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VIII. Notices respecting New Books. 



Astronomy Simplified for General Reading, with numerous New Ex- 

 planations and Discoveries in Spectrum Analysis, 8fC. By J. A. 

 S. Rollwyn. Tegg, London. 



"POSSESSING a knowledge of astronomical literature dating from 

 -*■ 1811, when we first made acquaintance with Ferguson's * Young 

 Ladies' and Gentlemen's Astronomy,' now scarce, and, as time pro- 

 gressed, with Brewster, Woodhouse, Herschel, Vince, Drew, and a 

 host of other writers, including the memoirs which appeared from 

 time to time in the ' Transactions ' of scientific bodies, &c, we anti- 

 cipated, from the title of the work before us, a clear and lucid state- 

 ment of the broad and leading features of astronomy, couched in 

 language which would render them easily intelligible to readers 

 who were not desirous of mastering the more abstruse portions of 

 the science. Upon reviewing our perusal of 402 pages we look back 

 on our literary journey as having passed through regions of black and 

 white, in which we have encountered illusory nebulae, pear-shaped 

 moons, smoking suns, hypothetical planets, atmospheric star-showers, 

 suggestions for a sensational novel describing life in the planet Mars, 

 allusions to wax-doll astronomy, a chemical theory of Saturn's rings, 

 and a new explanation of the dark lines in the solar spectrum ; and 

 we seriously inquire, Have we mistaken the title ? is it really 

 Astronomy Simplified ? For most assuredly we should have arrived 

 at the conclusion that "Astronomy Mystified" would have been 

 the better title, had not the title-page itself informed us of the sim- 

 plicity of the work and its suitability for general reading. 



Amongst the numerous books, popular and otherwise, that have 

 been written on astronomy, there is much that may be characterized 

 as calculated to furnish general and accurate ideas of stars and star- 

 systems, of nebulae, of the sun and his planetary family, of comets, 

 and of the connexion between astronomy and chemistry through the 

 medium of spectrum analysis ; and had the author abstained from 

 controverting theories which are likely to be established, and intro- 

 ducing those of his own which have to pass through the necessary 

 ordeal, he would, we are convinced from various passages in the 

 work, have succeeded in producing a book which would have an- 

 swered to its title. For example, had he grouped selections of known 

 facts under heads as above mentioned, referring but sparingly to 

 theories, and to those only which would clearly explain classes of 

 facts, his work would have taken rank with the productions of the 

 popular scientific writers of the day. But he has gone out of his way 

 to guard the public against what he terms the authority of science; 

 he says in his preface, "that while many things go forth to the 

 general world apparently under the authority of science, which are 

 only, after all, matter of speculation, without any scientific sanction 

 * * * * The public mind is, as a rule, not sufficiently acquainted 

 with the rationalia involved to be capable of self-protection, or to 

 be able to distinguish, as scientific men generally do, what has been 

 definitely discovered from what has in the absence of discovery been 



