PORTION OF THE COSMOS. CONCLUSION". 447 



CONCLUSION. 



IN concluding the Uranological portion of the physical 

 description of the Universe, and casting a retrospective 

 glance on what has been attempted, I will not say accom- 

 plished, I feel it necessary, after the execution of so diffi- 

 cult an undertaking, to remind my readers afresh, that its 

 accomplishment was only possible under the conditions 

 which were indicated in the introduction to the third 

 volume. The attempted cosmical treatment of Uranology is 

 limited in its design to the presentation or description of 

 what we know of the celestial spaces and the matter by 

 which they are occupied, whether agglomerated into spheres, 

 or existing in an uncondensed or unagglomerated form. 

 The work undertaken is, therefore, in its nature essentially 

 distinct from the more comprehensive meritorious works on 

 astronomy in the different literatures of the present time. 

 Astronomy itself, regarded as a science, and as the triumph 

 of mathematical combination, based on the secure founda- 

 tion of the doctrine of gravitation, and on the degree of per- 

 fection attained by the higher analysis as the intellectual 

 instrument of investigation, treats of the phsenomena of 

 motion, as measured by time and space ; of the locality or 

 position of the celestial bodies in their continually varying 



