Not being greedy of delusion ourselves, neither would
we lead others into error; but, on the contrary, are
desirous to avoid all deception, as we may be considered
over studious to give the most rational origin,
and where we cannot get at the history of those objects
which engage our attention—whenever this is
uncertain we resort to nature, experience, and reason,
and furnish the most correct explanation our contracted
circle of information will permit. Whenever we discover
the clue of history, we collect the most satisfactory
detail our limits will afford us to insert. Guided
by the preceding notions, and directed by those principles,
we have endeavoured correctly to conceive,
and faithfully to portray our own conceptions in the
best manner our experience might enable us, to make
a just distinction between metaphorical allusion and
literal application; ever endeavouring to discriminate
between serious assertion and studied fable.
We fully coincide with the just remark of the
learned author of “Indian Antiquities,” who says
“that in respect to the early ages of the world, all
the remains of genuine history, except that contained
in the sacred annals, is only to be obtained
through the mazes of Mythology.”
It must be confessed, that to sift this grain of corn
from the bushel of chaff with which it is surrounded,
where every effort which the ingenuity of Greece
could devise to render fable as current as truth, was
resorted to, is no small task; that it requires the
operation of the best exercised reason, and the assistance
of extraordinary judgment, which is only to be
attained through the medium of extensive experience
and the exercise of clear and discriminative powers:
then we pretend not to possess the best of possible
acquisitions of this kind, but the best in our power,
we have endeavoured to collect, and summoned to our
assistance; and the value of our labours we will leave
the public to judge.
If the application of observations like the preceding
ever come apropos, surely they apply to the present
article; since from the sideral science, all the errors
of an idolatrous race proceeded in the major part of
the population of the ancient world: from thence also
proceeded the most sublime imagery which embellishes
the syren voice of poetic song, the grandest metaphors,
and the sweetest allegories, which ornament the transendent
eloquence of the most able rhetoricians of
Greece and Rome; the fire of exquisitely natural and
most noble allusions which enliven and embellish their
historic pages. The sweetest philosophical explications
also flowed from thence, which ornament the
various immortal works of their most excellent poets,
orators, historians, natural and moral philosophers;
and, in brief, of every description of the sublimest
genius of ancient Greece and Rome, in their most
divine effusions.
It will appear, we believe, that the first astronomers
of Chaldea, Phœnicia, and Egypt, are not now known
as astronomers, by name, if we except the person of
the royal Nimrod, the founder of the Chaldean empire,
which name is often confounded with Belus; sometimes
one is put for the other, and often Belus is
called the son of Nimrod. How the truth of this
was, we shall not at present determine: be it as it
may, it is allowed on all hands that the sideral science
claims for its inventor no less a person than the founder
of the first monarchy in the world. That this science
was first introduced by the founder of the Tower
of Babel is not questioned, because it is more
evident, that in that country there must have
existed from necessity, the expediency of the most
approved observation, which could be made upon this
eminently useful science; where, on account of the
excessive solar heat, people generally travel by night:
where, for hundreds of miles, are nothing but pathless
deserts, with a horizon as boundless and little impeded
as that of the ocean; assuredly under such circumstances,
the local situation of the site of the immense
Observatory of Babel must point out the expediency
of procuring some intelligence from the position which
the inhabitants discovered the host of heaven to
appear in at the rising, setting, &c.; for from what
will appear in the course of this article, it will be
very evident that the Tower of Babel was constructed
for the purpose of an astronomical observatory; farther,
that the climate of Chaldea was most favourable
to the exercise of that sublime art, will not admit of
a question, when we consider the atmosphere is so
pure, so clear, so free from exhalation, that at night
the sky is said to resemble an immense canopy of
black velvet studded with embossed gold, from the
appearance of the stars; and that it was not only the
appearance of the stars, their rising, setting, and motion,
by which they knew time was to be measured;
but also the distinction between one star and another
could be correctly ascertained from the usual colour—here
it was the various planets, zodiacal constellations,
and the other asterisms in both hemispheres, received
their primary names.
The preceding circumstance, it is conceived, fixes
the local place where the science had its origin.
The Tower of Babel was a parallelogram, with
sides of unequal length. Herodotus thus describes
it.—“The Temple of Jupiter Belus occupies the
other [square of the city], whose huge gates of brass
may be seen. It is a square building; in the midst
rises a tower of the height of one furlong, upon which
resting as a base, seven other turrets are built in
regular succession. The ascent is on the outside,
which, winding from the ground, is continued to the
highest tower: in the middle of the whole structure
there is a convenient resting place.”
Diodorus Siculus says, this tower was decayed in
his time; but, in his description of Babylon, he thus
speaks of it—describing it as the act of Semiramis, who
flourished two thousand nine hundred and forty-four
years before Christ:—“In the middle of the city, she
built a temple to Jupiter-Belus; of which, since
writers differ amongst themselves, and the work is
now wholly decayed through length of time, there is
nothing that can with certainty be related concerning
it; yet it is apparent it was of an exceeding great
height; and that, by the advantage of it, the Chaldean
astrologers exactly observed the rising and setting
of the stars. The whole was built of brick, cemented
with bitumen, with great art and cost. Upon the top
she placed three statues of beaten gold, of Jupiter,
Juno, and Rhea: that of Jupiter stood upright, in
the posture as if he was walking; it was forty feet
in height, and weighed one thousand Babylonish
talents. The statue of Rhea was of the same weight,
sitting on a golden throne, having two lions standing
on either side, one at her knees, and near to them
were two exceeding great serpents of silver, weighing
thirty talents each. Here, too, the image of Juno
stood upright, and weighed eight hundred talents,
grasping a serpent by the head in her right
hand, and holding a sceptre adorned with precious
stones in her left. For all these deities there was
placed a table made of beaten gold, forty feet long
and fifteen broad, weighing five hundred talents, upon
which stood two cups, weighing thirty talents, and
near to them as many censers, weighing three hundred
talents: there were likewise placed three drinking bowls
of gold—the one to Jupiter weighed two
hundred talents, and the others six hundred each.”
We have been thus circumstantial in our description
of Babylon, for obvious reasons. First—that it was
the first local situation where, since the deluge, men
had associated for civil purposes; and secondly—because
it was the original station where the astronomical
science was cultivated. From Chaldea, Astronomy
travelled to Egypt, where she was studied for
many ages; she also went to Phœnicia, where she was
regarded with equal attention. But the peculiar occasion
which the Phœnician people had to improve their
acquaintance with this science, will appear, upon
reflecting that these people occupied a narrow and
barren tract of land between the Mediterranean and
Arabian seas; therefore, they found it essentially
necessary to improve their situation by those means
which Divine Providence had apparently marked out
for them to resort unto; we accordingly find them
applying to mercantile industry; as a commercial
people, in this character, they were the ready medium
of communication between every part of the then
known world. In consequence, they had factories or
mercantile stations up the Mediterranean; but particularly
on its European side, on the shores of the
Atlantic, and even in the British sea: we recognise
their occupying Marseilles, and others, on the coast of
France; Cadiz, on that of Spain; the Lizard Point,
and other places, in Cornwall, where they traded for
tin in the British Isles. In brief, their commercial
spirit carried them to every part of the globe: by the
by, admitting that rational belief be allowed to Plato
and Solon, we shall find that they had, in the first
ages, explored the Atlantic Ocean, and even discovered
America. A great variety of authorities may
be adduced to prove the assertion—that the Phœnicians
made three descents on the American coast; and
others, who say that the inhabitants discovered there
by the Spaniards, gave the same names to the plants
as had been assigned them in Asia; that their religious
rites were similar, and general customs and
manners the same,—we refer to Joseph Da Costa’s
“History of the Indies,” published in 1694.
This author was an eye-witness, and wrote from
actual observation. The Phœnicians, in the exercise
of their mercantile functions, had the most obvious
necessity to cultivate the sideral science. We find
that they accordingly did so, and made various improvements
and very important discoveries by their
exercise. From the northern hemisphere being more
known to them than it was to the Chaldeans, they
discovered that splendid and beautiful asterism, Cynosuræ,
or the polar-star,—an asterism of the most
singular service, before the properties of the magnet
were discovered, and which star was sometimes called,
from them, Phœnice.
From Phœnicia and Egypt the celestial science of
astronomy was brought into Greece, with which
people the Phœnicians were intimate; for they, by
trade, having occasion to converse with the Greeks,
and also from uniting in one national resemblance, the
three opposite characteristics of soldiers, sailors, and
men of science, the communications between the two
people were very frequent. At every period, from
the first establishment of the Grecian states, that
highly eminent and intellectual people collected from
all others every particular they could obtain in all
matters having relation to sciences and arts; those
they cultivated with a success worthy of the motive
which first induced them to make these collections.—Loving
Knowledge for herself, they succeeded beyond
all others in obtaining her favours.
The first Greek who appears on record to have
cultivated the celestial science with success, was
Thales, born at Miletus, in Asia Minor, six hundred
and forty one years before Christ; he explained the
causes of eclipses, and predicted one. He also taught
that the earth was round, and divided into five zones;
he discovered the solstices and equinoxes, and likewise
divided the year into three hundred and sixty-five
days. He had travelled into Egypt in search of
knowledge, where he ascertained the height of one
of the pyramids, from its shade. He looked upon
water as the principle of all things. From him the
sect called the Ionic had their origin.
Anaximander, his pupil, followed him, and supported
the opinions of his great master; he was born
before Christ six hundred and ten years; he invented
maps and dials, and is said to have constructed a
sphere. His ideas of the planets were, however,
erroneous.
Anaximenes was a scholar of Anaximander, and
born five hundred and fifty-four years before Christ.
He taught that air was the origin of all things, and
many erroneous notions; among others, that the
earth was a plane, and the heavens a solid concave
sphere, with the stars affixed to it like nails.
Anaxagoras of Clazomene, the pupil of, and successor
to, Anaximenes, born before Christ five
hundred and sixty years. The doctrines he supported
are a strange association of important truths,
mixed with the most gross absurdities. He taught
that the world was made by a being of infinite
power; that mind was the origin of motion;
that the upper regions, which he called ether,
were filled with fire, that the rapid revolution of
this ether had raised large masses of stone from the
earth, which, being inflamed, formed the stars, which
were kept in their places, and prevented from falling
by the velocity of their motion.
His ideas of the solar orb were extremely erroneous;
alleging, according to different authors, various uncertain
positions respecting the materials of which
that planet is composed: one says, he said it was a
vast mass of fire; another states his opinion, that it
was red-hot iron; and a third, that it was of stone.
He taught that the comets are an assemblage of
planets; that winds are produced in consequence of
highly rarified air; that thunder and lightning are a
collision of clouds; earthquakes, by subterraneous
air forcing its passage upwards; that the moon is
inhabited, &c.
This philosopher removed his school from Miletus
to Athens, which was thenceforth the grand seat of
all learning. He had taught there for thirty years,
when he was prosecuted for his philosophical opinions,
particularly for his just ideas relative to the Deity,
and condemned to death. When sentence was pronounced,
he said:—“It is long since Nature condemned
me to that.” However, according to the
laws of Athens, he was permitted an appeal to the
people, in which his scholar, the immortal Pericles,
saved his life by his eloquence. His sentence of death
was changed into banishment. Whilst in prison he
determined exactly the proportion of the circumference
of the circle to its diameter, denominated “squaring
the circle.” He died at Lampsacus. Archelaus, his
scholar, was the preceptor of the divine Socrates.
Pythagoras was another scholar of Thales. The
place of his nativity is uncertain; but having settled
in the island of Samos, he is generally reckoned of
that place. He travelled in search of knowledge
through Phœnicia, Chaldea, Egypt, and India; however,
meeting with little encouragement on his return
to Samos, he passed over to Italy, in the time of
Tarquin the Proud, and opened a school at Croto, a
city in the Gulf of Tarentum, where he had a number
of students, and gained much reputation. His pupils
were obliged to listen in silence for at least two years;
if talkative, longer; sometimes, for five years, before
they were permitted to ask him any questions; for
which time they were mathematicoi, because they
were set to study geometry, dialling, music, and other
high sciences, called by the Greeks mathemata. But
the name of mathematici was commonly applied to
those who cultivated the stellary science, and who
predicted the fortunes of men, by observing the stars
under which they were born.
This luminary of science first assumed the appellation
of philosopher; before him, those whose pursuits
have now that title, were called sages or wise men;
he was the founder of the sect called the Italic. He
was so much honoured whilst living, and his memory
honoured when dead, by the Romans, that they attributed
to him the learning of Numa, who lived much
earlier. About the year of the city 411, the Delphian
oracle having directed the Romans to erect statues to
the bravest and wisest of the Greeks, they conferred
that honour upon Alcibiades and Pythagoras.
He taught publicly that the earth is the centre of
the universe; but to his scholars he gave his real
opinions; similar to those afterwards adopted by Copernicus,
that the earth and all the planets moved
round the sun, as their co-centre, and which doctrine
he is presumed to have derived from either the Chaldeans
or Indians. He thought that the earth is round,
and everywhere inhabited. Hence, he admitted that
we might have antipodes, which name is said to have
been invented by Plato.
Pythagoras was distinguished for his skill in music,
which he first reduced to certain firm principles, and
likewise for his discoveries in geometry. He first
proved, that in a right-angled triangle, the square of
the hypothenuse, or side subtending the right angle,
is equal to the two other sides; also that of all plain
figures having equal circumference, the circle is largest;
and of all solids having equal surfaces, the sphere is
the largest. Pythagoras likewise taught that all
things were made of fire. That the Deity animated
the universe, as the soul does the body; which doctrine,
with that of the metempsychosis, or transmigration,
he likewise taught; and which thoughts were
adopted by Plato, and are most beautifully expressed
by Virgil; that the sun, the moon, the planets, and
fixed stars, are all actuated by some divinity, and
move each in a transparent solid sphere in the order
following:—next to the Earth, the Moon, then Mercury,
Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn; the
sphere of the fixed stars last of all; that those move
with a sound inconceivably beautiful, which ears cannot
comprehend. Those eight spheres he imagined
to be analogous to the eight notes in music.
Empedocles, the chief scholar of Pythagoras, entertained
the same sentiments with his teacher, concerning
astronomy. He is said to have thrown himself
into the crater of Mount Etna, to make himself pass
for a god; or, perhaps, which may approach nearer
the truth, because he could not discover the cause of
the eruption: or else in his endeavours to discover
the cause. One of his iron sandals being thrown up
by the volcano, revealed the mode in which he had
perished.
Philolaus, also a scholar of Pythagoras, first taught
publicly the diurnal motion of the earth upon its axis,
and its annual motion round the sun; which first suggested
to Copernicus the idea of that system which
he established.
Meteon, born at Leuconæ, a village near Athens, first
introduced into Europe the Lunar Cycle, consisting of
nineteen solar years, or nineteen lunar years, and
seven intercalary months. It had been first adopted
by the Chaldeans. Meteon published it at the Olympic
games, where it was received with so great applause
that it was then universally adopted through
the Grecian States, and their colonies, and got the
name of the Cycle, or Golden Number, to denote its
excellence, which name it still retains.
It was also called the Great Year; which name
was likewise applied to various spaces of time by different
authors; by Virgil, to the solar year, to distinguish
it from the monthly revolution of the moon;
by Cicero and others, to the revolution of six hundred
years, or three thousand six hundred years; called
also several ages, when all the stars shall come to the
same position, with respect to one another, as they
were in at a certain time before; called likewise Annus
Mundanus, or Vertens.
The lunar cycle begun four hundred and thirty-two
years before the commencement of our era, and according
to it, the Greek calendars, which determined
the celebration of their annual feasts, &c. were adjusted.
Meteon is said to have derived his knowledge
of this subject from Chaldea.
The opinions of the subsequently registered astronomer,
Xonophanes, founder of the Eleatic school, are
so truly monstrous, that after the light which had
appeared, he must have travelled with his eyes shut;
or else the rage for novelty alike affected the scientific
of Greece, as it did their literati; choosing to travel
a long way for new thoughts, when they might have
found much better at hand. Xonophanes, among
other whimsical opinions, maintained that the stars
were extinguished every morning, and illuminated
every evening; that the sun is an inflamed cloud;
that eclipses happen by the extinction of the sun,
which is afterwards lighted up; that the moon is ten
times larger than the earth; that there are many suns
and moons to illumine different climates.
The Eleatic school was chiefly famous for the study
of logic, or the art of ratiocination, first invented by
Zeno. Those of this sect paid but little attention to
science, or the study of Nature. Philosophy was
anciently divided into three parts, natural, moral, and
the art of reasoning. Xonophanes was succeeded by
Parmenides, his scholar, who, in addition to his
master’s absurdities, taught that the earth was habitable
in only the two temperate zones; that the earth
was suspended in the middle of the universe, in a fluid
lighter than air; that all bodies left to themselves light
on its surface. This bore a slight resemblance to the
Newtonian doctrine of attraction.
Democritus, of Abdera, a scholar of Leucippus, who
flourished four hundred and fifty-six years before
Christ, was the first publisher of the Atomic Cosmogony,
invented by Mochus, the Phœnician, said to
have been received by his master Leucippus. Both
admitted plurality of worlds. Democritus was the
first who taught that the milky way is occasioned by
the confused light of an infinite number of stars;
which doctrine is still maintained by the best informed
of philosophers. He also extended that idea to comets;
the number of which Seneca says the Greek philosophers
did not know; and that Democritus suspected
there were more planets than we could see. This was
also the opinion of many others, the truth of which
has been verified in the discoveries of Pallas, Juno,
Vesta, and the Georgium Sidus.
Democritus is considered as the parent of experimental
philosophy; the greatest part of his time was
devoted to it; and he is said to have made many discoveries.
He, like Meteon, and Newton, maintained
the absurd idea of the existence of a vacuum, which
was denied by Thales and Descartes. Democritus
also maintained that the sea was constantly diminishing.
He declared that he would prefer the discovery of one
of the causes of the works of Nature, to the possession
of the Persian monarchy. Often laughing at the follies
of mankind, he was thought by the vulgar to be out
of his mind; but Hippocrates, being sent to cure him,
soon found him to be the wisest man of the age; and
Seneca reckons him the most acute and ingenious of
the ancients, on account of his many useful inventions;
particularly his ingenious making of artificial emeralds,
tinging them of any colour; of softening ivory, dissolving
stones, &c.
Although the chief attention of Plato and Aristotle
was directed to other grand objects, yet they much
contributed to the improvement of astronomy. Notwithstanding
the most famous in this respect was
Eudoxus, the scholar of Plato, who was famous for
his skill in astrology, natural and judicial, or the art
of foretelling future events by the relative situations
of the stars, of their various influences, an art which
prevailed for many ages among the ancients, and is
yet assiduously cultivated by the modern Arabians
and other orientals, although in a great measure
exploded in European nations. By the former or
which divisions in this science are foretold the changes
of seasons, rain, wind, thunder, cold, heat, famine,
diseases, &c., from a knowledge of the causes that are
believed to act upon the earth and its atmosphere;
whilst the latter foretold the characters, fortunes, &c.,
of men, from the stellary disposition at the moment of
their respective nativities.
The philosopher, Eudoxus, spent much of his time
on the top of a high mountain, to observe the motion
of the stars. He regulated the Greek year as Cæsar
did the Roman. Had the ancient Grecian astronomers
been equally attached to experiment with Democritus,
they might have arrived at more certain conclusions;
but they were content with speculative
theory, and spoke rather from conjecture than observation;
whence both Strabio and Polybius treated as
fabulous the since recognised assertion of Pythius, a
famous navigator to the north, who had sailed to a
country supposed to be Iceland, where he said the
sun, in the middle of summer, never set.
The most important improvements in astronomy
were made in the school of Alexandria, founded by
Ptolemy Philadelphus; and which seminary flourished
for nine hundred and twenty-three years, till the
invasion of the Saracen army, under the command of
Amrou. Those astronomers were chiefly Greeks, or
of Grecian extraction—the most learned men being
invited here by the liberality of the Ptolemies. The
first who distinguished themselves were Timocarus
and Aristillus, prior to the foundation of the library,
which was founded three hundred years before Christ.
Those two men endeavoured to determine the places
of the different stars, and thus to trace the course of
the planets. The next and most eminent man was
Aristarchus, about two hundred and sixty-four years
before Christ; who taught, that the sun was about
nineteen times further from the earth than the moon
(which is not the twentieth part of its real distance),
although the philosophers of the Pythagorean school
did not consider it above three times, and perhaps
only one and a half further distant. Aristarchus also
taught, that the moon was fifty-six diameters of our
earth from this globe, which opinion comes near to
the truth: he believed it to be scarcely one-third of
its real size. He was widely erroneous in his conception
of the sun’s dimensions. He also, in conformity
to the doctrines of Pythagorus and Philolaus, supposed
the sun to be placed in the centre, and that the
earth moved round it; on which account he was
accused of impiety, as disturbing the repose of the
Vesta and the Lares. This opinion was not, however,
retained by his successors in the Alexandrian
school. Contrary to the doctrine of the Greek philosophers,
he taught that the stars were at different
distances, and that the orbit of the earth round the
sun was an insensible point, in consequence of the
immense distance of the stars. The only work of
Aristarchus which remains, is on the magnitude and
distance of the sun and moon.
Very nearly contemporary with Aristarchus was
Euclid, the celebrated geometrician of Alexandria;
Manetho, an astrologer and historian; and Aratus and
Cleanthus, disciples of Zeno, the stoic philosopher;
all of whom contributed to the enlargement of astronomical
knowledge; but particularly the two first
named.
Eratosthenes, born at Cyrene, succeeded Aristarchus,
being invited by Ptolemy Euergetes. This
professor is said to be the inventor of the Armillary
sphere, an instrument or machine composed of moveable
sides, representing the equator, the two colures,
with the meridian; all of which turned round on an
axis directed to the two poles of the world, each of
which circles were anciently called armilla, and the
whole machine, astrolabus. All instruments which
could be contrived for the promotion of this science,
were furnished at the public expense, and placed
within the observatory of Alexandria. Assisted by
these instruments, Eratosthenes first undertook to
measure the obliquity of the ecliptics, or rather the
double of that obliquity, that is, the distance from the
tropics, which he made to be about 47 degrees; the
obliquity, or half of this distance, 23½ degrees. This
grand attempt was to ascertain the exact distance of
a degree of the meridian, and thus to determine the
circumference of the earth; which he accomplished
with wonderful exactness, considering the period at
which he lived; and he performed this by the same
method since adopted by the moderns who have succeeded
him. He is also said to have discovered the
true distance of the sun from the earth.
The great Archimedes lived contemporary with
Eratosthenes, that eminent geometrician of Syracuse,
whose inventive genius in mechanics had constructed
engines which protracted the fall of that capital, with
its Island Sicily, to the almost omnipotent power of
Rome for a considerable period.
The most illustrious astronomer which had as yet
appeared at Alexandria was Hipparchus, who flourished
between one hundred and sixty and one hundred
and twenty-five years before Christ. He first brought
this science into a tangible elementary form, rendering
it systematic. He discovered, or was the first who
observed the difference between the autumnal and the
vernal equinox; the former being seven days longer
than the latter, which proceeds from the eccentricity
of the earth’s orbit, first discovered from observing
the inequality of the solar motion. He framed tables
for what is called equation of time, or to ascertain the
difference between the shade on a well constructed
dial and a perfectly regulated clock. He made great
progress in explaining the motions and phases of the
moon; however, he was not so successful with respect
to the planets.
His greatest work was his ascertaining the number
of the stars, marking their distances, and arriving at
the means by which their precise places on the hemisphere
of Alexandria could be known. He marked
one thousand six hundred stars, in seventy-two signs,
into which the heavens were divided. Pliny says
this was a labour which must have been difficult
even to a god. The appearance of a new star induced
him to set about and accomplish this work, which he
did in a catalogue for the benefit of future observers.
Hipparchus does not mention comets, whence it has
been conjectured he had never seen any; it has also
been suggested, that he considered them with meteors,
which are not objects of astronomical observation.
He divided the heavens into forty-nine constellations,
viz., twelve in the ecliptic, twenty-one in the north,
and sixteen in the south. To one of these he gave
the name of Berenice’s Hair, in honour of the wife of
Ptolemy Soter, who had consecrated her hair, which
was very beautiful, to Venus Urania, if her husband
should return from a war in Asia victorious; it being
hung up in the temple of the goddess, soon after disappeared,
and is said to have been carried off by the
gods.
Hipparchus likewise constructed a sphere, or celestial
globe, on which all the stars visible at Alexandria
were depicted; and thought to have been similar to
the Faranese globe at Rome, still extant. In his
observations on the stars, he discovered that, when
viewed from the same spot, their distance always
appeared the same from each other; but he discovered
the distance of the moon to be different in various
parts of the heavens; for instance, in the horizon and
zenith. This he conceived to be owing to the extent
of the globe; he, therefore, contrived a method of
reducing appearances of this kind, to what they would
be if viewed from the centre of the earth, which is
called a parallax; and the discovery of it was of the
greatest importance to astronomy. He took this idea
from observing that a tree, in the middle of a plain,
appeared in different parts of the horizon, when
viewed from different situations; so does a star appear
in the various points of the heavens, when viewed
in different parts of the globe. Hipparchus was the
first who connected geography with astronomy, and
this fixed both the sciences on certain principles.
After the overthrow of the Roman empire, the first
encourager of learning was Charles the Great, or
Charlemagne; but little could be done in his time;
after his death the former ignorance prevailed. Beda,
or Bede, from his piety and modesty termed venerabilis,
and his scholar, Alcinius, both Englishmen,
greatly excelled in general literature; among other
qualifications they were eminent in the astronomy of
the preceding period. The first step towards the
revival of knowledge, or the translation of the Astronomical
Elements of Alfergan, the Arab, by order of
Frederick II., chosen Emperor of Germany in 1212.
About the same time Alphonso X., King of Castile,
assembled from all parts the most famous astronomers,
who at his desire, composed what are called the
Alphonsine Tables, founded on the hypothesis of
Ptolemy.
About the same period John Sacrobosco, of Holywood,
a native of Halifax, in Yorkshire, who was
educated at Oxford, and taught mathematics and
philosophy at Paris, made an abridgment of the
amalgamist of Ptolemy, and of the commentaries of
the Arabs, which was long famous as an elementary
book under the title of “De Sphira Mundi.” He died
at Paris, in the year 1235. In the same year, Roger
Bacon, an English Franciscan friar, made astonishing
discoveries in science for the time he lived. He perceived
the error in the Kalendar of Julius Cæsar, and
proposed a plan, for the correction of it, to Pope
Clement IV. in 1267. He is presumed from his
writings to have known the use of optical glasses, and
the composition and effects of gunpowder. He
believed in planetary influence on men’s fortunes, and
the transmutation of metals. On account of his vast
knowledge in astronomy, mathematics, and chemistry,
he was called Doctor Mirabilis; but, for the same
reason, he was suspected of magic. Under this pretext,
whilst at Paris, he was put in prison by order of
the Pope’s legate; and after a long and severe confinement,
he was at last, by the interest of several
noble persons, liberated, returned to England, and
died at Oxford in 1292, in the seventy-eighth year of
his age.
In the fifteenth century two events happened which
changed the face of the sciences; the invention of
printing, about 1440, and the taking of Constantinople
by the Turks in 1453. The learned men of that
city having escaped from the cruelty of the victors,
fled into Italy, and again introduced the taste for
classical literature; which was greatly promoted by
the munificence of the Emperor Frederick III., Pope
Nicholas V., and particularly of Cosmo de Medici,
who justly merited the title of Father of his Country,
and Patron of the Muses.
The restoration of astronomy began in Germany.
The first who distinguished himself, was George Purbach,
born at Purbach, on the confines of Austria and
Bavaria, in 1423, who was cut off in the flower of his
age—only thirty-eight years old. He was succeeded
by a scholar more skilful than himself, John Muller,
born at Konigsberg, in 1436, who taught mathematics
and astronomy with great reputation at Vienna.
In February, 1471, appeared a comet, on which he
published his observations. Being called to Rome by
Pope Sextus IV., to assist in correcting the Kalender,
he was cut off by the plague, in 1476. Bernard
Waltherus, a rich citizen of Nuremberg, his friend
and associate, succeeded him, who is said to have first
made use of clocks in his astronomical observations, in
1484, and to have been the first of the moderns who
perceived the effects of the refraction of light.
Fracastorius, born at Verona, in 1483, was a celebrated
astronomer, and an eminent poet and good
philosopher; he made considerable discoveries in this
science, and with all his abilities may be considered as
the precursor of the celebrated Copernicus.
Nicholas Copernicus, the restorer of the Pythagorean
philosophy, and the modern discoverer of the rational
and true system of astronomy, as now universally
received, under the title of his name, was born at
Thorn, a city of Royal Prussia, 19th February, 1473.
Having learnt the Latin and Greek Languages in his
father’s house, he was sent to Cracow, to be instructed
in philosophy and physic, where he was honoured
with the degree of doctor; showing a greater predilection
for mathematics than medicine. His uncle
by his mother’s side was a bishop, who gave him a
canonry upon his return from Italy, whither he had
gone to study astronomy, under Dominic Maria, at
Bologna, and had afterwards taught mathematics with
success at Rome. In the repose and solitude of an
ecclesiastical life, he bent his chief attention to the
study of astronomy. Dissatisfied with the system of
Ptolemy, which had prevailed fourteen centuries, he
laboured to form a juster one. What led him to
discover the mistakes of Ptolemy was his observations
on the motions of Venus; he is said to have derived
his first notion on this subject from various passages
in the classics, which mention the opinions of Pythagoras
and his followers, as, indeed, he himself acknowledges
in his address to Pope Paul III. He established
the rotation of the earth round its axis, and its motion
round the sun; but to explain certain irregularities in
the motion of the planets, he retained the epicicles
and eccentrics of Ptolemy. His work was first
printed at Nuremberg, in 1543, a short time before
his death.
The doctrines of Copernicus were not at first
generally adopted. The most eminent professors in
Europe adhered to the old opinions.
Among the astronomers of this period, the Landgrave
of Hesse deserves particular praise, who erected
a magnificent observatory at the top of the Castle of
Cassel, and made many observations himself, in conjunction
with Christopher Rothman and Justus Burge,
concerning the place of the sun, of the planets, and of
the stars.
But the person who enriched astronomy with the
greatest number of facts of any modern who had yet
appeared, was Tycho Brahe, a Dane of noble extraction,
born in 1546, designed by his parents for
the study of the law; but attracted by an eclipse of
the sun in 1560, at Copenhagen, whither he had
been sent to learn philosophy, he was struck with
astonishment in observing that the phenomenon happened
at the very moment it had been predicted.
He admired the art of predicting eclipses, and
wished to acquire it. At first, for want of proper
instruments, he fell into several mistakes, which,
however, he afterwards corrected. Having early perceived
his future improvements must depend on instruments,
he caused some to be constructed larger
than usual, and thus rendered more exact. On the
11th November, 1572, he perceived a new star in
Cassiopeia, which continued without changing its
place till spring 1574, equal in splendour to Jupiter
or Venus. It last it changed colours and entirely
disappeared. Nothing similar to this had been observed
since the days of Hipparchus.
Tycho, in imitation of that illustrious astronomer,
conceived a design of forming a catalogue of the stars.
To promote his views, the King of Denmark ordered
a castle to be built in Hueun, an island between
Seonia and Zealand, which Tycho called Uranibourg,
“the city of heaven,” and where he placed the finest
collection of instruments that had ever yet appeared;
most of them invented or else improved by himself.
He composed a catalogue of seven hundred and
seventy-seven stars, with greater exactness than had
ever been done before; and constructed tables for
finding the place of the most remarkable stars at any
given time. He was the first who determined the
effect of refraction, whereby we see the sun or any
star above the horizon, before it is so in reality; as
we see the bottom of a vessel when filled with water,
standing at a distance, which we could not see when
empty. He made several other improvements and
important discoveries, which he published in a work
entitled “Progymnasmata.” The labours of Tycho
attracted the attention of Europe; the learned went
to consult him, and the noble to see him. James VI.
of Scotland, when he went to espouse the sister of
Frederic, King of Denmark, paid Tycho a visit, with
all his retinue, and wrote some Latin verses in his
praise.
But these honours were of short continuance.
After the death of his protector, King Frederic, the
pension assigned him was withdrawn, and he was
compelled to exile himself from his native country.
Having hired a ship, he transported his furniture,
books, and instruments to a small place in Hamburgh,
in 1597. The Emperor Rodolphus invited him into
his dominions, settled a large pension upon him, gave
him a castle near Prague, to prosecute his discoveries,
and appointed him Longomatus, a native of Jutland,
and the celebrated Kepler, to assist him. But Tycho
was not happy in his new situation; he died 14th
October, 1601, repeating several times, “I have not
lived in vain.”
Kepler was one of the greatest philosophers that
ever lived, and ought to be considered as the discoverer
of the true system of the world. He was born
in Germany, at Wiel, near Wirtemberg, 27th December,
1571. He early imbibed the principles of
Copernicus. After the death of Tycho, he was employed
to finish the tables which he had begun to
compose from his observations. Kepler took twenty
years to finish them. He dedicated them to the
emperor, under the title of the “Rodolphine Tables.”
Kepler united optics with astronomy, and thus
made the most important discoveries. He was the
first who discovered that the planets move not in a
circle, but in an ellipse; and that altogether they move
sometimes faster and sometimes slower, yet that they
describe equal areas in equal times; that is, that the
spaces through which they move in different parts of
their orbit, are of equal times, though of unequal
length; yet when two straight lines are drawn from
the extremity of either space to the centre of the sun,
they form triangles which include equal areas. He
likewise demonstrated that the squares of the periodical
times of the revolution of the planets round
the sun, are in proportion to the cubes of their distance
from him; a theorem of the greatest use in
astronomical calculations: for having the periodical
times of two planets given, and if the distance of one
of them be known, by the rule of proportion, the
distance of the other can be ascertained.
Kepler is said to have used logarithms in framing
his “Rodolphine Tables.” This great man died in
poverty, 15th November, 1631, at Ratisbon, whither
he had gone to solicit the arrears of his pension,
which had been very ill paid: he left nothing to his
wife and children but the remembrance of his virtues.
Contemporary with Kepler was Galileo, born at
Pisa, in Italy, in 1564; illustrious for his improvements
in mechanics, for his application of the effects
of gravity, and for the invention, or at least, the
improvement of telescopes.
The use of spectacles, or reading glasses (convex
for long-sighted; and concave for short-sighted persons,)
had been invented by one Spina, a monk at
Pisa, in 1290; or, as some say, by our countryman
Roger Bacon. The use of telescopes or glasses for
viewing objects at a distance, was invented by Zachary
Janssen, a spectacle-maker, at Middleburg, or
rather, as it is said, from the accidental discovery of
a child. The honour of this invention is also claimed
by others. It is certain that Galileo first improved
them so as to answer astronomical purposes. He
also first made use of the single pendulum for measuring
time in making his observations; to which he
was led, by considering one day the vibrations of a
lamp suspended from the vaulted roof of a church.
He likewise discovered the gravity of the atmosphere
from the rising of water in a pump, by the action of
a piston, which led the way to the invention of the
barometer, by his scholar Toricelli.
The use of telescopes opened, in a manner, a new
world to Galileo. He observed with astonishment
the increased magnitude and splendour of the planets
and their satellites, formerly invisible: which afforded
additional proofs of the veracity of the Copernican system,
particularly the satellites of Jupiter, and the
phasis of Venus. He discovered an innumerable
multitude of fixed stars, which the naked eye could
not discern, and what greatly excited his wonder,
without the least increase in their size or brightness.
About the same time, John Napier, of Merchiston,
in Scotland, invented what are called “Logarithms,”
first published at Edinburgh in 1614, afterwards
improved by Mr. Briggs, Professor of Geometry, at
Oxford, in which, by a very ingenious contrivance,
addition is made to answer for multiplication, and
subtraction for division; an invention of the greatest
utility in astronomical calculations.
Galileo was not afflicted with poverty, but with
persecution. At seventy years of age he was called
before the Holy Inquisition, for supporting opinions
contrary to Scripture,—and was obliged, on the 11th
of June, 1633, formally to abjure them, to avoid
being burnt as a heretic. The system of Copernicus
had yet gained but few converts; and the bulk of
professions and learned men in Europe, attached to
the philosophy of Aristotle, supported the old doctrine.
Galileo was condemned to prison, and confined to the
small city of Arcem, with its territory, where he
consoled himself by the study of astronomy. He
contrived a method of discovering the longitude by
the satellites of Jupiter, which, however, has not been
productive of all the advantages he expected. He
died in prison, or rather in exile, in 1642.
Although there were a great number of astronomers
contemporary with Kepler and Galileo, none made
any conspicuous figure. John Bayer, of Augsburg,
introduced the Jewish method of marking the stars
with letters of the Greek and Latin alphabets; this
the Jews use because their law does not permit the
use of figures, the produce of fancy.
In 1732, astronomers were very attentive to observe
the transit of Venus over the disc of the sun, which
Kepler had predicted, as a confirmation of the system
of Copernicus. Mercury was observed by Gassendi
in France, and some others; but the transit of Venus
did not then take place for their inspection.
The transit of Venus was first seen by Jeremiah
Horrox, of Hoole, an obscure village, fifteen miles
north of Liverpool, on the 24th of November, 1639,
and at the same time by his friend, William Crabtree,
at Manchester. Horrox was born in 1619, and died
in 1641, in the twenty-third year of his age. He
wrote an account of his observations, which were
published after his death, under the title of “Venus
in Sole visa,” by Hevelius.
The Copernican system was first publicly defended
in England, by Dr. Wilkins, in 1660; in France, by
Gassendi, the son of a peasant in Provence, who
published many valuable works on Philosophy. He
was born in 1592, and died in 1655. He was
violently opposed by Morin, a famous astrologer.
Descartes, descended from a noble family, the son
of a counsellor of Brittany, in France, born at Haye,
in Tourraine, 31st of March, 1596, early distinguished
himself by his knowledge in algebra and geometry.
He attacked and overturned the philosophy of Aristotle,
in his own country. He attempted to establish
certain principles, which, though founded in theory,
he took for granted, by which he accounted for all
appearances. Like Mochus and Democritus, he
imagined all space to be filled with corpuscules, or
atoms, in continual agitation, and denied the possibility
of a vacuum. He explained everything by
supposing vortices, or motions round a centre, according
to the opinions of Democritus, and thus discovered
the centrifugal force in the circular motion of the
planets. But the system of Descartes not being
founded on facts or experiments, did not subsist long:
although at first it had many followers. His astronomical
opinions were much the same with those of
Copernicus.
Although the lively notions of Descartes led him
into error, yet his exalted views greatly contributed to
the improvement of science. Men were led to observation
and experiments, in order to overturn his
system, and astronomy was cultivated by persons
of ability; viz., Bouillard, at Paris; Ward,
at Oxford, 1653; and by Helvelius, at Dantzic,
1643, who constructed a fine observatory, and collected
a great many facts by his long assiduous
observation, for fifty years, during which he made
many discoveries concerning the planets, fixed stars,
and particularly comets. Colbert, in the name of
Louis XIV., sent him a sum of money and a pension.
Hevelius published a catalogue of fixed stars, entitled,
“Firmamentum Sobieskianum,” dedicated to
John Sobieski, King of Poland, at that time justly
famous for having raised the siege of Vienna, when
attacked by the Turks, 1683. In honour of whom
Helvelius formed a new constellation between Antinonus
and Serpenterius, called Sobieski’s Shield.
But the most distinguished astronomer of that time
was Christian Huygens, son to the secretary of the
Prince of Orange, born at the Hague, 14th of April,
1629, and educated at Leyden, under Schooten, the
commentator on Descartes,—famous for the application
of pendulums to clocks and springs to watches,
for the improvement of telescopes and microscopes,
and for the great discoveries he made, in consequence
of these improvements in astronomy.
The establishment of academies, or societies, at
this time, contributed greatly to the advancement of
science.
The Royal Society, in London, was begun in 1659,
but did not assume a regular form till 1662. Its
transactions were first published in 1665. The
Academy of Sciences, at Paris, was founded in 1686,
by Louis XIV., who invited to it Rœmer, from
Denmark, Huygens and Cassini from Italy.
Cassini was born at Perinaldo, in the county of
Nice, on the 8th of June, 1625, and was appointed
first professor in the Royal Observatory at Paris,
where he prosecuted his discoveries till his death, in
1712, and was succeeded by his son. He was assisted
by Picard, Auzoul, and La Hire.
By the direction of the Academy of Sciences at
Paris, a voyage was undertaken by Riecher and
Meurisse, at the king’s expense, to the island of
Caienne, in South America, almost under the equator,
in 1672, to ascertain several philosophical facts;—the
refraction of light, the parallax of Mars, and of the
Sun, the distance of the tropics, the variation in the
motion of the pendulum, &c.
The parallax of the sun is the angle under which an
observer at the sun would see the earth: this Cassini
fixed at 9½ seconds, and the angle under which we
see the sun, at 16 minutes and 6 seconds, or 966
seconds; hence he concluded that these semi-diameters,
are as 9½ to 966, or as 10 to 1932. So
that, according to Cassini, the semi-diameter of the
earth is one hundred times less than that of the sun;
and consequently the sun is a million times larger
than the earth.
The parallax of the sun has since, from the transit
of Venus, 6th of June, 1761, and 3rd of June, 1769,
been discovered to be but about 8 seconds, consequently
his comparative bulk to that of the earth,
and his distance from it, to be proportionably greater.
The method of finding the distance of the earth from
the sun, and consequently of the other planets, was
first proposed by Dr. Halley, who had never seen,
and was morally certain he would never see, this
appearance.
Meurisse died during the voyage. Riecher returned
in 1676. His answer to the parallax of Mars was
not satisfactory. Cassini calculated it at 15 seconds.
The distance of the tropics was found to be 46
degrees, 57 minutes, 4 seconds. The chief advantage
resulting from the voyage was ascertaining the vibration
of the pendulum. In 1669, Placard remarked
that clocks went slower in summer than in winter,
owing to, as since ascertained, that it is the property
of heat to dilate bodies, which consequently lengthens
the pendulum; that cold produces an opposite effect.
Riecher found that the pendulum made forty-eight
vibrations less at Caienne than at Paris; that it went
two minutes and twenty seconds a day slower;
hence, to adjust, he was obliged to shorten the
pendulum.
The same fact was confirmed by Halley, while at
St. Helena, 1676. But an additional reason for this
variation is presumed to exist, from the machinery
being further removed from the central axis of the
earth; the gravitating principle is presumed to be
diminished at the equator more than it is when nearer
the poles.
About this time the French Jesuit missionaries,
having got admission into China, contributed greatly
to the improvement of their astronomy. Father
Schaal, one of their number, on account of his merit,
and particularly for his skill in astronomy, was so
highly honoured by the court of China, that the
emperor, upon his death-bed, made him preceptor to
his son and successor. Schaal reformed the Kalendar,
a matter of great importance to that country. It was
further improved by Verbiest, who succeeded Schaal,
about 1670. The most eminent astronomers in
England during this period were Flamstead, Halley,
and Hook.
Sir Isaac Newton was born at Woolstrope, in Lincoln,
December 25, 1642; after due preparation he
was admitted in the University of Cambridge. The
rapidity of his progress in mathematical knowledge
was truly astonishing. At the age of twenty-four, he
had laid the foundation of the most important mathematical
discoveries. He is the first who gave a
rational and complete account of the laws which
regulate planetary motion, on the principles of attraction
and gravitation. Newton was as remarkable for
a modest diffidence of his own abilities, as for the
superiority of his genius. In 1704, he published his
“Optics;” in 1711, his “Fluxions;” and in 1728,
his “Chronology.” He received in his life time the
honour due to his singular merit. In 1703, he was
elected President of the Royal Society. In 1705, he
received the honour of knighthood by Queen Anne.—He
was twice member of parliament. In 1669, he
was made master of the mint, which, with the presidency
of the Royal Society, he held till his death, in
1726. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, where
there is an appropriate monument to his memory.
The system of Newton had an eminent supporter
and able annotator in the very eminent Scottish professor,
Colin Mac Laurin, who was born in the month
of February, 1698. In 1719, he travelled to London,
where he was introduced to the illustrious Newton,
whose notice and friendship he obtained, and ever after
reckoned as the greatest honour and happiness of his
life. In 1734, Dr. Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, published
his treatise, called “The Analyst,” in which he
attempted to charge mathematicians with infidelity in
matters of religion. This work was the occasion of
Mac Laurin’s elaborate “Treatise on Fluxions,” published
at Edinburgh, in 1742, which is reckoned the
most ample treatise on that branch of novel mathematics
which has yet appeared. So very eminent was
Mac Laurin’s skill in mathematics, and the principles
of anatomical science, and he possessed such excellent
instruments for these purposes, that a new theory
never appeared, nor did anything transpire in the
scientific world, which was uncommon, but his friends
constantly resorted to him for explanation and experiment,
and their laudable curiosity was sure to be
satisfactorily gratified.
One of the greatest names in the modern history of
astronomical discovery is that of the late Sir William
Herschel; and, much to his praise, he was self-instructed
in the science in which he earned his high
reputation. Herschel was born at Hanover, in 1736,
and was the son of a musician in humble circumstances.
Brought up to his father’s profession, at the
age of fourteen he was placed in the band of the
Hanoverian Guards. A detachment of this regiment
having been ordered to England in the year 1757, he
and his father accompanied it; but the latter returned
to Germany in a few months, and left his son to try
his fortune in London. For a long time he had many
difficulties to contend with, and he passed several
years principally in giving lessons in music in the
different towns in the North of England. At last, in
1765, through the interest of a gentleman to whom
his merits had become known, he obtained the situation
of organist at Halifax; and next year, having
gone to fulfil a short engagement at Bath, he gave so
much satisfaction by his performances, that he was
appointed to the same office in the Octagon Chapel of
that city, upon which he went to reside there. The
place which he now held was of some value; and
from the opportunities which he enjoyed of adding to
its emoluments, by engagements at the rooms and
private concerts, as well as by taking pupils, he had
had the prospect of deriving a good income from his
profession, if he had made that his only or his chief
object.
During his residence at Bath, although greatly occupied
with professional engagements, the time he
devoted to his mathematical studies was surprising.
Often, we are told, after a fatiguing day’s work of
fourteen or sixteen hours among his pupils, he would,
on returning home at night, repair for relaxation to
what many would deem these severer exercises. In
this manner, in the course of time, he attained a competent
knowledge of geometry, and found himself in
a condition to proceed to the study of the different
branches of physical science which depend upon the
mathematics. Among the first of the latter that attracted
his attention, were the kindred departments of
astronomy and optics. Having applied himself to
these sciences, he became desirous of beholding with
his own eyes those wonders of the heavens of which
he had read so much, and for that purpose he borrowed
from an acquaintance a two-feet Gregorian
telescope. This instrument interested him so greatly,
that he determined to procure one of his own, and commissioned
a friend in London to purchase one for him,
of a somewhat larger size. But he found the price
was beyond what he could afford. To make up for
this disappointment, he resolved to construct a telescope
for himself; and after encountering innumerable
difficulties in the progress of his task, he at last succeeded,
in the year 1774, in completing a five-feet
Newtonian reflector. This was the commencement of
a long and brilliant course of triumphs in the same
walk of art, and also in that of astronomical discovery.
Herschel now became so much more ardently attached
to his philosophical pursuits, that, regardless of the
sacrifice of emolument he was making, he begun gradually
to limit his professional engagements, and the
number of his pupils.
Meanwhile he continued to employ his leisure in
the fabrication of still more powerful instruments than
the one he had first constructed; and in no long time
he produced telescopes of seven, ten, and even twenty
feet focal distance. In fashioning the mirrors for these
instruments, his perseverance was indefatigable. For
his seven-feet reflector, we have been informed that
he actually finished and made trial of no fewer than
two hundred mirrors before he found one that satisfied
him. When he sat down to prepare a mirror, his
practice was to work at it for twelve or fourteen
hours, without quitting his occupation for a moment.
He would not even take his hand from what he was
about, to help himself to food; and the little he ate
on such occasions was put into his mouth by his
sister. He gave the mirror a proper shape, more by
a certain natural tact than by rule; and when his
hand was once in, as the phrase is, he was afraid that
the perfection of the finish might be impaired by the
least intermission of his labours.
It was on the 13th of March, 1781, that Herschel
made the discovery to which he owes, perhaps, most
of his reputation. He had been engaged for nearly a
year and a half in making a survey of the heavens,
when, on the evening of the day that has been mentioned,
having turned his reflector (an excellent seven
feet reflector of his own constructing) to a particular
part of the sky, he observed among the other stars
one which seemed to shine with a more steady radiance
than those around it; and on account of that
and other peculiarities in its appearance, which excited
his suspicions, he determined to observe it more narrowly.
On reverting to it after some hours, he was
a good deal surprised to find that it had perceptibly
changed its place—a fact which the next day became
more indisputable. At first he was somewhat in
doubt whether or not it was the same star which he
had seen on these different occasions; but, after continuing
his observations for a few days longer, all
uncertainty upon that head vanished. He now communicated
what he had observed to the astronomer
royal, who concluded the luminary could be nothing
else than a new comet. Continued observation of it,
however, for a few months, dissipated this error; and
it became evident that it was in reality a hitherto
undiscovered planet. This new world so unexpectedly
found to form a part of the system to which our own
belongs, received from Herschel, the name of the
Georgium Sidus, or Georgian Star, in honour of the
King of England; but by continental astronomers it
has been more generally called either Herschel, after
its discoverer, or Uranus. Subsequent observations,
made chiefly by Herschel himself, have ascertained
many particulars regarding it, some of which are well
calculated to fill us with astonishment at the powers
of the sublime science which can wing its way so far
into the immensity of space, and bring us back information
so precise and various. In the first place, the
diameter of this new globe has been found to be nearly
four and a half times larger than that of our own.
Its size altogether is about eighty times that of our
earth. Its year is as long as eighty-three of ours.
Its distance from the sun is nearly eighteen hundred
millions of miles, or more than nineteen times
that of the earth. Its density, as compared with that
of the earth, is nearly as twenty-two to one hundred;
so that its entire weight is more than eighteen
times that of our planet. Finally the force of gravitation
near its surface is such, that falling bodies descend
only through fourteen feet during the first
second, instead of thirty-two feet as with us. Herschel
afterwards discovered no fewer than six satellites,
or moons, belonging to his new planet.
The announcement of the discovery of the Georgium
Sidus at once made Herschel’s name universally
known. In the course of a few months the king
bestowed on him a pension of three hundred pounds
a year, that he might be able entirely to relinquish
his engagements at Bath; and upon this he came to
reside at Slough, near Windsor. He now devoted
himself entirely to science; and the construction of
telescopes, and observations of the heavens, continued
to form the occupations of the remainder of his life.
Astronomy is indebted to him for many other most
interesting discoveries besides the celebrated one of
which we have just given an account, as well as a
variety of speculations of the most ingenious, original,
and profound character. But of these we cannot here
attempt any detail. He also introduced some important
improvements into the construction of the reflecting
telescope—beside continuing to fabricate that instrument
of dimensions greatly exceeding any that had been
formerly attempted, with the powers surpassing in
nearly a corresponding degree, what had ever been before
obtained. The largest telescope which he ever made,
was his famous one of forty feet long, which he erected
at Slough for the king. It was begun about the end
of the year 1785, and on the 28th of August, 1789,
the enormous tube was poised on the complicated but
ingeniously contrived mechanism by which its movements
were to be regulated, and ready for use. On
the same day a new satellite of Saturn was detected
by it, being the sixth which had been observed attendant
upon that planet. A seventh was afterwards
discovered by means of the same instrument. This
telescope has been taken down and replaced by another
of only half the length, constructed by Mr. J. Herschel,
the distinguished son of the subject of our present
sketch. Herschel himself eventually became convinced
that no telescope could surpass, in magnifying
power, one of from twenty to twenty-five feet in
length. The French astronomer, Lalande, states that
he was informed by George III. himself, that it was
at his desire that Herschel was induced to make the
telescope at Slough of the extraordinary length he did,
his own wish being that it should not be more than
thirty feet long.
So extraordinary was the ardour of this great
astronomer in the study of his favourite science, that
for many years it has been asserted, he never was in
bed at any hour during which the stars were visible.
And he made almost all his observations, whatever
was the season of the year, not under cover, but in
his garden, in the open air—and generally without
an attendant. There was much that was peculiar to
himself, not only in the process by which he fabricated
his telescopes, but also in his manner of using
them. One of the attendants in the king’s observatory
at Richmond, who had formerly been a workman in
Ramsden’s establishment, was forcibly reminded, on
seeing Herschel take an observation, of a remark
which his old master had made. Having just completed
one of his best telescopes, Ramsden, addressing
himself to his workman, said, “This, I believe, is
the highest degree of perfection we opticians by profession
will ever arrive at; if any improvement of
importance shall ever after this be introduced in the
making of telescopes, it will be by some one who has
not been taught by us.”
Some years before his death, the degree of LL.D.
was conferred upon Herschel by the University of
Oxford; and in 1816, the Prince Regent bestowed
upon him the Hanoverian and Guelphic Order of
Knighthood. He died on the 23rd of August, 1822,
when he was within a few months of having completed
his eighty-fourth year.
We have been thus particular in the enumeration
of particulars in the lives of those great men, who
have cultivated this sublime science, for the purpose
of availing ourselves of a suggestion furnished by Dr.
Priestly, who observed, “That we could only see
Newton in two points of his career: at the bottom of
the ladder, and at the top; having left no account of
his progress, it appeared as though he had broken the
steps by which he had ascended, that none should
follow.”
From the facts collected by the many eminent men
whose names have ornamented our pages, we are
enabled to state the following particulars concerning
that part of the universe denominated the Solar system.
The Sun, a luminous body diffusing light and heat;
whose diameter is computed at 890,000 miles; diurnal
rotation on axis 25 days 6 hours; performs his annual
revolution in orbit in 365 days 6 hours; progressive
equatorial motion in orbit per hour, 3818 miles.
Mercury, whose diameter is 3,000 miles, revolves
in an orbit 36,481,448 miles from that of the sun.
He performs his annual period round that planet in
87 days 23 hours; his hourly equatorial motion in
orbit is 109,699 miles.
Venus,—her diameter is 9,330 miles; revolves in
an orbit 68,891,486 miles distant from the sun; performs
her annual revolution in 224 days 17 hours;
diurnal rotation on axis 24 days 8 hours: hourly
equatorial motion in orbit 80,295 miles.
The Earth,—its diameter 7970 miles; distance of
orbit from the sun 95,173,000 miles; revolves on its
axis once in 24 hours; performs her annual period
round the sun in the same time the sun completes his
revolution; hourly equatorial and progressive motion
in orbit 80,295 miles.
The Moon is a satellite to the earth; her diameter
is 2180 miles; her diurnal rotation on axis is performed
in 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes; she performs
her annual revolution round the sun in precisely
the same time as does the earth, her superior planet;
her motion in orbit per hour is 22,290 miles.
Mars,—his diameter is 5400 miles; distance from
the sun, 145,014,148 miles; annual period round the
sun 671 days, 17 hours; diurnal rotation on axis 19
days, 12 hours, 44 minutes; hourly motion in orbit
55,287 miles.
Jupiter,—his diameter 94,000 miles; distance from
the sun 494,990,976 miles; annual period in 11 years,
314 days, 18 hours; diurnal rotation on axis 9 hours,
56 minutes; hourly motion in orbit 29,803 miles.
Saturn,—his diameter 78,000 miles; distance from
the sun 907,956,130 miles; annual revolution in orbit
22 years, 167 days, 6 hours; hourly motion in orbit
22,101 miles.
It should be observed that Jupiter has four moons,
or satellites, with a large and very luminous belt at a
great distance from his surface. Saturn also has seven
moons, with a very luminous ring about 21,000 miles
broad, from its uppermost to its undermost edge; and
about the same distance from its surface.
Georgium Sidus,—the distance of the orbit from the
sun, 1,758,000,000 miles; annual revolution 28 years,
289 days; diameter 56,726 miles; has two satellites,
or moons.
About 1801, 2, and 4, there were discovered three
other small planets in the system of the sun, called
Vesta, Juno, and Pallas.
The fixed stars composing the Zodiacal Signs, are
divided into twelve constellations, one to each month;
which asterisms were discovered by Flamstead to
consist of the following number of stars to each:
Aries, the Ram, 66; Taurus, the Bull, 141;
Gemini, the Twins, 85; Cancer, the Crab, 83; Leo,
the Lion, 95; Virgo, the Virgin, 110; Libra, the
Scales, 51; Scorpio, the Scorpion, 44; Sagitarius,
the Archer, 69; Capricornus, the Goat, 51; Aquarius,
the Water-Carrier, 108; Pisces, the Fishes, 113.
A comparative idea of the extent of the works of
Omnipotence may be perhaps collected, on our being
informed, that the sphere where the fixed stars appear,
is presumed to be placed far beyond the most remote
planetary orbit; and that some of them are supposed
to serve as suns to illumine other systems, or worlds,
to us unknown.
