LET. I.

OF ASTRONOMY.

3

gress, which, at present, would be foreign toour purpose, I shall proceed immediately to thesubject itself, and leave those particulars to bementioned in their proper places. It will besufficient to observe, that Astronomy is a scienceof the earliest antiquity, and has challenged theadmiration of all ages. Poets, Philosophers,and Historians, have all given it their highestencomiums, and Kings themselves have en-riched it with their labours.

The Poets, in particular, have been lavish intheir praises upon this subject, and are indebtedto it for some of their boldest images, and mostexalted descriptions. Virgil, the greatest masterof verse after Homer, speaks 'of it with en-thusiasm ; and, in the second book of hisGeorgics, breaks out into this animated apos-trophe :

“ Ye sacred muses, with whose beauty fir’d,

My soul is ravilh’d, and my brain inspir’d:

"Whose priest I am, whose holy fillets wear ;

Would you your poet’s first petition hear;

Give me the ways of wand’ring stars to know :

The depths of heav’n above, and earth below.

Teach me the various labours of the moon,

And whence proceed th’ eclipses of the fun.

Why flowing tides prevail upon the main,

And in what dark recess they Ihrink again.

What shakes the solid earth, what cause delaysThe summer nights, and Ihortens winter days.”

Dryden’s ViRS.

B 2

And,