PKEFACE. 



THE present volume originated in a desire to 

 present, in small compass, a record of the mar- 

 vellous progress in astronomy during the past 

 hundred years. Indebtedness should be acknow- 

 ledged to the valuable works of Professor New- 

 comb, Professor Schiaparelli, Professor Lowell, 

 Professor Young, Sir Robert Ball, Mr Gore, M. 

 Flammarion, and Miss Clerke, who, as the 

 historian of modern astronomy, occupies a place 

 at once authoritative and unique. 



Portions of Chapters II. and XII. have already 

 appeared in the form of an article on the Con- 

 struction of the Heavens, contributed by the 

 writer to the American periodical, 'Popular 

 Astronomy. ' 



BALERNO, MID-LOTHIAN, 

 October 1906. 



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