elong to the whole world.

FOOTNOTES:

[31] JAMES SHORT, F.R.S. (1710-1768), and JOHN DOLLOND, F.R.S.
(1706-1761), were the most celebrated makers of telescopes of their day.
The six-foot Newtonian reflectors of SHORT (aperture 9.4 inches), and
the forty-six-inch achromatics of DOLLOND (aperture 3.6 inches), were
highly esteemed. The Royal Observatory of Greenwich possessed, in 1765,
one of each class. In a comparative trial of SHORT'S telescope, at
Greenwich, and one of HERSCHEL'S first telescopes, the latter was
adjudged greatly superior.

[32] At least _one_ of these telescopes had the principal
mirror made of glass instead of metal.--_Philosophical Transactions_,
1803.

[33] The following extract from FOURIER'S _Eloge_ of HERSCHEL
is of interest in this connection. The sum first appropriated by the
king was L2,000. This was afterwards raised to L4,000, and a sum of L200
yearly was given for maintenance.

"L'histoire doit conserver a jamais la reponse de ce prince a un
etranger celebre [LALANDE?] qui le remerciait des sommes considerables
accordees pour les progres de l'astronomie. 'Je fais les depenses de la
guerre,' dit le roi, 'parcequ'elles sont necessaires; quant a celles des
sciences, il m'est agreable des les ordonner; leur objet ne coute point
des larmes, et honore l'humanite.'"

LALANDE'S own account is a little different. He says the king exclaimed:
"Ne vaut-il pas mieux employer son argent a cela qu'a faire tuer des
hommes?"

[34] The memoirs on the parallaxes of stars, written by various
astronomers from 1750 to 1800, were mainly directed to the improvement
of the methods, or to the discovery of the parallax of some particular
star. For example, LACAILLE'S observations of _Sirius_, at the Cape of
Good Hope, had resulted in a parallax of 9" for that star--a
quantity over forty times too large.

[35] HERSCHEL accepted, as did all his cotemporaries, the
Newtonian or corpuscular theory of light.

[36] Thus the position of small stars critically situated in
the centre, or on the edges of the nebulae was always noted. Many of the
descriptions are given in the published papers, but the publication of
the diagrams would be an immense help to this branch of astronomy.
D'ARREST in his reduction of HERSCHEL'S nebula observations (1856)
writes: "Gewiss waere es vom hoechsten Interesse fuer die Entwickelung,
welche hoffentlich auch dieser Zweig der beobachtenden Astronomie
zukuenftig erhalten wird, wenn d