574- Royal Astronomical Society. 



eighty constellations were quite enough for all useful purposes : but 

 the vanity of introducing new constellations had, in the eighteenth 

 century, exceeded all bounds, and twenty-six more were added to 

 the number. This extravagant number of new constellations, some 

 of which were formed of scarcely visible stars, by no means made 

 the study of astronomy more easy ; but, on the contrary, confused 

 it, and rendered it more difficult. Moreover these new constella- 

 tions are so unsuited to the others, and chosen with so little taste, 

 that no one can look on our modern globes without disgust. The first 

 who introduced this objectionable system was the excellent and di- 

 stinguished Lacaille. Surely if it were requisite that the whole hea- 

 vens should be filled with constellations, they might have been chosen 

 according to some general principle. We might have embellished 

 the apparatus and inventions of our chemists, if indeed they could 

 be embellished by them : and as the ancient figures of heroes and 

 animals must be retained, some latitude might be allowed also to 

 astronomical instruments. But figures, like the shop of the sculptor, 

 the chemical furnace, the easel, the microscope, the air-pump, &c, 

 have no relation to the sky, and their being mixed up with the 

 others is heterogeneous, disagreeable, and without any taste. The 

 same remark will apply to the Printing-press and Electrical machine 

 of Bode ; also to Lalande's Air-balloon, although this latter constel- 

 lation may seem to have some connexion with the heavens. The 

 Hermit-bird {Solitarius) of Le Monnier might remain, if it did not 

 interfere with Libra ; but his Reindeer is quite absurd, on account 

 of its smallness, it being scarcely so large as the Lizard, and much 

 smaller than the Hare. Also Lalande's Messier, which is covered by 

 the horns of the Reindeer, is but a very small figure in comparison 

 with the immense human figures of the ancients that surround him, 

 although it has robbed the greater part of its little possession from 

 Cepheus and Cassiopeia, and has contracted the throne of the latter 

 into a bent form ; the little man is in fact quite ridiculous amongst 

 such enormous figures. The immortal name of Frederick the Great 

 needed not the aid of a constellation for its preservation ; a constella- 

 tion, in fact, carved out of Andromeda, and styled Honores Fre- 

 derici. And if it be an honour to this great monarch to have his 

 name enrolled amongst the stars, we must bear in mind that he en- 

 joys this apotheosis, not only with the brave Sobieski, but also with 

 Poniatowski and the insignificant Charles II. of Great Britain. 

 The name of George III. will also be handed down to posterity 

 without the George's Harp of Pater Hell : and the discovery of Uranus 

 will preserve the name of Herschel as long as astronomy exists, 

 without the necessity of placing his telescope in a narrow slip in 

 the heavens. By the Lion and the Lynx the feline tribe had been 

 sufficiently represented in the sky, without any necessity of intro- 

 ducing a Cat amongst the stars, merely because Lalande was fond 

 of this domestic animal. I appeal to the judgement of all those 

 who have compared any of the old celestial maps with the more 

 modern ones, whether they do not feel a repugnance to the absurd 

 mixing of so many heterogeneous constellations. And since by such 



