SKETCH OF R. A. PROCTOR. 487 



to be unfit for such employment. There are no doubt reasons for this 

 distinction, whether conclusive or not, but the classification is by- 

 no means above criticism, for within our own time Astronomy has 

 been taken out of the category of the established or perfect sciences, 

 and may be now cited as one of the best illustrations of a progressive 

 science. Of course, there are established truths in Astronomy, and so 

 there are in Chemistry and Physics, but Astronomy has now assumed 

 a new character of progressiveness, and within the present generation 

 it has surpassed all the other sciences in the rapidity and splendor of 

 its advancement. 



Not so many years ago it seemed as though astronomy were ap- 

 proaching, if it had not already reached, its final stage. The Sun and 

 his family had been measured and weighed, the Moon tracked in all 

 her motions, and the paths of comets determined. The younger Her- 

 schel had completed the survey of the heavens, which his father com- 

 menced, and, to all seeming, little, remained to be ascertained about 

 the universe. And yet, in the presence of the astronomy of our day, 

 that of a few years ago looks crude and elementary. Newton made 

 an epoch by bringing the movements of the planetary bodies under 

 the demonstrated laws of terrestrial force ; Kirchhoff and the spectro- 

 scopists have made a new era by subordinating stars, comets, and 

 nebulae, to the laws of terrestrial chemistry. The recent physical ex- 

 plorations of the sun constitute one of the most thrilling chapters in 

 all science. Nor have astronomers been content with the unques- 

 tioned acceptance of the older views respecting the planetary scheme. 

 Not Ptolemy alone, or Hipparchus, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton, 

 but even the elder and younger Herschel, would stand aghast at the 

 change of opinion that has been wrought regarding the members of 

 the solar system. Jupiter and Saturn, so long considered as merely 

 large specimens of habitable worlds, have taken their place in a 

 higher order of orbs, while satellites, formerly thought to be set as 

 lights to illumine their primaries, have been raised almost to the 

 dignity of planets. Even more surprising have been the discoveries 

 made respecting comets and meteors, while modern inquiries have 

 not stopped short of the domain of the so-called fixed stars, so that 

 the whole scheme of the stellar universe begins to present a new 

 aspect. 



Astronomical science, in short, has been enlarged and reshaped in 

 the nature and scope of its problems, and has entered into a new epoch 

 in our own time which opens to us even a grander future than was dis- 

 closed either to Copernicus or to Newton. 



As was quite unavoidable, this recent revolution or extension of 

 the science has left behind the old teachers, and created a demand for 

 new men, who can deal with the subject in its more novel and ex- 

 tended aspects. And, as supply follows demand in the intellectual as 

 well as the commercial world, the expounders of the new dispensation 



