242 HISTORY OF PHYSICAL ASTRONOMY. 



those of Venus:" so complete is the confirmation 

 of the theory by these new bodies ; so exact are the 

 methods of tracing the theory to its consequences. 



We may observe that all these new-discovered 

 bodies have received names taken from the ancient 

 mythology. In the case of the first of these, as- 

 tronomers were originally divided; the discoverer 

 himself named it the Georgium Sidus, in honour 

 of his patron, George the Third; Lalande and 

 others called it Herschel. Nothing can be more 

 just than this mode of perpetuating the fame of 

 the author of a discovery ; but it was felt to be un- 

 graceful to violate the homogeneity of the ancient 

 system of names. Astronomers tried to find for 

 the hitherto neglected denizen of the skies, an ap- 

 propriate place among the deities to whose assem- 

 bly he was at last admitted; and Uranus, the 

 father of Saturn, was fixed upon as best suiting 

 the order of the course. 



The mythological nomenclature of planets ap- 

 peared from this time to be generally agreed to. 

 Piazzi termed his, Ceres Ferdinandea. The first 

 term, which contains a happy allusion to Sicily, 

 the country of the discovery in modern, and of the 

 goddess in ancient, times, has been accepted; the 

 attempt to pay a compliment to royalty out of the 

 products of science, in this as in most other cases, 

 has been set aside. Pallas, Juno, and Vesta, were 

 named, without any peculiar propriety of selection, 

 according to the choice of their discoverers (N). 



