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and, having named the name of Bessel, to offer a passing tribute to his 

 memory. He, who but a few months since occupied the foremost place 

 in the ranks of living Astronomers, is now no moi'e ! He died on the 

 day which followed the last meeting and Anniversary of this Body ; and 

 those among us who had the happiness to form his acquaintance, during 

 his short visit to England, and to the British Association, four years 

 ago, will be able to sympathize with his personal friends, no less than 

 with the world of science, in deploring his loss. 



" Of the Astronomical and Optical labours of the Earl of Rosse, and 

 of his great reflector — the marvel of astronomical science — it is needless 

 for me to speak. No one who was present when the account of its con- 

 struction, and of its first achievements, was given in this room by Dr. 

 Robinson, can readily forget it ; and for others, the printed notice of 

 that account, in the last Number of our Proceedings, will give the fullest 

 information we yet possess respecting it. Even from this statement of 

 its earliest trials, it is manifest that the astronomical history of the 

 nehidce will, ere long, be re-made ; and it must be satisfactory to us 

 to know, that the noble artist has arranged a plan of systematic obser- 

 vation, directed to these remote and mysterious portions of the universe, 

 which promises to reveal all that can be known, until a still higher 

 optical power (if such be practically possible) shall be applied to their 

 examination. The imagination is bewildered when it seeks to grasp 

 the possible future, which may be opened to this and other depart- 

 ments of Astronomical Science by the application of such means : I 

 will mention but one amongst the many anticipations which press for 

 utterance. The observations of Bessel have detected proper motions 

 in the fixed stars, Sinus and Procyon, which appear to establish the 

 existence of invisible companions, of vast magnitude, about which 

 they revolve. Is the invisibility of these great bodies relative only ? 

 and if so, may it not be dispelled before the optical power which Lord 

 Rosse has brought to bear upon the Heavens ? 



" * Astronomy, however,' to use the words of one whose philosophic 

 mind, and varied and profound acquirements, well entitle him to 

 legislate for science, ' is only one out of many sciences, which can be 

 advanced by a combined system of observation and calculation, car- 

 ried on uninterruptedly. ******* in a utilitarian point 



