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SILLIMAN'S JOURNAL. 



known to circle our sun, Lalande was observinpr 

 before Piazzi, Olbers, and Ilardintr, had added Ce- 

 res, Pallas, Juno and Vesta to tiiat number, and 

 before by those discoveries it was proved, not only 

 that the planets round the sun had passed the mys- 

 tic number of seven — since Herschel had confuted 

 that ancient belief— but that others mij^ht also re- 

 main to reward the patient labors of other obser- 

 vers. He therefore distrusted his own eves ; and 

 preferred to believe that he had been riiistaken, 

 rather than that the existence and force of a new 

 planet had been reserved for the discovery of this 

 latter aire. What his eyes saw, but what his judg- 

 ment failed to discriminate and apply, has since 

 become a recognizi d fact in science. 



I will not presume to measure the claims of the 

 two illustrious names of Leverrier and Adams ; of 

 him, who, in midnifjht workings and watchings, 

 discovered the truth in our own country, and of the 

 hardly happier philosopher who was permitted and 

 enabled to be the first, after equal workings and 

 watchings, to proclaim the great reality which his 

 science had prepared and assured him to expect. 

 I will trust myself with only two observations : the 

 one, my earnest hope that the rivalry not merely of 

 the illustrious Leverrier and of my illustrious coun- 

 tryman, Adams, but of the two great nations which 

 they represent, France and England, respectively, 

 may always be confined to pursuits in which victory 

 is without woe, and to studies which enlarge and 

 elevate the mind, and which, if rightly directed, 

 may produce alike glory to God and good to man- 

 kind : and the other, my equal hope, that for those 

 (some of whom I trust may now hear me) who 

 employ the same scientific training, and the same 

 laborious industry which have marked the research- 

 es of Leverrier and Adams, there may still remain 

 similar triumphs in the yet unpenetrated regions of 

 space ; and that — unlike the greater son of a great 

 father — they may not have to mourn that there are 

 no more worlds to be conquered. 



It is a remarkable fact, that the seeing of the 

 planet Neptune was eflfected as suddenly at Berlin 

 by means of one of the star-maps which has pro- 

 ceeded from an association of astronomers chiefly 

 Germans ; such maps forming in themselves a suffi- 

 cient illustration of the value of such associations 

 as our own, by which the labor and the expense — 

 too great, perhaps, for any one individual— are sup- 

 plied by the combined exertions of many kindred 

 followers of science. 



It is another result of the circulation of these 

 star-maps, that a new visitor, a comet, can hardly 

 be within the range of a telescope for a few hours, 

 v/ithout his presence being discovered and announced 

 through Europe. Those comets which have been 

 of larger apparent dimensions, or which have con- 

 tinued longer within view, have, in consequence, for 

 more than two thousand years, been observed with 

 more or less accuracy; their orbits have been cal- 

 culated ; and the return of some has been deter- 

 mined with a precision which in past ages exer- 

 cised the wonder of nations ; — but now, improved 

 maps of the heavens, and improved instruments, by 

 which the strangers who pass along those heavens 

 are observed, carry knowledge where conjecture 

 lately dared not to penetrate. It is not that more 



comets exist, as has sometimes been said, but more 

 are observed. 



An Englishman — a subject of this United King- 

 dom — cannot refer to the enlarged means of astro- 

 nomical observation enjoyed by the present age, 

 without some allusion to the noble Earl, Lord Rosse, 

 one of the Vice Presidents of this day, who, him- 

 self educated amongst us here in Oxford, has de- 

 voted large means and untiring labor to the com- 

 pletion of the most wonderful telescope which sci- 

 ence, art, and wealth have ever yet combined to 

 perfect ; and which the Dean of Ely — a man wor- 

 thy to praise the work — pronounced to be a rare 

 combination of mechanical, chemical, and mathe- 

 matical skill and knowledge. Its actual operations 

 have been suspended by a cause not less honorable 

 to Lord Rosse in another character, than the con- 

 ception and early progress of his great instrument 

 were to him as a man of science. They hu.vebeen 

 retarded, so far as he himself is concerned by the 

 more immediate and, I will say, higher duties 

 which, as a magistrate, as a landow^ner, and as a 

 Christian gentleman, he owed, and has lieen pay- 

 ing to his neighbors, his tenantry, and his country, 

 during the late awfid visitation which has afflicted 

 Ireland. Yet perhaps my noble friend will permit 

 me to say, that while we not only do not blame him 

 — we even praise him cordially for having devoted 

 his time, his mind, and his wealth to those claims 

 which could not be postponed, since they afl'ected 

 the lives of those who in God's providence surroun- 

 ded him — there were, and there are otiicrs, two at 

 least in his own country, and one his most illustr ous 

 friend, Dr Robinson, (but I speak without any 

 communication on the subject from that great ob- 

 server and greater philosopher,) who might have 

 carried on the series of observations which this won- 

 derful telescope alone can effect, and might thus 

 have secured for his own division of the empire, 

 the discovery of the planet Neptune. 



The Catalogues of Lacaille and the Histoire Ce- 

 leste are now before the world ; and with the Cata- 

 logue of our Association, constitute a series of 

 most important gifts conferred on astronomy. I 

 have already said that I will not presume to mea- 

 sure the relative merits of two eminent individuals ; 

 it is as little within my power to measure the value 

 of such gifts to science. That value can be duly 

 appreciated by none but the great masters of this, 

 the greatest of sciences ; but I may be permitted 

 to add, that here, also, come into beneficial action, 

 the powers and uses of such an association, which, 

 rising above the mere calculations of pecuniary 

 profit, provides for the few who only are capable of 

 extracting the just benefit from such works, those 

 materials of advancing knowledge which are be- 

 yond the reach of individuals. 



While the telescope is busy exploring the 

 heavens with such astonishing results, the 

 microscope is no less successfully employed 

 in making new revelations regarding the 

 wonderful laws of the Creator in our own 

 bodies, and those of almost every substance 



