460 Royal Sucicli/. 



ence, particularly when no great discoveries have resulted 

 from them : but where a prize is to be given annually, which 

 is one of the conditions of the donation, it cannot always be 

 bestowed for grand and brilliant results ; and no branch of 

 human knowledge more demands encouragement than astro- 

 nomy: for, having arrived almost at a mature state, it offers, 

 perhaps, fewer objects of new inquiry than any other science, 

 and improvements can be made in it only by the greatest de- 

 licacy of observation, by great labour, and that at a time 

 which is usually devoted to repose, and often with a sacrifice 

 of health. The astronomer requires not days or nights only, 

 but months or years for his results, and demands all the sym- 

 pathy and all the attentions and kind feelings of his brethren 

 in science." 



The learned President paid some high compliments to Dr. 

 Brinkley, dwelt upon his profound mathematical knowledge, 

 the most essential quality of an accomplished astronomer; 

 upon his accuracy, acuteness, and minute spirit of observation ; 

 and upon the strength of his reasonings, and the candour 

 and justice of his philosophical views. " You know, gentle- 

 men," he said, "that Dr. Brinkley and the Astronomer-royal 

 are at issue upon two great points of astronomy; — one affirm- 

 ing, the other denying, a sensible parallax of some of the fixed 

 stars. One denying, the other affirming, a southern motion 

 of a considerable part of the sidereal system. The Council 

 of the Royal Society," observed the President, "did not, by 

 their vote of the medal to Mr. Pond last year, mean to de- 

 cide on the evidence on these subjects, or to give an opinion 

 on these obscure and difficult questions in astronomy, depend- 

 ing upon such nice observations. They make the same reser- 

 vation this year; founding their award upon the great and ge- 

 neral scientific merits of Dr. Brinkley, and on the approxi- 

 mations that he has made to the solutions of these problems. 

 The learned President gave a history of the progress of side- 

 real astronomy, and particularly of the inquiries made re- 

 specting parallax, or the differences of the angles made by 

 fixed stars with the two extremities of the earth's orbit. — He 

 detailed the opinions or observations and experiments of 

 Galileo, Flamsteed, Hooke, Bradley, Mitchell, Herschel, 

 Cassini, La Caille, and Piazzi. He stated thalDr.Brinkley's 

 latest and most refined result on the parallax of « hyrce 

 (the star in which he has most invariably observed the phas- 

 nomenon) of one second and a few hundredth parts, is not 

 opposed to Dr. Bradley's view of the subject, or to the pho- 

 tometrical considerations of Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Gauss. 

 He stated that with respect to the southern motion, Dr. 



Brinkiey's 



