Prof, Hansteen on the Number and Situation 
Artists applied their ingenuity to invent new and more accurate 
instruments and time-pieces, by which astronomical observations 
were to be made on ship-board. Astronomers were called on to 
make more accurate determinations of the places of the fixed 
stars, and the motions of the sun, moon, and planets Mathe- 
matics, the foundation of astronomy, had to be formed anew, 
and, in the hands of Newton and Leibnitz, acquired an enlarge- 
ment, by which it first became possible to give an account of the 
many irregularities in the motions of the heavenly bodies, which, 
before, could neither be explained nor calculated. New and 
hitherto unknown natural curiosities were brought home, which 
more than doubled the extent of our museums. It may be as- 
serted, at the same time, that, if the compass had not been in- 
vented, the Incas, the children of the sun, would have still sat 
on the throne of Peru, and tribes, whom avarice and fanaticism 
have extirpated from the face of tlie earth, would have still lived 
happy in their native lands. The mightiest naval powers of 
Europe would, in that case, too, have acted but an inconsidera- 
ble part in the annals of history, and the whole of Europe would 
have been farther from the period of its maturity, and, there- 
fore, from the period of its decline. But the friend of humani- 
ty would, at the same time, have wanted this precious consola- 
tion, that, if ever base degeneracy, or the contentions of selfish 
interests, should force the muses to fly from Europe, they will 
find certain and ample refuge in the New World of Colum- 
bus *1“. 
Besides the interest which a more accurate knowledge of the 
magnetic powers of the earth thus derives from its importance 
* The famous astronomical Observatory at Greenwich was erected for this ex- 
press purpose, in the year 1675; for, in the Royal Rdict, concerning it, the Direc- 
tors were commanded, “ That they should apply themselves, with the utmost care 
and diligence, to rectify the tables of the motions of the heavens, and the places of 
the fixed stars, in order to find out the so-much desired longitude at sea, for the 
.perfection of the art of navigation.” And a series of men, of distinguished ta- 
lents, provided with the finest instruments, have, for a century and a half, faith- 
fully endeavoured to accomplish this purpose, and have delivered to us an unin- 
terrupted series of accurate observations, on which the whole newer determinations 
of astronomy are founded. 
•}• Science has no alternate growth and decline. Why should we think her 
most likely to depart from that residence where she is most firmly established?— T. 
