SEQUEL TO THE EPOCH OF NEWTOX. 449 



same parts of the heavens with such regularity, that he was certain 

 no new planet had passed that way between 1808 and 1816. Gauss 

 and Burckhardt computed the orbit of Vesta ; and when Gauss com- 

 pared one of his orbits with twenty-two observations of M. Bouvard, 

 he found the errors below seventeen seconds of space in right ascen- 

 sion, and still less in declination. 



The elements of all these orbits have been successively improved, 

 and this has been done entirely by the German mathematicians. 33 

 These perturbations are calculated, and the places for some time before 

 and after opposition are now given in the Berlin Ephemeris. " I have 

 lately observed," says Professor Airy, " and compared with the Berlin 

 Ephemeris, the right ascensions of Juno and Vesta, and I find that 

 they are rather more accurate than those of Venus :" so complete is 

 the confirmation of the theory by these new bodies ; so exact are the 

 methods of tracing the theory to its consequences. 



We may observe that all these new-discovered bodies have received 

 names taken from the ancient mythology. In the case of the first of 

 these, astronomers were originally divided ; the discoverer himself 

 named it the Georgium Sidus, in honor of his patron, George the Third ; 

 Lalande and others called it Herschel. Nothing can be more just than 

 this mode of perpetuating the fame of the author of a discovery ; but 

 it was felt to be ungraceful to violate the homogeneity of the ancient 

 system of names. Astronomers tried to find for the hitherto neglected 

 denizen of the skies, an appropriate place among the deities to whose 

 assembly he was at last admitted ; and Uranus, the father of Saturn, 

 was fixed upon as best suiting the order of the course. 



The mythological nomenclature of planets appeared, from this time, 

 to be generally agreed to. Piazzi termed his Ceres Ferdinandea. The 

 first term, which contains a happy allusion to Sicily, the country of 

 the discovery in modern, and of the goddess in ancient, times, ha? 

 been accepted ; the attempt to pay a compliment to royalty out of 

 the products of science, in this as in most other cases, has been set 

 aside. Pallas, Juno, and Vesta, were named, without any peculiar pro- 

 priety of selection, according to the choice of their discoverers. 



Sect. 6. Application of the Newtonian Theory to Comets. 



A FEW words must be said upon another class of bodies, which at 

 first seemed as lawless as the clouds and winds ; and which astronomy 



33 Airy, Hep. 157. 

 VOL. I. --2 9 



