45G Astronomical Society. 



scope has been found for selection in the merits of our own com- 

 patriots, and in the home hst of our members. It is not that great 

 and important Astronomical works have not emanated from our 

 continental neighbours : on the contrary, the spirit of research and 

 discovery appears to have prevailed with extraordinary activity; and 

 the last year has even witnessed the addition to our system of an- 

 other of those singular bodies, the discovery of which has conferred 

 so much lustre on the names of Haliey and Encke. No less than 

 three independent claimants to the almost simultaneous disclosure 

 ol this interesting fact may be enumerated ; and this circumstance, 

 while it marks the spirit of the age more i'orcibly perhaps than any 

 trait which could be produced, must obviously render it impossible 

 for this Society to interfere or decide on the priority and rank of 

 the competitors. But though unmarked by any tangible memorial 

 of our approbation, tlie names of Biela, Clausen, and Ganibart 

 will not the less be cherished among us, and enrolled by posterity 

 in the choicest and most permanent annals of Astronomical ce- 

 lebrity. 



It is however for labours of a very difForent kind that our medals 

 are this day to be conferred : labours, if less brilhant, yet more 

 vital; if less associated with lofty speculations on the nature of the 

 universe, yet more intimately linked with the practical uses of this 

 world. The first award of your Council is that of a gold and silver 

 medal respectively to your late excellent President Mr. Daily, and 

 your indefatigable Secretary Mr. Stratford, for their joint labours 

 in the construction of the Catalogue of 2881 principal fixed stars, 

 which forms the Appendix to the second volume of the Memoirs 

 of this Society. 



A catalogue of stars may be considered in two very distinct lights, 

 either as a mere list of objects placed on record, to fix on them the 

 attention of astronomers, and to afford them matter for observation, 

 or as a collection of well-determined zero points, offering ready 

 means of comparing their observations with those of others, and of 

 detecting and allowing for instrumental errors. In this light only I 

 shall now consider it as chiefly of importance to the practical as- 

 tronomer. It is for his uses that an amount of pains, labour, and 

 expense, both national and individual, has been bestowed on the per- 

 fection of such catalogues, which on a superficial view must appear 

 in the last degree lavish, but which yet has been no more than the 

 necessity of the case demands. If we ask to what end magnificent 

 establishments are maintained by states and sovereigns, furnished 

 with master-pieces of art, and placed under the direction of men of 

 first-rate talent, and high-minded enthusiasm, sought out for those 

 qualities among the foremost in the ranks of science : — if we demand 

 cui bono ? for what good a Bradley has toiled, or a Maskelyne or a 

 Piazzi worn out his venerable age in watching ? the answer is,— not 

 to settle mere speculative points in the doctrine of the universe ; not 

 to cater for the pride of man, by refined inquiries into the remoter 

 n)ysteries of nature, — to trace the path of our system through infinite 

 space, or its history through past and future eternities. These in- 

 deed are noble end^, and which I am far from any thought of depre- 

 ciating ; 



