Sect. VIII.] Astronomy. 8? 



of astronomical calculations, and to confer new ac- 

 curacy upon every part of the science. 



At the concUision of the seventeenth century, 

 the number of regularly established and endowed 

 public Observatories was small. It is believed that 

 only tivo^ or at most three, of any distinction existed 

 at that time. Within the last century, the number 

 of these institutions has greatly increased. They 

 are now established in almost every part of Europe ; 

 richly furnished with the best apparatus for making 

 observations; and continually sending forth dis- 

 coveries and improvements, as the best evidence of 

 their utilit}^. 



But astronomy has not only been enriched by 

 the augmentation of its own immediate stores; 

 it has been also improved, during the period in 

 question, by the collateral aid of other sciences 

 and arts. The improvements in the viechanic artSy 

 hy furnishing the astronomer with more perfect 

 instruments, have materially furthered him in his 

 course. The discoveries in dynamics and optics, 

 and the refinements which have taken place in ina- 

 thematical science, though apparently of small mo- 

 ment when considered in themsehes, yet, when 

 applied to astronomical investigations, have proved 

 highly important and useful. Formerly astronomy 

 could only be improved through the mediuni of 

 acaial observation; but when the great Newtonian 

 theory of the solar system was once established, a 

 new path of inquiry, and new grounds of calcula- 

 tion, were laid down. Data, from that period, 

 werc!^ afforded for ascertaining, with great ])ret^ision, 

 the orbits, the revolutions, and the inequalllie.^ of 



