600 MEMOIR OF SIR THOMAS MAKDOUGALL BRISBANE. 
«“ Among so many important labours, however, some of which are awaiting 
their final completion, or receiving the last touches of their authors, the attention 
of your Council has been fixed by the imposing mass of valuable observations 
which has emanated, during a series of years, from the observatory at Parramatta, 
established by the late governor of the colony of New South Wales, Sir THomas 
MAKDOUGALL BRISBANE, one of our vice-presidents, long distinguished among us 
by his ardent love of astronomy, and an intimate familiarity both with its theory 
and practice. 
‘*Nothing can be more interesting in the eyes of a European astronomer, 
especially to those whose field of research, like our own, is limited by a consider- 
able northern latitude, than the southern hemisphere, where a new heaven as 
well as a new earth is offered to his speculation, and where the distance, the 
novelty and the grandeur of the scenes thus laid open to human inquiry, lend a 
character almost romantic to their pursuit. A celestial surface equal to a fourth 
part of the whole area of the heavens, which is here for ever concealed from 
our sight, or whose extreme borders, at least, if visible, are only feebly seen 
through the smoky vapours of our horizon, affords to our antipodes the splendid 
prospect of constellations different from ours, and excelling them in brilliancy 
and richness. The vivid beauty of the southern cross has been sung by poets, 
and celebrated by the pen of the most accomplished of civilised travellers; and 
the shadowy lustre of the Magellanic clouds has supplied imagery for the dim 
and doubtful mythology of the most barbarous nations upon earth. But it is 
the task of the astronomer to open up these treasures of the southern sky, and 
display to mankind their secret and intimate relations. 
«Apart, however, from speculative considerations, a perfect knowledge of the 
astronomy of the southern hemisphere is becoming daily an object of greater 
practical interest, now that civilization and intercourse are rapidly spreading 
through those distant regions, that our own colonies are rising into importance, 
and that the vast countries of South America are gradually assuming a station in 
the list of nations corresponding with their extent and natural advantages. It is 
no longer possible to remain content with the limited and inaccurate knowledge we 
have hitherto possessed of southern stars, now that we have a new geography to 
create, and latitudes and longitudes without end to determine by their aid. The 
advantages, too, to be obtained, even for the perfect and refined astronomy of the 
north, by placing nearly a diameter of the globe between the stations of observa- 
tories, and taking up the objects common to both hemispheres in a point of view 
and under circumstances so every way opposite to those which exist here, have 
been strongly pointed out by a venerable and illustrious member of this Society, 
in an elaborate paper published in its Memoirs, and would alone suffice to justify 
a high degree of interest as due to every well-conducted series of observations 
from that quarter. 
