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which our limits will not allow us even to enumerate,for which we are deeply indebted to those eminent ob-servers, and others whose names are equally conspicuousin the annals of science,— the worthy successors of theCassinis, of Lalande, Lacaille, and Delambre.

Astronomical research, at the present day, is doubtlesschiefly directed to the increasing accuracy of details. Ithas been justly observed, by Professor Woodhouse, that“ Astronomy has now reached a kind of maximum stateof excellence, and its changes are minute, and must con-tinue so. All great changes ended with Bradley. Heswept the groundof discovery, and left little to be gatheredby those that follow him. Yet, during the sixty yearsthat have elapsed since Bradley, it cannot be said but thatastronomy has greatly advanced, although not by the aidof discoveries such as those of aberration and nutation.”

This immense extension of detailed research rendersit, of course, the more difficult to analyse. Volumesmight be occupied in giving even an outline of such re-sults. A highly interesting discussion, as to the existenceor non-existence of a sensible parallax in the fixed stars,was carried on in 1815, and several subsequent years,between Mr. Pond and Dr. Brinkley. In 1820 the es-tablishment of the Astronomical Society in London gavea new stimulus to the prosecution of the science in thiscountry ; and its transactions have, from that time, be-come an invaluable depository of observations, methods,and tables, referring to all parts of plane astronomy.The institution of observatories at the Cape of GoodHope, by the British government, in .1821 ; at Para-matta, by Sir T. Brisbane, in 1822 ; and at Cambridge,in 1823, have already been productive of an abundantharvest of important results. The regular publicationof observations, and of papers and discussions relatingto astronomy, has been of incalculable advantage indiffusing a knowledge of the science, and in promotingcommunication of ideas ; while the Ephemerides ofParis , Berlin, Milan, and others, have, in their turn,stimulated the English astronomers to make those ex-