324 Observations on the present State 
mulas, from which we can compute with almost perfect exactness 
wheré any planet in the system will be found at any given in- 
stant; and they have thus enabled us to apply to important prac- 
tical purposes the result of researches the most arduous and diffi- 
cult that have ever engayed the attention of mankind. 
It was the proud boast of a distinguished philosopher, that at 
the close of the eighteenth century there remained not an ob- 
served phzenomenon of the planetary motions that had not been 
completely accounted for. 
Among those who have contributed to this glorious achieve- 
ment, it is satisfactory to observe that the names of our country 
men hold a distinguished place. It is too much to expect that 
men worthy in every way to be considered as the successors of 
Newton will readily be found in any country; but the labours of 
that ¢reat man in the science of Astronomy have not been inade- . 
quately followed up by the intelligence and activity of those who 
have happily been selected to él the situation of Astronomer 
Royal in this country; a succession of men of whom it is slight 
_ praise to say that they, shave been in every respect worthy of their 
office. Whilst we pride ourselves, however, on the aid which our 
admirable observers have afforded towards completing this great 
work, we must acknowledge that more than an equal share of 
the honour of extending and perfecting the theory of the science 
is due to the philosophers of a neighbouring country. 
The great object of all the exertions that have been made to 
bring this science to perfection, has been the improvement of the 
art of navigation; and in that art the finding of the longitude 
by celestial observations has for ages been considered as the grand 
desideratum. Of all the methods that have been proposed to solve 
this problem, none has been found capable of being reduced to 
practice at sea, except that by observations on the distance of the 
moon from the sun or a fixed star. Accordingly, for the last 
century, the attention of astronomers to every thing calculated 
to bring this method to perfection has been unremitted: Every 
improvement in the instruments of observation, and every ad- 
vance in the theory of astronomy, has contributed to increase the 
utility of the lunar method of finding the longitude; and it has 
at length been brought to a degree of perfection, which forty 
years ago those best acquainted with the subject could scarcely 
have anticipated. 
When Mr. Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal, received his 
appointment in 1675, he was enjoined ‘to apply himself with 
the utmost care and diligence to rectify the tables of the motions 
of the heavens, and the “places of the fixed stars, in order to find 
put the so much desired longitude at sea, for perfecting the art 
of navigation.” But such, in his time, was the state of Astro- 
omy, that in some cases the place of the moon in the heavens 
could 
