INTRODUCTION 19 



stall possible mistakes and confusion. Morever, the archi- 

 tect takes the builder into his counsels, supplies him with 

 duplicate plans and specifications, and in every other way 

 cooperates with him throughout. In the case of con- 

 structing a science, all this is reversed. The designer 

 never appears ; there are no plans or specifications ; facts 

 the building materials are acquired haphazard and 

 at awkward intervals ; the very size of the foundation is 

 unknown, as are likewise the height, the breadth and the 

 general arrangement of the superstructure. Taking facts 

 as they arrived, astronomers have tried to make progress 

 as they went along, often mistaking capstone for corner- 

 stone, cornice for girder, lintel for sill in short, creating 

 a structure, it is true, but one weirdly different from what 

 it would have been had all the materials been available 

 from the very outset. Now, thanks to time and human in- 

 dustry, all the facts are simultaneously before our eyes 

 inviting and challenging us to test our architectual pow- 

 ers afresh. Shall we decline the challenge! 



While it is true that my system is still so novel as not 

 yet to have become authoritatively recognized and might, 

 therefore, not unreasonably be supposed too untried for 

 laymen to trust their unaided judgment upon, yet such 

 seems to me its simplicity that I believe every studiously 

 inclined reader who possesses even a sophomoric knowl- 

 edge of descriptive astronomy will be able to follow my 

 thesis step by step to its conclusion and form an intelli- 

 gent opinion as to its merits. My special appeal is directed 

 to that large body of professional men of scientific lean- 

 ings who aim at broad generalizations as a means of 

 classifying and memorizing the essentials of the sciences, 

 believing, as I do, that among this class are to be found, in 

 happiest combination, those primary judicial qualifica- 

 tions of impartiality, learning and discretion, of which the 

 greatest and rarest is assuredly impartiality. 



I regret exceedingly being unable, through force of 

 circumstances that may be safely left to the reader's 

 imagination, to embellish the work with helpful illustra- 

 tions, and, for the same reason, being obliged to compress 



