re there
is multiformity and change, stimulating a curiosity which the rapid
development of methods of research offers the possibility of at least
partially gratifying.

Outside the solar system, the problems which demand a practical solution
are virtually infinite in number and extent. And these have all arisen
and crowded upon our thoughts within less than a hundred years. For
sidereal science became a recognised branch of astronomy only through
Herschel's discovery of the revolutions of double stars in 1802. Yet
already it may be, and has been called, "the astronomy of the future,"
so rapidly has the development of a keen and universal interest attended
and stimulated the growth of power to investigate this sublime subject.
What has been done is little--is scarcely a beginning; yet it is much in
comparison with the total blank of a century past. And our knowledge
will, we are easily persuaded, appear in turn the merest ignorance to
those who come after us. Yet it is not to be despised, since by it we
reach up groping fingers to touch the hem of the garment of the Most
High.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1630: _Comptes Rendus_, t. xliv., p. 339.]

[Footnote 1631: A. A. Common, _Memoirs R. Astr. Soc._, vol. i., p. 118.]

[Footnote 1632: Newcomb, _Pop. Astr._, p. 137.]

[Footnote 1633: _Month. Not._, vol. liv., p. 67.]

[Footnote 1634: Keeler, _Publ. Astr. Pac. Soc._, vol. ii., p. 160.]

[Footnote 1635: H. Grubb, _Trans. Roy. Dub. Soc._, vol. i. (new ser.),
p. 2.]

[Footnote 1636: Hale, nevertheless (_Astroph. Jour._, vol. v., p. 128),
considers that refractors preserve their superiority of visual
light-grasp over Newtonian reflectors up to an aperture of 52-1/2, while
equalisation is reached for the photographic rays at 34 inches.]

[Footnote 1637: _Astroph. Jour._, vol. v., p. 130.]

[Footnote 1638: _Phil. Trans._, vol. cxlviii., p. 465.]

[Footnote 1639: _Optics_, p. 107 (2nd ed., 1719).]

[Footnote 1640: _Observatory_, vol. viii., p. 85.]

[Footnote 1641: Holden on Celestial Photography, _Overland Monthly_,
Nov., 1886.]

[Footnote 1642: _Observatory_, vol. xv., p. 283.]

[Footnote 1643: Bailey, _Astroph. Jour._, vol. x., p. 255.]

[Footnote 1644: _Harvard Circulars_, Nos. 2, 18, 24, 33;]

[Footnote 1645: Loewy, _Bull. Astr._, t. i., p. 286; _Nature_, vol.
xxix., p. 36.]

[Footnote 1646: _Nature_, vol. xxiv., p. 389.]

[Footnote 1647: _Ibid._, vol. xxix., p. 470.]

[Footnote 1648: _Trans. R. Dub