112 RAMBLES AND REVERIES. 



is six feet in diameter. But in regard to definition, 

 the diameter of a reflector must not be compared 

 with the diameter of a refractor, the latter being 

 in every way superior. So that we are obliged to 

 admit that so far our astronomers have not been at 

 all on an advantageous footing in comparison with 

 several other nations in regard to the mechanical 

 and optical appliances of the observatory. 



But although our Greenwich establishment is not 

 so splendidly equipped as others, yet it remains to 

 be seen whether the more imposing instruments 

 possessed by our transatlantic cousins will answer 

 to the expectations formed concerning them ; and, 

 even if they do, it will be long before Greenwich 

 will be put into the shade. The records of its work 

 are a magnificent testimony to England's enterprise 

 and industry, and, notwithstanding our changeful 

 skies and the niggardliness which our Government 

 has usually shown in regard to science, it must be 

 many years before any other country can show 

 such results as are chronicled in the archives of 

 Greenwich, or such a noble line of astronomical 

 heroes as England can boast of in Flamsteed, 

 Newton, Halley, the Herschels, Adams, and 

 Airy. 



On our way down to the Observatory, up, as one 

 or two of our stouter companions found it to be 

 towards; the end of our journey, we beguiled the 

 time with talk about ancient astronomies, the 

 Pyramid observatories, the astronomical structures 

 of Benares and Delhi, the Ptolemaic system, the 

 incidents relating to Tycho Brahe" and Copernicus 



