THE ASTRONOMICAL VIEW OF NATURE. 327 



better. It would seem as if to such minds the scientific 

 formula, the so-called law of nature, must be distasteful, 

 and probably useless. Nevertheless the scientific view, of 

 which the mathematical formula is an extreme expres- 

 sion, has reacted, though not always beneficially, upon 

 the labours of those who confine themselves to observa- 

 tion and description ; it has given to their efforts general 

 interest and encouragement, indicated new directions, and 

 frequently opened new fields. Thus the new formula of 

 Copernicus and Galileo gave a great impetus to star- 

 gazing, which was greatly increased by the almost con- 

 temporary invention of the telescope. The new theory 

 required the rotation of the planets, and led to minute 

 observations of their phases, and to the discovery of the 

 satellites of Jupiter and the ring of Saturn. Variable 

 stars were incidentally discovered by Tycho, and the 

 long-neglected comets received greater attention. Ber- 

 noulli attempted, and Halley actually carried out, the 

 calculation of the return of a comet. Still later- in 

 fact, not before the end of the eighteenth or the beginning 

 of the present century came the turn for reliable obser- 

 vation of meteors and auroras; for as late as 1790 the 

 ' Decade philosophique,' as well as the Paris Academy and 

 many learned persons, ridiculed the authentic reports of 

 the fall of meteors, and Chladni's classical dissertation on 

 the stone of Pallas.^ It seems as if the purest love of 



1 When iu the year 17i<0 the 

 municipality of Juillac iu Gascony 

 submitted a report, signed by more 

 than 300 eyewitnesses, to the Paris 

 Academy, on a fall of stones which 

 had there taken place, one of the 

 editors of the ' Decade philoso- 

 phique ' remarked that it would be 



better to deny such incredible things 

 than to enter into any explanations. 

 Bertholon could not help pitying a 

 community which had such a foolisli 

 maire, and remarked in the ' Jour- 

 nal des Sciences utiles ' : " How sad 

 it is to find a whole municipality 

 attesting formally by protocol popu- 



