NOTES. XC111 



this class of numerical data, the advantage gained by employing very great 

 distances in space as our units of measure is, that we are thus enabled to 

 express the results with a less enormous array of figures. 



( 461 ) p. 262. On the appearance and disappearance of new stars, see 

 Kosmos, Bd. iii. S. 215-233 ; Eng. ed. p. 132-152. 



( 46 *) p. 267. I have printed, in an earlier volume (Kosmos, Bd. ii. S. 347 

 and 499, Anm. 25 ; Eng. ed. p. 307 and cvi. Note 465), the passage in the 

 10th chapter of the first book " de Revolut.," imitated from the Somnium 

 Scipionis. 



( 463 ) p. 267. Theonis Smyrnsei Platonici Liber de Astronomia, ed. H. 

 Martin, 1849, p. 182 and 298 : TTJS eptyvxias jiie'ow rb irepi rbv rjXiov, 

 (novel Kagftiav ovra rov iravrbs, 8&fv <>e povaiv avrov Kal <rt\v "fyv")$]V dpa(J.cvriv 

 5to iravrbs iJKiv rov ataftaros reTa/j.4vr}v dirb r<av irepdruv. (This new edi- 

 tion is worthy of notice, in reference to the peripatetic opinions of Adrastus, 

 and many platonic opinions of Dercyllides. 



( 464 ) p. 269. Hansen, in Schumacher's Jahrbuch fur 1837, S. 65-141. 

 ( 46a ) p. 271. " D'apres 1'etat actuel de nos connaissances astronomiques 



le Soleil se compose : 1 d'un globe central a peu pres obscur ; 2 d'une 

 immense couche de nuages qui est suspendue a une certaine distance de ce 

 globe et 1'enveloppe de toutes parts; 3 d'une photosphere; en d'autres 

 termes, d'une sphere resplendissante qui enveloppe la couche nuageuse, corume 

 celle-ci, a son tour, enveloppe le noyau obscur. L'eclipse totale du 8 Juillet 

 1842 nous a mis sur la trace d'une troisieme enveloppe, situee au-dessusde 

 la photosphere, et formee de nuages obscurs ou faiblement lumineux. Ce 

 sont les nuages de la troisieme enveloppe solaire, situes en apparence pendant 

 1'eclipse totale, sur le contour de 1'astre ou un peu en dehors, qui out donne 

 lieu a ces singulieres preeminences rougeatres qui en 1842 out si vivement 

 excite 1'attention du monde savant" (Arago, in the Annuaire du Bureau de3 

 Longitudes pour 1'au 1846, p. 464 and 471). Sir John Herschel, in his 

 Outlines of Astronomy, published in 1849 (p. 234, 395), also assumes 

 "above the luminous surface of the Sun, and the region in which the spots 

 reside, the existence of a gaseous atmosphere having a somewhat imperfect 

 transparency." 



( 466 ) p. 272. It is proper to give first in the original the passages which 

 are alluded to in the text, and to which my own attention was called by an 

 instructive memoir by Dr. Clemens (" Giordano Bruno und Nicolaus von 

 Cusa/' 1847, S. 101). The Cardinal Nicolaus of Cusa (the family name 

 was Khrypffs i. e. ecrevisse, craw-fish), a native of Cues, on the Moselle, 



