Philosopher
Piazzi Were Published. Nowhere in All The Annals of Astronomy Do We
Find Such an Important Occasion; and Scarcely Is It Possible To
Imagine a More Important Opportunity for Pointing Out, As
Emphatically As Possible, the Importance Of That Problem, As at the
Moment When Every Hope of Re-discovering, Among the Innumerable
Little Stars of Heaven, That Mite of a Planet Which Had Been Lost To
Sight for Nearly a Year, Depended Entirely on an Approximate
Knowledge Of Its Orbit, Which Must Be Deduced From Those Scanty
Observations. Could I Ever Have Had A Better Opportunity for Trying
Whether Those Idea-lets Of Mine Were of Any Practical Value Than If I
Then Were To Use Them for the Determination Of The Orbit of Ceres, a
Planet Which, in the Course of those forty-one days, had described
around the earth an arc of no more than three degrees? and, after a
year had passed, required to be tracked out in a region of the sky
far removed from its original position? The first application of this
method was made in the month of October 1801, and the first clear
night, when the planet was looked for by the help of the ephemeris I
had made, revealed the truant to the observer. Three new planets
found since then have supplied fresh opportunities for examining and
proving the efficacy and universality of this method.

"Now a good many astronomers, immediately after the rediscovery of
Ceres, desired me to publish the methods which had been used in my
calculations. There were, however, not a few objections which
prevented me from gratifying at that moment these friendly
solicitations, viz. other business, the desire of treating the matter
more fully, and more especially the expectation that, by continuing
to devote myself to this research, I should bring the different
portions of the solution of the problem to a more perfect pitch of
universality, simplicity, and elegance. As my hopes have been
justified, I do not think there is any reason for repenting of my
delay. For the methods which I had repeatedly applied from the
beginning admitted of so many and such important variations, that
scarcely a vestige of resemblance remains between the method by which
formerly I had arrived at the orbit of Ceres and the practice which
I deal with in this work. Although ind