SIDEREAL ASTRONOMY. 315 



two volumes. After an impartial perusal of the explanation 

 offered in the Introduction just commented upon, we are still 

 compelled to state that the arrangement adopted involves 

 both incongruities and repetitions. We doubt not that some 

 of these difficulties have arisen to Baron Humboldt from the 

 manner of his publication. Physical science in all its 

 branches has been advancing with gigantic steps since the 

 first part of his work was given to the world. Much has 

 been discovered that is new, both in facts and in the laws 

 governing them ; numerous errors have been corrected ; 

 the methods and instruments of enquiry have been un- 

 ceasingly improved ; and science is made to yield practical 

 results to the uses of man much more largely than ever here- 

 tofore. A year now is equivalent to ten years at any former 

 time of its history. Our author is far too zealous an observer 

 of this progress, and too acute in his appreciation of it, to 

 allow these things to pass without record. Neither age, nor 

 courtly favours, have rendered him indifferent to what is 

 going on in the world of science around him. He lives in 

 the atmosphere of Berlin, teeming with active experimental 

 researches, and bold speculation founded upon them. A 

 natural desire for the completeness of his undertaking is 

 further fostered by an intellectual temperament prone to the 

 collection of facts, and to the establishment of those great 

 relations which give them their value and efficiency. Later 

 volumes, coming out after the lapse of years, are thus made 

 to supply the deficiencies of those which have gone before. 

 We do not wish to speak reproachfully of that which must be 

 considered inevitable, if not indeed laudable, in the conduct 

 of the work ; but that it is an imperfection in the scheme, 

 and destructive of its unity and fitness of proportion, can 

 hardly be denied. 



It is with regret that we have found ourselves obliged to 

 make these preliminary remarks. But, dealing conscien- 



