190 Sir John Herschel and Modern Astronomy. _ |Apvil, 
Whilst this indefatigable astronomer was thus busy with the 
most distant stars, and examining with philosophic acumen those 
conditions of matter which appear to indicate something which may 
well be taken for world-formation, he found time not merely to 
study several branches of physical science, but to write treatises, 
which are, even now, referred to as authorities upon every point 
of importance treated in them. ‘The treatises on Sound, and on 
Light, published in the ‘ Encyclopzedia Metropolitana,’ are striking 
examples of that exactness which should ever belong to inductive 
science—of clear deductions, ever displaying the powers of the 
most philosophic mind, and a perspicuity of style which other 
writers on science would have been wise .to imitate. ‘These labours 
may not be regarded as belonging to astronomical science; but the 
theory by which the phenomena of light is explained, based as it is, 
by analogy, on the laws of sound, is intimately connected with the 
perfect understanding of the instruments employed in celestial 
surveys. Incidentally, too, we must notice in passing the ‘ Preli- 
minary Discourse on the Study of. Natural Philosophy, which 
formed a volume of ‘ Lardner’s Encyclopedia, as a work singularly 
fitted to prepare the student for his labours. We cannot refrain 
from making one quotation from this charming little volume, to the 
study of which we have returned with advantage again and again. 
Discussing the question of the benefits to be derived from the pur- 
suits of science which Sir John Herschel contends has peculiar 
tendencies to improve and purify the mind, he concludes :—“ There 
is something in the contemplation of general laws which powerfully 
persuades us to merge individual feeling, and to commit ourselves 
unreservedly to their disposal; while the observation of the calm, 
energetic regularity of Nature, the immense scale of her operations, 
aud the certainty with which her ends are attained, tends irre- 
sistibly to tranquillize and reassure the mind and render it less 
accessible to repining, selfish, and turbulent emotions. And this 
it does, not by debasing our nature into weak compliances and 
abject submission to circumstances, but by fillmg us, as from an 
inward spring, with a sense of nobleness and power which enables 
us to rise superior to them, by showing us our strength and innate 
dignity, and by calling upon us for the exercise of those powers and 
faculties by which we are susceptible of the comprehension of so 
much greatness, and which form, as it were, a lmk between our- 
selves and the best and noblest benefactors of our species, with 
whom we hold communion in thoughts, and participate in disco- 
veries which have raised them above their fellow mortals and 
brought them nearer to their Creator.’”* 
An article from the same pen on Physical Astronomy appeared 
* * Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy,’ pp. 16, 17. 
