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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
volume, that particularly relating to the Transit of Venus. Unquestion- 
ably the various essays which occupy the first part of the volume are of a 
most worthy type, and are, as are most of the author’s articles, written in 
the clearest style, and with an amount of knowledge of his subject which 
unfortunately is very seldom at hand when information for the public is 
required. They relate to the so-called star-streams, and they deal at length 
with the whole subject. These essays are reprints from various papers 
which Mr. Proctor has communicated within the past twelve months or so 
to the several literary and scientific journals, and they contain an able ex- 
pression, and a full one, of the author’s different views on the subject of 
sidereal space. The chapters of the greatest interest — at least from a purely 
speculative standpoint — appear to us to be those which he has entitled “ A 
New Theory of the Universe.” We cannot, in the very limited space be- 
fore us, attempt to give a survey of his views on this point, or to indicate 
what appears to us to be erroneous in some of his ideas, but we also cannot let 
it pass without a faint expression of our admiration. Not without interest, 
too, are the observations on his remarkable chart, which we sometime since 
noticed in these pages ; and several other chapters might likewise with per- 
fect fairness be noticed. One thing we should commend to Mr. Proctor’s 
notice, and that is the propriety of making a summary of each chapter, so that 
the student would have a ready means of seeing what he had been aiming at 
throughout the text. Such a scheme would be of advantage to the earnest 
reader, and it would be of infinite service to the reviewer, who would thus, 
in many cases where he has read the same matter before, be saved the 
trouble of going once more over the same field. 
The part of Mr. Proctor’s volume which possesses most interest to the 
more purely scientific man is that which relates to the transit which is 
rapidly approaching. And this is because in style it is entirely different to 
the remainder of the work, being in point of fact so many pages reprinted 
from the u Proceedings of the Royal Astronomical Society.” On this 
account they do not possess that stream of continuity which, if it could have 
been present, would be undoubtedly desirable. But they possess a solid mass 
of fact, which the real student will read with pleasure. And we think this 
all the more because, among the papers that have been reproduced, is one 
from the Astronomer Royal criticising some of Mr. Proctor’s work, and 
likewise the reply which the author felt called upon to make. This differ- 
ence of opinion is of very great importance, and to the reader of Mr. Proctor’s 
remarks it certainly seems that he alone is right. But there is, doubtless, 
so much to be urged upon the other side, that anyone who went fully 
into the matter would experience a greater difficulty about decision than a 
mere reader of the present volume. One thing is perfectly certain — that 
no fitter person could be chosen to command at some station from which the 
coming transit could be observed than Mr. R. A. Proctor ; and we trust that 
if he does not undertake the observation of Venus in this case, it will be 
alone from some motive relative to health. Assuredly he has shown him- 
self deeply interested in the work before the astronomers of this country 
and America, and we shall certainly be excessively surprised if he does not 
go out on some of the expeditions. 
