rnysiCAL and mathematical sciences. 2()7

Establishment of Observatories.

To the period under review belongs the establishmentof some of the most celebrated national observatories. Ifthe formation of philosophic societies be a matter ofnational importance, much more must the institutionof observatories be so. To be effective to the greatpurposes for which they are destined, these establish-ments must be constructed and fitted up upon a scalefar beyond the means of any individual to attain.And the character of the results deduced from the ob-servations made in them, so essential to the purposesof navigation (and in this respect alone, therefore, ofimmediate national utility), ought to be such as canhardly be secured, unless that responsibility attach tothe observer which belongs to a public functionary.But, in a higher point of view, the science which hasthe heavenly bodies for its objects of contemplation,demands, as far as possible, to be exempted from thevicissitudes of sublunary things. As it is a sciencewhich gains strength but slowly, and requires ages tocomplete its discoveries, the plan of observation mustnot he limited by the life of the individual who pur-sues it, hut must be followed out upon the same systemfor a long succession of years. We have before noticedthe munificence displayed by several sovereigns offormer ages in this respect. The breaking up of TychoBrahe ’s observatory, on which such vast sums hadbeen spent, and which might have continued to be moregloriously employed than it was even under his super-intendance, became a sad memorial of the instability ofwhatever depends on individual greatness, and the ne-cessity of erecting such institutions on the more sub-stantial basis of public endowments. Both the English and French governments had the wisdom to see this,and the national observatory of Greenwich was esta-blished in 1675, that of Paris in 1667- In the