Of Stereotype Printing. %6j 



The important fervice rendered to the fcicnce of aftronomy 

 by Fixlmillner is well known to all aftronomers. The great 

 number of his obfervations of Mercury, at a time when they 

 were rare, and difficult to be made, enabled Lalande to com- 

 plete his accurate tables of that planet, for which the French 

 aftronomer publicly returned him thanks. Fixlmillner was 

 one of the firft aftronomers who obferved the orbit of the 

 newly difcovered planet Uranus. He was alfo the firft who 

 fupported Bode'« conjecture, that the ftar 34, in the Bull, 

 obferved by Flamftead in the year 1690, and which after- 

 wards difappeared, was the new planet. Fixlmillner was 

 a man of fo great application and activity that he not only 

 made obfervations, but calculated them all himlelf, and de- 

 duced from them the neceflary remits. All his obfervations, 

 of whatever kind, he calculated on the fpot; and to avoid 

 errors he always calculated them a fecond time. To un- 

 common induftry he united great penetration and deep re- 

 flection, as is proved by the great many excellent remarks 

 and difcoveries to be found in his works. It muft here be 

 added, that this able aftronomer lived in a remote part of the 

 country, at a diftance from all literary helps, and from others 

 who purfued the fame ftudies ; that is to fay, from all thofe 

 things which could animate his zeal 5 and yet he continued, 

 till the laft day of his life, a flmrular inftance of perfeverance 

 and attachment to his favourite ftudy. But few men were fo 

 little fubjecl: to the imperious power of the paffions. Simple 

 in his manners, he pofTeiTed great equanimity and firmnefs, 

 like the immutable laws of nature which he ftudied. Bis 

 wide extended celebrity did not render him proud : whatever 

 was written or faid in his praife, he endeavoured rather to 

 conceal than to publifh. His clofe application at length im- 

 paired his health, and brought on obftinate obftructions, 

 which ended in a diarrhoea. He died on the 27th of Auguft 

 1791, in the 71ft year of his age, the 53d of his refidence in 

 the convent, and the 46th after his entering into the prieft- 

 hood. 



XXXIX. A brief Account of the Origin and Progrefs of 

 hetter-prefs-plate or Stereotype Printing. 



H 



AD I liftened to the folicitations of friends, I fhould 

 long before this time have publifhed fome account of an art 

 to the advancement of which I had in fome degree contri-r 

 buted, and in which, I may affirm, I was tolerably profi- 

 cient upwards of twenty years ago : I might add, that the 



idea 



