SEQUEL TO THE EPOCH OF NEWTON. 239 



The history of the discovery of the other new 

 planets, Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta, is nearly 

 similar to that just related, except that their pla- 

 netary character was more readily believed. The 

 first of these was discovered on the first day of this 

 century by Piazzi, the astronomer at Palermo ; but 

 he had only begun to suspect its nature, and had 

 not completed his third observation, when his 

 labours were suspended by a dangerous illness: and 

 on his recovery the star was invisible, being lost 

 in the rays of the sun. 



He declared it to be a planet with an elliptical 

 orbit ; but the path which it followed, on emerging 

 from the neighbourhood of the sun, was not that 

 which Piazzi had traced out for it. Its extreme 

 smallness made it difficult to rediscover; and the 

 whole of the year 1801 was employed in searching 

 the sky for it in vain. At last, after many trials, 

 Von Zach and Gibers again found it, the one on 

 the last day of 1801, the other on the first day of 

 1802. Gauss and Burckhardt immediately used 

 the new observations in determining the elements 

 of the orbit; and the former invented a new method 

 for the purpose. Ceres now moves in a path of 

 which the course and inequalities are known, and 

 can no more escape the scrutiny of astronomers. 



The second year of the nineteenth century also 

 produced its planet. This was discovered by Dr. 

 Olbers, a physician of Bremen, while he was search- 

 ing for Ceres among the stars of the constellation 



