1824.] Royal Society. 71 



the award of the Copleyan medal, to John Pond, Esq. Astronomer 

 Royal, for his various observations and communications pub- 

 lished by the Royal Society ; we can give a still fainter idea of 

 this discourse, than of the tributes of praise to the deceased 

 members : it was received by the Society in a manner which 

 evinced their strong desire that it should be made a permanent 

 record by the press. 



Having given au historical sketch of the labours of the 

 Astronomer Royal, and stated his merits as an accurate and 

 indefatigable observer; the President observed, that it is very 

 difficult to point out the specific merits of astronomical obser- 

 vations : they are not, he said, like philosophical or chemical 

 experiments, which produce an immediate result ; their delicacy 

 and exactness, he observed, could only be judged of by those 

 who have witnessed the manner in which they are made, and 

 who are accustomed to the same kind of labour ; and as they 

 often relate to long periods of time, their correctness and value 

 perhaps can only be fairly estimated by posterity. 



The President then took a rapid but luminous historical view 

 of the labours of Flamstead, Bradley, and Maskelyne, and he 

 alluded to the discussion still pending between the Astronomer 

 Royal and Dr. Brinkley on the subject of parallax. 



Sir Humphry then adverted to the principal points of discussion 

 in the papers of the Astronomer Royal, viz. the grand and long 

 agitated question of the parallax of the fixed stars, and an 

 apparent declination or change of position in a number of the 

 stars, not to be accounted for by any known laws. He said the 

 Council did not mean by this token of their respect for Mr. 

 Pond, to give any opinion on the subject of parallax, which, 

 however, it was satisfactory to find, was now brought into veiy 

 narrow limits ; nor did they enter at all into the subject of the 

 apparent declination, for on a matter of such great importance, 

 new observations, and the researches of years, were required to 

 fix the judgment of scientific men. 



Having mentioned the advantages which navigation has ac- 

 quired from astronomical observations, and which to this coun- 

 try were peculiarly necessary, on account of its maritime and 

 colonial empire, the President observed, that astronomy had 

 exerted a powerful effect in the general improvement of the 

 human mind, by developing the true system of the universe. In 

 consequence of the discoveries made in it, all the superstitious 

 notions — all the prejudices respecting the heavenly bodies, 

 which had such an effect upon the destinies of individuals and 

 of kingdoms in ancient times, have disappeared : and the science 

 as it now exists is the noblest monument ever raised by man to 

 the glory of his Maker; for its ultimate and refined deyelope- 

 paents demonstrate combinations which could only be the result 

 of infinite wisdom, intelligence, and power. 



