means unlikely that, with the improvement of instrumental power, and of the means of ascertaining the sbip’s time with exactnees, as great aa advance beyond the present state of art aad science in finding a ship’s place at eca may take place, ag was of fected by the invention of the reflecting quadrant, the calculation of lunar tab.es, and the improved construc tion of chronometers. In the wonderful versatility of the human mind, the improvement, when made, will very probably be male by paths where it is least expected. The great induce nent of Mr. Babbage to attempt the construction of an epgine by which astronomical tabies could be calcalated apd even printed by mechanical means and with entire accuracy, was the errors in the requisite tables. Nine- teen such errors, in point of fact, were discovered in an edition of Taylor’s Logarithms, printed in 1796, some of which might have led to the most dangerous results io calculatipg @ ship’s place. These tineteen errors (of which one only was an error of the press) were pointed out in the nautical for 183%. In one of these errata the seat of the error was stated to be in cosine of 14deg. 18 min. 3gec, Subsequent exami nation showed that there was an error of one second in this correction, and accordingly ia the Nautical Alma- pac of the next year, a pew correction was necessary. But in making the new correction of one second, a new error was committed of ten degrees. Instead of cosize 14 deg. 18 min. 2 eec. the correction was printed cosine 4 deg. 18 min. 2 sec, making it still necessary, in some future edition of the Nautical Almanac, to insert an erra tum in an erratum of the errata in Taylor’s logarithms. (Edipburg Review, vol. lix., 282.) In the hepe of obviating the possibilty of such errors, Mr. Babbage projected his calculating—or as he prefers to call it, b Eierence machine. altbough this extraor. dinary undertaking has been arrested in consequence ot the enormous mye attending its execution, enough bas been achieved to show the mechanical possibitity of const engine of this kind, and even one of far higher powers, of which Mr. Babbage bas matured the conception, devised the notation, and executed the draw ipgs—themselvee an imperishable monument of the genius of the author. I ned on one occasion to be in company with this highly distinguished man of whose social quali ties are as pleasing as his constructive talent is marvel lous, when another savand, Count Strzeleck1, just returned from bis Oriental and Australian tour, obeerved that h. found a1 the Chinese a great desire to know some thing more of Mr. Babbage’s calculating machine, and es pecial y whether, like their own swanpaa, it could be made to go into the ket. Mr. Babbage good humor edly observed that thus far be had been very much out ket with it. batever advances be made ip astronomical rclence, theoretical or appl 1am strongly inclined to think tLat they wil be made in connection wits an in creased command of instrumental power. The natural order in which the human mind proceeds in the acquit: tion of astronomical knowledge ia minute and accurate observation of the phenomena of the heavens, the ski: sul discussion and analysis of these observations, ani ound philcsopby in generalizing the resulta. In pursuing this course, however, a difficulty presented itselt, which for ages proved insuperable, and which, t- the same extent, has existed in no other science, that all the leading phenomena are in their appearance celusive. It }s, indeed, true that ia all sciences supert cial observation can oply lead, except by chance, to eu perticial Knowledge, but | know ef no branch in whieh, t) the same degree as ip artronomy, the great leading phe nomena are the reverse of true; while they yet = 0 strongly to the senses that tes! ec] pees, and who diecovered the prece: sion of the equ: nexes, #t#ll believed that the earth was at rest in the cen tre of the universe, and that all the hosts of heaven per formed » daily rev olution about it as a centre. Tt usually happens in scientific progress that when ® great fect is at length discovered, it approves iwel at once to all competent judges. ‘It furuishes a 80 Jution to so many problems, ant harmonizes with se many other facts, that all the other data, as it were crystallize at once about it. In modern times, w bay often witnessed such an impatience, #0 to say of great truths, to be discovered, that it has frequently happened that they have been found out simultaneously by more than one individual; anda disputed question priority is an event ot very Common occurrence. Not so ‘with the true theory of the heavens. So complete is the deception prac on the senses, that it failed more than once to yield to the suggestion of the truth; and it was only when the visual organs were armed with an simort pretertatural instrumental power, that the great ‘act found admission to the humap mind. I ee ae the very —_ of science Pytha gor ci explained the apparcat motioa of the hes venly bo ties about the earth, by the diurnal revo lutien of the earth on its axis. But this theory, though bearing fo deeply impressed = it the great seal ot truth simplicity, was in such oe contrast with the evidence of the tenses, that it fall ‘acceptance i 1 anti uity of the middle ages. It fsund no favor with minds like of Aristotle, Archimed jpparchus, Ptolemy or any of the acute and learned Arabian or medic val astronomers, All their ingenuity and all their mathematical skill were exbausted in the developement of a wonderfully compl cated snd ingenious but erroneous theory. The great master truth, rejected for its simplicity, lay, disregarded. at their feet. At the second dawn of science, ~agh omy fact aguo beamed into the mind of Copernicus. Now at least, io that glorious age which witnessed the invention of print , the great mecbanical engine of intellectual progress and tbe discovery of America, we may expect that thir ong biddem revelation, & second time proclaimed, will command the assent of mankind. But sensible phe nomena were still too — for the theory; the Tayo delusion of the rising the setting #un could not be overcome. Tycho ¢e Brahe furnianed his observatory with instruments superior in number and quality to ali ‘tbat had been collected before; but the great instrument of discovery which, by augmenting the optic power of tue eye, enables it to penetrate beyond the apparent phe. pomena and to discern the true constivution of tw heavenly bodies, was wanting at Uranienburg. Tae observa tons of Tycho an discussed by Kepler conducted that most fervid, powerful and sagacious mind to the dis covery of some of the most important laws of the celes tial Lamy oy! bat it was 4 = gor By Florence, had pointed his telescope to 7, pernican — be eald to be firmly established in the scie world. On thie great name, my friends, assembied to dedicate & temple to instrumental astronom: ‘well paure for a moment. There is much, in every way, in the city of Florence to excite the curjority, to kindle the nation, and to gratify the taste. Sheltered on the north by the vine clad hills of Fiesolé, whose Cyclopean walls carry back the antiquary to ages before the Roman, before the Ptrus- can power, the flowery city (Fiorenza) covers the sunny banks of the Arno with its stately Dark aad frowning piles of medicval etructare, a mejestic domr the prototy pe of St. Peter's, basilieas which enshrine th. ashes of some of the mightiest of the dead, the siou where [ante stood to gaze on the campanile, the house ut Michael Angelo, still occupied by a descendant of bis lineage and name, his hammer, his chisel, his dividers, his manurcript poems, all as if he had left them but yes terday—siry bridges which seem not so much to rest on the earth as to hover over the waters they span—tue lovetiest creations of ancrent art, rescued from the grave of ages to “enchant the world’’—the breathing marbles of Michael Angelo, the glowing canvas of Ra phael and Titian—museums filled with medals and coins oa mn ll from Cyrus the younger, and gems and amolets vases from the sepulchres of Egyptian Phe- roahs coeval with J , and Etruscan Lucumons ta t swayed Italy betore the Romans—iibraries stored wir the choicest texts of ancicot litera‘ure—gardens of ro-e end orange and pomegranate, and myrtle—the very air you breathe languid with music avd perfame—such Florence. But amohg all jt# fascinations a1 dreseed to the sense, the momory and the heart there was none to which J more trequently wwe ® mecitative hour during @ year’s residence to the epot where Galileo Galilei sleeps bencath the marble floor 01 Santa Croce; no building on which | gazed with greater reverence, than | did upon the modest mansion at Arcetri. villa at once and prison, in ed that venerable sage, by command the Inquisition. the ead oy By of his life: the beloved hter on whom he had depended to emooth his pas Ad ~y ‘ave laid there before him; the eyes with which he q ind discovered worlds before uni ched in blindness i Abime ' quegti occht si son fatti oseuri, Che vider piu di tattt | tempi antichi, E luce fur dei secoli faturi. it was the house, ‘‘ where,” says Milton, (another of whom the’ world was not worthy) “I foand ? : Ly i é : i —that Iittle for it is scarcely more) through which Gebeaee are ines distinctly beheld the a ‘the phases of Venus, the satellites of Jupiter, and thi handles of Sa turn—tiret penetrated the dusky depths of the heavens— first the clouds of visual error, which from the crea’ the world involved the of the universe. There are occasions in life in which a great mind ne bi nid of rapt fo hog ina ee some wy ‘the emotions wi raising the newly constructed telescope fo the heavens, he saw Copernicus, aud be- the moon. was such another moment as that when the immortal printers of Mentz and Strasburg, received the first copy of the Bible into their hands, the work of their divine art; like that when Columbus, the dawa of ike the 12th of October, 14! h e age of eighteen, was then ‘a ntodent Se Cracow), beheld’ the law of gravi- shores of San Salvador—like that when the tation first revealed itself to the intellect of Newton— like that when Franklin saw pee stiffening fibres of the hempen cord of his kite, that he held the lightning in bis gras) e that when Leverrier received back from Berlin the tidings that the ene ws was found, Yes, noble Galileo, thou art E pur si muove, “It does move.” Bigots may make thee recant it; but it moves nevertheless. Yes, the earth moves, and the plancts move—and the mighty waters moye—and the great sweeping tides of air move—and the empires of men move—and the world of thought moves, ever on- ward and upward to higher facts oe bolder theories. The Inquisition may seal ftby lips, but they can no more stop the progress of the great truth propounded by Co pernicus and demonstrated by thee, than they can stop the revolving earth. Close now, venerable sage, that sightleas, tearful eye; it has geen what man never before saw. It has seen enough. Hang up that Kittle spyglass; it has done its work. Not Herschel) nor @ compar tively cone more. FYanciecans and Dominicans deride thy dis coveries now, but the time will come when from two hundred observatories in Europe and America the glo- ions artill of science shal! nightly assault the skies, ‘but they 6: gain no conquests in those glittering flelds before which thine shall be lg! peed est im peace, great Columbus of the heavens, like him scorned, perse- cuted, broken hearted, in other ages, in distant hemis- pheres, when the votaries of science, with solemn acis of consecration sha)! dedicate their stately edifices to the cause of knowledge and truth, thy name shall be men- tioned with bonor. It is not my intention, in dwelling with such em- phagis upon the invention of the telescope, to cribe undue importance in promoting the advancement of science to the increase ot instrumental power. Too much, indeed, cannot be said of the service rendered by ite first application in confirmicg and bring'ng iato eneral repute the Copernican sy stem ; but for a consi- derabie time little more was effected by the wondrous in- sirument than the fication of curiosity and taste by the inspection of the planetary phases, and the addition of the rings and satellites of ura to the solar family. Newton, prematurely despairing of any further im provement in the refracting telescope, applied the priuci ple of reflection, and the nicer observations now made no doubt hastened the maturity of his great discovery of the law of gravitation; but that discovery was the work of his transcendant genius and consummate skill. With Bradiey, in 1741, a new period commerced in in- strumental astronomy—not so much of discovery as ot measurement. The superior accuracy and minuteness with which the motions and distances of the heavenly bodies were now observed resulted in the accumulation of a mass of new materials, both for taular comparison and theoreti. cal speculation. These materials formed the enlarged basis of astronomical science between Newton and Sir William Herschel. His gigantic reflectors introduced the as- tronomer to regions of space betore unvisited, extended beyond all previous conception the eof the observed phenomena, and wit it proporti ly enlarged the range of constructive theory. The discovery of a new imary planet and its attendant satellites was but the it step oi his progress into the labyrinth of the heavens. Contemporaneously with his observations, the French astronomers and especially La Piace, with a geometrical skill scarcely, if at all inferior to that of its great author, resumed the whole system of Newton, and brought every phenomenon observed since his time within his laws. Difficulties of tact with whish be struggled in vain, gave way to more accurate observations, and prob‘ems that de the power of his analysis yielded to the modern im) ments of the calc ulus. there is no ultima \cerndlle Mig gg bode science. With the recent augmentations of telescopic ower, the details of the nebular theory proposed 4 Sir W. Herschel! with such courage and ity bave been drawn in question. Many—1 those milky patches in which he bebeld what he regarded as ccemical matter, as yet in an unformed state—the rudi- wental material of worlds not yet condersed—bave been resolved into stars, a8 bright and distinct as any ia the tirmament. | well recal) the gloy 01 satisfaction with, which, on the 224 of September, 1847—being thet con nected with the University at Cambridge—I received a letter from the venerable director of the observatory there, begmping with these memorable worde:—"You will rejowe with me that the great nebula in Orion has yielded to the powers of our incomparalile telescope. es *¢ * ite id ve borne ia miad that tris nedula and ibst of Andromeda {which has been also resolved at Cam- bridge) are the last strongholds of the nebular theory.”” (Annals of the Observatory of Harvard Colege, p. cxxi.) But if some of the adventurous specu'ations bailt by Sir Wiliam Hereche!l on the bewildering revela lations of bis telescope have been since questioaed, tae vast progres whict has been made in siderial astro pomy, to which, as I understand, the Dudley Obser vatory will be particularly devote !, the discovery of the paraliax of the fixed stars, the investigation of the interior elations of binary and triple systems of stars, the theo ries for the explanation of tbe extraordinary, not to say aptastic sbapes ciscerned in gome of the nebuions ays teme—sbrrls and spirals radiating through spaces as vast ag the orbit of Nept.ne, the glimpses at eystems beyond tbat to which our gun belonge—these are a | splendid re sults, which may fairly be attributed to the school of Herschel, and will forever ensure uo secondary place to hat pame ip the annals of science. Tn the remarks which I have hithcrto made, I have had mainly in view the direct connection of astronomic.! science, with the use of life and the service of man. But fenerous philosophy contem: the subject tm higher relations. It is a remark a8 cid at least as Plato, and is repeated from him more than once by Cicero, that all the liberal arts bave a common and relationship, (Arecbiag I; de Oratore Ill., 21). Tne different sciences contemplate as their immediate object the ditferent depar'- ments of animate and inanimate nature; but this great system itself is but one; and its various parts are so in verwoven with each other that the most extraordinary re lations and unexpected analogies are constantly prescat ing themselves; and arts sciences seemingty the least connected, render to each other the most eflective as. eistance. The history of electrici , galvanism, and magnetism furnishes the mort striking illustration of this remark. Com: with the meteorological phenomena of our own atux 5) and terminating with the observation 01 the remotest beavens, it ae 0e adduced on an 00. cas on like the present. lia demonstrated the idertity of lightning and the electric fluid, This dis. otvery gave @ great impulse to clectrival research, with Ittle elke in view but the menns of protection from the thunder cloud. A purely accidental circumstance led the pbysicion Galvani, at Bologns, to t ace the mysterious element, under conditions entirely novel, both of developement and application. In this new form, it became, in the hands of Davy, the instrument of the most extraordinary chemical Operations, and earths and alkalis, touched by the creative wire, started up into metals that float on water, and kindle inthe air. Ata later period, the closest affinities are observed between electricity and magnetism on the one band, while on the other the relations of polarity are detected between acils and alh Plating gilding henceforth become elec: trical processes. In last applications of the same subtie medium, it has become the messenger of intelli genet across the land and beneath the sea, and is now employed by the astronomer to ascertain the dilerence of lorgitodes, to transfer the beats of the clock from one station to another, and to record the moment of ‘ob- servations with automatic accuracy, How large asl has been borne by America in these magnificent disco: rics and applications, among the most brilliant achieve ments of modern science, will sufficiently appear from the repetition of the names of Frankhn, Henry, Morse, Walk er, Mitchell, Lock and Bond. jt bar sometimes happened, whetber from {Be harm>- pious relations to each other of every it of science, or from rare felicity of individual genius, that the most extraordinary intellectual veraptility, bus been manitested by the same person. Although New ton's transcendant talent did not blaze out in childhood, yet as a boy he discovered great aptitude for mechanion! contrivance. His water clock, self moving vehicle ai! mill were the wonder of the village—the latter propelied by a living mouse. Sir David Brewster represents the accounts as ¢ifering, whether the mouse was made to at- bed “by Dg be yy wie ra or by “its una vailing atte) reach a portion of corn placed above the heel.” It feema more reasonable to conclude that the youthful discoverer of the law of gravitation intended by the combination of these attractions to pro duce as balanced movement. It is consoling to the average mediocrity of the race to perceive in there eportive easays that the mind of Newton passwd through #tage of boyhood. But emerging from boyhoo1 what abound ie made as trom earth to heaven! Hardly commencing Bachelor of Arts at the age of twenty-four, he untwisted the golden and silver threads of the solar cused of Oxing science in stereotype. That diploma enough of self to redeem the of acade mica’ parchment from centuries of learned dulness and scho instic dogmatism. Bot the great object of all knowledge is to enlarge and pority the soul, wo the mind with noble contempla fone, to furvish @ refined pleasure and to lead our feeble reason from the works of nature up to ita great Author nd Sustainer. Considering this as the witimate end of o branch of it can surely ciaim precedence of As y. No other science furnishes such a palpaole om. bt of the abstractions which lie at the foundation of tellectua) ryrtem ; the great ideas of time, and apace, le, and number, and motion, and power. How grand the conception of the ages on ages red for several of the secular equations of the solar eystem; of distances from which the |i fixed star would not reach us in twenty millions of years. (Nichol's “Arcbitecture of the Heavens, '’p. 160) of mi nytudes compared with which the earth is but a foot ball: of starry hoste—euns hike our own—numberiess as the sands on the sbore; of worlds and systems 4! through the infinite «; with a velocity com: ‘With whien the cannon ball isa way worn, heavy paced traveller! Much, however, as we are indebted to our observato- tion of the power and wisdom of th moon, then iy awa tone Ju twa was of the day; the Pletuded jus horizon shed their sweet influence in the Kast | resparkied near the zenilh; Andromeda veiled hei newly discovered glories from the maked eye in tho| South; the steady pointers, far beneath the ooked meekly up from ‘the depths of the North to thelr Sove ich was the glorious spectacle as | entered the train, As we proceeded, the timid proach of twilight bec: more ible; the intense biue of the sky 0 soften, the smaller stars, like little children, went 0 rest; the sister beams of the Pieiades soon melted together | but the bright constellations of the West and North re- mained unchanged. Steadily the wopdrous transfiguration went on, Hands of angels hidden from mortal eyos shift- ed the scenery of heaven; ihe. glories of ni dissolved into the glories of the dwn. The blue sky| now turned more soltiy i the great watch stars.shu' eo to kindle: up their holy eyes; the Fast began Fain’ streaks of purple soon blushed along the sky; the whole| Celestial concave was filled with the ip flowing tides-of the} morning light, which came pouring down from above in one great ocean of raaiance; till at aS ve reashed| the Blue Hills, a tlash of purple tire b'azed cut from above! the horizon, and turned the dewy tard: of tower ancy leat into rubies and diamonds. In a few seconds, tho everlasting gates of the morning were throwa valde open, and the lord of day, arrayed in glories too severo-for the ‘gaze of man, began his course. 1 do not wonder at the superstition of the ancient Ma- Japs, who in the morning of the world vent up to tho! ill'tops of Central Asia, and, ignorant of the true God, ado the most glorious work of his hand, Batt am filled with amazement, when I am told toat in this en- lightened age, and in the heart of the Chrisuan world, there are persons who can witness this dally menifeeta- \e Creator, and yet say in their hearts, ‘There is no God ”” Numerous are the heavenly bodies visible to the naked: e, and glorious as are their manifestations, it is probable} that in our own system there are great numbers as yet undiscovered. Just two hundred years ago, this year, Huyghens announced the discovery of one satellite of Sawurn, and expressed the opinion that the six planets and six satellites then known, and muking up the perfect number of twelve, composed the whole of our planetary system. In 1729, an a=tronomical writer oxpreeged tho opinion that there might be other bodies in. our syatem,. but that the limit of telescopic power had been reached, and uo further discoveries were likely to be made, (Me- moirs of A. A S., vol. iii., 275.) |The orbit of one comet only had been definitively calchlated. Since tha} time the power of the telescope has been indefinitely. increased. —two primary planets of the first class, ten satellites, and forty-three stall plane revolving be:ween Mars and Jupiter bave been discovered, the orbits of six or seven hundred comets, some of brief period, have been ascertaineé—and it has been computed that buandreds of thousand of these mysterious bodies wander through our system. There is no reason to think that: ell the pri- mary planets which revolve about the svu have been discovered. An indefinite increase in the number o? asteroids may be anticipated ; while outside of Neptune, between our tun and the nearest fixed star, sapposing the attraction of the sun to prevail through balf the distance, there is room for ten more primary planets, succeeding each other at distances increasing in a geometrical ratio. ‘The first of these will ungestionably be discovered as g00n, ‘as the perturbations of Neptune shall have been accu- rately observed ; and with maps of the beavens, on which the smallest telecopic stars are laid down, it may be discovered much sooner. But it is when we turn our observation and our thougbts from our own system to the systems which lie beyond it in the heavenly spaces that we ap- proach a more adejuate conception of the vaetness of; creation. Ali analogy teaches us that the sun. which| ie Night to us is but one of these countless stellar} res which deck the firmament, and that every glit- tering star in that sbifing nost is the ceutre of a Lol as vast and as full of subordinate luminaries as-our own. Of there suns—cenires ol planetary systems—tuousands| are visible to tke naked eye, millions are discovered by the telescope. Sir John Herechell, m the account of hi operations at the Cape of Gooi Hope, f. 381,) caleulates that about five and a half miitions stecs are visibio) enough to be distinctly counted in a twenty foot reflector] in both hemispheres. He adds that * the actuai-number| is much greater, there can ve htte doubt.” His illus-| trious father estimated on one occasion taas 125,000 stars} passed through the field of hie forty foot refiector m quarter of an hour. ‘This would give 12,000,¢00 for entire circuit of the heavens, in a single telescopic zone,| and wis estimate was made under the assump that the nebulw were masses of lummous matter, not yet| condensed into suns. These stupendous calculations, however, form. but the first column of the inventory of the waiverse, Faint white s are visible even to ihe naked eye of jo observer in different parts of the heavens. Under high magpify ing powers, several thousands of such] spots are visibie—no longer, however, faiat white specks. but many of them resolved by powerful into} vast ageregations of stars. each of which may with pro priety be compared with the milky way. Many of th nebulw, however. resisted the power of Sir Wm. Her- schell’s great reflector, and wero accordingly still ri garded by bim as masses of unformed matter, not y: condenged into, suns.” This, till a few years since, was per-| baps the prevailing opinion, and the nebular theory filled a large space in modern astronomical science. But with the incriase of instrumental power, especially under the mighty grasp of Lord Rosse’s gigantic refievior, and great refractors at Pulkova and Cambridge, the moat ir-| regolvable of these nebule have given way; and the bat ter oj inion now is, that every one of them is a gala: like our own milk bay 2 composed of millions of suns. In osher words, we are brought to the bewildermg conclu sion that thousands of these misty specks, the greater of Wem 100 faint to be seen by the naked eye, are not eac! a.universe like our solar system, but each a ‘swarm’? o universes of unappreciable magnitude (Humboldt Cos mos Jil. 44). The mind sinks overpowered by the con templation. We repeat the words, but they no longe convey cistinct ideas to the understanding. But these conclusions, however vast their comprehen. sion, carry ur but another Step forward in the realms 0% sideresl astronomy. A proper motion in space of ou: ‘navdthe fixed stars as we call them bas long lieved toexist. Their vast distances only prevent it being more apparent. The great improvement in instru ments of measurement within tho last has only established the existence of this bat pointed to the region in the starry vavit, around our whole solar and stellar system with ite myriad of attendant 'y worlds, a to be Se a Se Fog tem to we 5 ferent Oy of which spot the heavens—constitute each family of upiverses, we must, follo ar alogy, attribute to eech of thom also, revoleticns of their individual tems, a great revolution comprebendiog the whole; whi'e| the same course of analogical reasoning would jead u sull further onward, avd in the last analysis require u to assume a transcendental couvection between all mighty systems—a universe of universes, circling round in the infinity of space, and preserving its equilibrium b; the same laws of mutual attraction which bind the loi worlds ether. 1k may be thought that conceptions like these are cal. culated rather to depress than to elovate us in the scale o being; that banished ashe is by these contemplations ta ® corner of crestion, and ti reduced to atom, man sinks iato this forty of worlds. But the impression. nd are incommensurable. Ag iat toul, even while clothed in ‘ this muddy vesture of cay,” is, ip the eye of God and reason, @ purer z than the brightest sun that lights the depths of beaven. ‘The organized human eye, instinet with lite aad which. gazing —— the telescope, travels up to cloudy epeck in the handie of Orion's sword, and bids blaze forth into a galaxy as vaet as stands higher 11 the order of being than al! that host of luminaries. Th intellect of Newton, which discovered the law that hold the revolving wort together, m @ nobler work of G than & universe of universes of Dg Matter. treading the loficst paths of analogy, we the suppotition—to me Town the grateful sopposition ‘that the countless planetary worlds which attead lew are the abodes of rational beings like back from this exalted conception vance, ax if the individua's of our In the order of being stand beneath us, or they may stand above us; weil be content with his place who is made “a Ii beavenly lies; no branch of natural bears Clearer testimony to the power and than that to which you this day conseernee The heart of the ancient world, with all the prevailing ignorance of the true natare and motions of the heaven! orbs, was religiously impressed by their survey. is ® passage in one of those admirable pbilo treaties of Cicero, composed in the decline of life, as sotace under domestic bereavement and patriotic at the impending convulsions of the , io quoting from some lost work of Aristotle, be treats topic a manner which aimost puts to shame the ings o Christian wisdom — Pracciare ergo Aristoteles, ‘ai essent."” ixquit, qui sul terra semper babltari bonis et iliustribue "domicili «ume essent ornata sigmia atyue pi ne hm omnibus, quibas a> undant fi qul beat putantar, nee tamer ‘xinsent unquam supea terram® tanker. fama anditions, esse quoddam numen et vim Loe sliqno ‘empere, paretactis terrae faucibus, ex illis sedi bum evadere in hace quine nos Incolimns, at ne poruissent; cum repente, terram, et marie, costumaa Vidissent, nubium megnitudinem, ventoramque vim cog ‘iesent, aepexisgentyue solem, ejusqne tum magnitud Julehritudinemaue, (im etiam efficientiam cognovissent, 4) '# diem efficeret, toto coelo luce dittusa; utem (orras Pacaset tom Coelum totum cernerent astris dis inetam crnatum, Tunwque luminem varietatem tam crescenti« senescentis, eorumaue omniuitn ortas et ooona) reternitate ratos immutabilesqte cursus; haee © rt rrefecto et esse Deos, et kwe tanta opera Deorum esse arbi rarentur. Nobly does Aristotle observe, that if there ware beings whd lod always lived under groun¢, in convenient, nay, magni’ erdings. aderned with stattien and Pictnrns, find ever at ws r had heard. however, by fame an, eport, of the being ard power of the gods, if al a cortain tin = the portals of the earth being thrown open, they by tie; when suddenly they had seen ihe earth, tiie winds: had contempt nds: hie heauty, and atill more his effect i inhabit sone, Any perceive Ibe vastvere Of the elonile ancl the ed the sun, his magnitude hold the whote the various lights of the waxing and wanii nd ihe settings of all these heaveniy belies, nicl theiee fixed and ppavetenle in ail eternity: faten't fay, they see these, ruly thy would believe share gods, and that these, #0 Great things, are thete worke: ‘There is much by se the engage the baggy yd Observatory; the sun, Apparent motions, stone, the #po:s on his disc, (to us the faint indications