LITERARY XOTICES. 



499 



mann are worlds beyond him ? He is but 

 the expression of his time a vague yearn- 

 iug for perfection an embodied dissatis- 

 faction with his age. He has not, nor will 

 he have ever, reached the dramatic, poetic, 

 and symphonic unity which Handel at- 

 tained in the " Messiah " a hundred years 

 ago. 



His efforts, we think, will be, and have 

 been, of the highest use, and it will be long 

 before music again has such a master of 

 poetry, drama, and song, for a votary ; still 

 we sympathize heartily with the accom- 

 plished musical critic of the Tribune, who 

 speaks of the new school thus : 



" The day has gone by when Li?zt and 

 Wagner could be decried as mad fanatics. 

 The new music is gaining ground ; it is 

 played and sung in every city of the civil- 

 ized world ; we must listen to it whether we 

 like it or not ; and the wisest of us have de- 

 termined to like it if possible, or at least to 

 pretend to like it if we can do no more. 

 And yet it is rather saddening to think that 

 the symphony of the future is to be like 

 this Dante symphony (Liszt) poetic, imagi- 

 native, forcible, and thoughtful as it is, but 

 so terribly hard. . . , 



" It is saddening to be told that there 

 shall never be another Haydn ; that the 

 world shall never be gladdened with the 

 bright fancies and graceful sentiment of a 

 new Mozart ; that even the idealities of Schu- 

 mann are fashions of the irrevocable past ; 

 that we shall wrestle with melodies as if 

 they were Greek roots, and suffer all the 

 pangs of purgatory before we can work out 

 a tune." 



What the new music is, we have learned 

 from Thomas long ago, and we fear that 

 subtile master has made us like it all too 

 well for his and our true progress in art : 

 what its theories and ideals are, we learn 

 authentically for the first time in English 

 speech from this book, and we welcome it, 

 if only that it puts the dogma into a defi- 

 nite, and therefore refutable, form. 



Berliner Astroxomisches Jahrbuch riJR 

 1877. W. FoERSTER uud F. Tietjen. 

 Berlin, 1875. 



The Berlin Jahrbuch, which corresponds 

 to the English Nautical Almanac and to the 

 American Ephemeris in part, is pubHshed 

 yearly in Berlin, under the charge of the 

 Director of the Berlin Observatorv. It dif- 



fers from the English, and American, and 

 French Ephemerides, in that it is a purely 

 astronomical year-book, the nautical data 

 being given by a separate publication the 

 Nautisches Jahrbuch which is at present 

 under the direction of Bremiker, who, as 

 well as Foerster, was one of Encke's pupils, 

 while Encke was the conductor of the Ber- 

 lin Jahrbuch. 



The present volume differs little from 

 the preceding ones, but it is fully up to the 

 requirements of the science. It gives: 1. 

 Ephemeris of the Sun and Moon, 100 pages ; 

 2. Geocentric places of the major planets, 

 57 pages ; 3. Heliocentric places of the 

 major planets, 12 pages; 4. Appearances 

 of Jupiter's satellites and Saturn's ring, 8 

 pages ; 5. Mean and apparent places of cer- 

 tain fixed stars, etc., 55 pages ; 6. Eclipses, 

 etc., of the year, 24 pages ; 7. Auxihary 

 tables, etc., 6 pages ; 8. Ephemeris of the 

 minor planets (asteroids), and list of their 

 approximate geocentric places, 111 pages. 



It will be seen that astronomers are well 

 provided for in data from this Ephemeris, 

 which, on the whole, is more compendious 

 than any other. It has not, for example, 

 the hourly ephemeris of the Moon which is 

 given in both the English and American 

 Ephemerides, but in general it is more con- 

 venient than either of these. Its specialty, 

 so to say, is in its ephemerides of the as- 

 teroids. Of these, 142 were known at the 

 time of the publication of this volume, and 

 complete ephemerides of 136 are given. It 

 may not be amiss to give a few details with 

 regard to these small planets, as in general 

 little is known of them : 123 of these as- 

 teroids have been observed in three differ- 

 ent years, and, of these 123, 112 have their 

 orbits so well settled that their places will 

 be suflBciently exact for some time. One 

 of the 123 {Frigga) has been observed dur- 

 ing three oppositions, and, although its 

 orbit should be well determined, it has not 

 been again found. Silvia and Clymtne 

 were for some years lost, but they have now 

 been successfully sought for and observed. " 

 Maia, Bike, and Camilla, of the first 123, 

 have been observed only during one year, 

 and are for the present lost. Liberatrix is 

 also lost, and not enough time has elapsed 

 since the discovery of the remaining 13 

 planets to be certain of their orbits. 



