THE CENTENARY OF THE DISCOVERY OF URANUS. 
219 
very complicated, owing to the necessity of dealing with a large 
number of minute bodies ; for the tendency of modern re- 
searches has been to reveal objects which by their faintness had 
hitherto eluded detection. And when we consider that these 
bodies are rapidly increasing year by year, the idea is obviously 
suggested that, inasmuch as their numbers are comparatively 
illimitable, and there is likely to be no immediate abatement in 
the enthusiasm of observers, difficulties will arise in identi- 
fying them apart and forming them into catalogues with their 
orbital elements attached, so that the individual members may 
be redetected at any time. In this connexion we allude parti- 
cularly to minor planets, to telescopic comets, and to meteoric 
streams, which severally form a very numerous group of bodies 
of which the known members are accumulating to a great 
extent. As complications arise, some remedies must be applied 
to their solution ; and one probable effect will be that astro- 
nomers will be induced each one to have a speciality or branch 
to which his energies are mainly directed. The science will 
become so wide in its application and so intricate in its details, 
that it will become more than ever necessary for observers to 
select or single out definite lines of investigation and pursue 
them closely ; for success is far more likely to attend such 
exertions than those which are not devoted to any special end 
but employed rather in a general survey of phenomena. We 
have already before us some excellent instances in which 
individual energies have been aptly utilized in the prosecution 
of original work in some specific branch of astronomy, and we 
are strongly disposed to recommend such exclusive labours to 
those who have the means and the desire to achieve something 
useful. Observers who find one subject monotonous and then 
take up another for the sake of variation, are not likely to get 
far advanced in either. In the case of amateurs who use a 
telescope merely for amusement, and indiscriminately apply it 
to nearly every conspicuous object in the firmament without 
any particular purpose other than to satisfy their curiosity, the 
matter is somewhat different, and our remarks are not applicable 
to them. We refer more pointedly to those who have a regard 
for the interests of the science and whose enthusiasm enables 
them to work habitually and with some pertinacity. 
History tells us that the Great Alexander wept when he 
found he had no other worlds to conquer, and we fear that some 
astronomers will lament that they have little prospect of dis- 
covering anything fresh in a sphere to which our giant tele- 
scopes have been so often directed, but this is founded on a 
palpable misconception. Certain objects, such as comets for 
example, do not require great power, and the revelation of new 
meteor-showers is entirely a question for the naked eye. In 
