Reviews, and Notices respecting New Books. 455 



When it was stated, at page 194 of the present volume, that 

 the best Catalogue of Comets was probably that contained in 

 Delambre's Astronomy, the writer had not seen the one pub- 

 lished by Olbers, translated and republished by the late Dr. 

 T.Young, in the Quarterly Journal of Science for 1823, from 

 the first Number of the Astronomische Abhandlungen of Pro- 

 fessor Schumacher, and to which his attention has been called 

 by that gentleman. This Catalogue, comprising all the comets 

 of which the elements had been computed at that time, is by 

 far the best extant, and, as such, with the warmest acknow- 

 ledgements to the original editor, will be incorporated in the 

 present compilation. 



[To be continued.] 



Errata in the preceding parts of the Catalogue. 



Page 195, line 7> for Year and read Year of 



282, 11, — 1758 — 1759 



282, 12, — Year and — Year of 



LXXIX. Reviews, and Notices respecting New Books. 



Report of the First and Second Meetings of the British Association 

 for the Advancement of Science ; at York in 1 83 1 , and at Oxford 

 in 1832.* including its Proceedings, Recommendations, and Trans- 

 actions. London, 1833, 8vo, pp. 624; with an engraved Geolo- 

 gical Section through Europe. 



MR. WHEWELL, when discussing, in his " Report on the re- 

 cent Progress and present State of Mineralogy," which con- 

 stitutes a distinguished feature in the volume now before us, the 

 various systems of classification which have of late been proposed 

 in mineralogy, and which have for the most part originated with the 

 mineralogists and chemists of the Continent, remarks, that the " pro- 

 secution of details, and apathy or contempt with respect to methods, 

 appears to be a part of the intellectual character of this country. 

 Men here appear to feel no interest with regard to rules and systems 

 till they are so complete, so clearly developed as to principle, their 

 apparent difficulties so far explained, that the general rule will bear 

 a strict application in each particular instance. They are disposed 

 to despise the dim glimmerings of dawning principles, in cases where, 

 though a connexion may be probable or certain, the asserted con- 

 nexion is clearly not exact. Our countrymen," he continues, 

 " thus often lose much of the pleasure and honour which belong 

 to those who labour to unfold an obscure and imperfect truth : but 

 yet, on this very account, their discoveries, when made, have a more 

 positive character and a more original tone than they might other- 

 wise possess." Concurring entirely with Mr. Whewell in these re- 

 presentations (though we are far from regarding the peculiarity of 

 character in question as altogether a beneficial quality), we think 



