330 Proceedings of the 



Mr. Pond, he could not, he said, but congratulate the Society that the 

 state of scientific inquiry, and the number of scientific men, rendered 

 it scarcely possible that any great problem could long remain un- 

 solved, or any considerable object of interest uninvestigated. No 

 question is now limited to one observatory, to one country, or even 

 to one quarter of the globe ; v?hilst such men as Brinkley observe 

 at Dublin, Bessel at Koningsberg, Arago at Paris, Olbers at Bremen, 

 Schumacher at Altona, and Gauss and Hardinge at Gottingen, as- 

 tronomy must be progressive ; her results cannot but become more 

 refined. Sir H. then gave some account of the state of astronomi- 

 cal science abroad, and especially in Germany, and mentioned, in 

 terms of great approbation, the perfection with which instruments 

 were constructed by Reichenbach and Frauenhofier, and the zeal 

 with which astronomical pursuits were carried on upon the continent 

 of Europe ; all which circumstances, he said, ought to be subjects 

 of congratulation to us, not of uneasiness ; and if they produce any 

 strong feeling, it should be that of emulation and glory — the desire 

 of maintaining the pre-eminence which, since the foundation of the 

 Royal^Observatory, has belonged to us in this science. 



The President concluded his discourse nearly in the following 

 words : — " There is. Gentlemen, no more gratifying subject for 

 contemplation than the present state and future prospects of astro- 

 nomy ; and when it is recollected what this science was two centu- 

 ries ago, the contrast affords a sublime proof of the powers and 

 resources of the human mind. The notions of Ptolemy of cycles and 

 epicycles and the moving spheres of the heavens were then current ; 

 the observatories existing were devoted rather to the purposes of 

 judicial astrology than to the philosophy of the heavenly bodies ; 

 to objects of superstition, rather than of science. If it were neces- 

 sary to fix upon the strongest characteristic of the superiority of 

 modern over ancient times, I know not whether the changes in the 

 art of war, from the application of gunpowder ; or in literary re- 

 sources, from the press ; or even the wonderful power created by 

 the -Steam-engine, could be chosen with so much propriety as the 

 improved state of astronomy. Even the Athenians, the most en- 

 lightened people of antiquity, condemned a philosopher to death 



