PROCEEDINGS OF THE MEETING. XXI 



supplied by the perseverance and accuracy of English ob- 

 servers. It -was natural that the value and reputation which 

 our observations thus acquired for the time, should lead us to 

 think too disrespectfully, in comparison, of the other depart- 

 ments of the science. Nor is the lesson thus taught us con- 

 fined to Astronomy ; for, though we may not be able in other 

 respects to compare our facts with the results of a vast and yet 

 certain theory, we ought never to forget that facts can only 

 become portions of knowledge as they become classed and con- 

 nected ; that they can only constitute truth when they are in- 

 cluded in general propositions. Without some attention to this 

 consideration, we may notice daily the changes of the winds 

 and skies, and make a journal of the weather, which shall have 

 no more value than a journal of our dreams would have ; but 

 if we can once obtain fixed measures of what we notice, and 

 connect our measures by probable or certain rules, it is no 

 longer a vacant employment to gaze at the clouds, or an un- 

 profitable stringing together of expletives to remark on the 

 weather ; the caprices of the atmosphere become steady dispo- 

 sitions, and we are on the road to meteorological science. 



" It may be added — as a further reason why no observer 

 should be content without arranging his observations, in what- 

 ever part of Physics, and without endeavouring at least to 

 classify and connect them — that when this is not done at first, 

 it will most likely never be done. The circumstances of the 

 observation can hardly ever be properly understood or inter- 

 preted by others ; the suggestions which the observations 

 themselves supply, for change of plan or details, cannot in any 

 other way be propei'ly appreciated and acted on. And even 

 the mere multitude of unanalysed observations may drive future 

 students of the subject into a despair of rendering them useful. 

 Among the other desiderata in Astronomy which Professor 

 Airy mentions, he observes, " Bradley's observations of stars," 

 made in 1750, " were nearly useless till Bessel undertook to re- 

 duce them" in 1818. "In like manner Bradley's and Mas- 

 kelyne's observations of the sun are still nearly useless," and 

 they and many more must continue so till they are reduced. 

 This could not have happened if they had been reduced and 

 compared with theory at the time ; and it cannot but grieve us 

 to see so much skill, labour and zeal thus wasted. The per- 

 petual reference or attempt to refer observations, however nu- 

 merous, to the most probable known rules, can alone obviate 

 similar evils. 



" It may appear to many, that by thus recommending theory 

 we incur the danger of encouraging theoretical speculatiotis 



