FIRST TELESCOPE. 41 



the limits of an atmosphere of mercury (that is, *e elevatmu 

 ^hich mercurial vapors pmeip.tate on f ^f -- 



ssrsts k sSSSSS js of t h: 



our atmosphe« and produce meteorologieaehanges^JNew 

 ton* inclined to the idea that such might be the case, u 

 ^ regard falling stars and meteoric stones as planetary as- 

 Z c X we maybe allowed to conjecture that in the ; strea^ 

 of the so-called November phenomena.t when, as in .11 J9, 

 1833 and 1834, myriads of falling stars traversed the vault 

 of heaven and ilorthem lights were simultaneously observed, 

 our ataosphere may have'received from the regions of space 

 some rments foreign to it, which were capable of exciting 

 electro-magnetic processes. 



II. 



The increased power of vision yielded nearly two hundred 

 and fifty years ago by the invention of the telescope, has af- 

 forded to the eye" as the organ of sensuous cosmical contcm- 

 nlation the noblest of all aids toward a knowledge of the 

 Utens of space, and the investigation of the configuration, 

 C pC"al character, and masses of the planets .and .heir sat- 

 ellites The first telescope was constructed in 1608 seven 

 years after the death of 'the great observer, Tyehc > Brahe 

 Its earliest fruits were the success.ve discovery of the satel- 

 Ute of Jupiter, the Sun's spots, the crescent shape of Venus, 

 the ring of Sa urn as a triple planetary formation (planeta 

 tememfnus), telescopic stellar swarms, and the nebula, in 

 Andromeda^ In 1634, the French astronomer Morm, emi- 

 uenlf« his observations on longitude, first conceived he idea 



