rnal, we have the happiness to
make known to the British public, and thence to the whole civilized
world, recent discoveries in Astronomy, which will build an
imperishable monument to the age in which we live, and confer upon
the present generation of the human race a proud distinction
through all future time. It has been poetically said, that the
stars of heaven are the hereditary regalia of man, as the
intellectual sovereign of the animal creation. He may now fold the
Zodiac around him with a loftier consciousness of his mental
superiority," etc., etc.

The writer then eloquently descanted upon the sublime achievement by
which man pierced the bounds that hemmed him in, and with sensations of
awe approached the revelations of his own genius in the far-off heavens,
and with intense dramatic effect described the younger Herschel
surpassing all that his father had ever attained; and by some stupendous
apparatus about to unvail the remotest mysteries of the sidereal space,
pausing for many hours ere the excess of his emotions would allow him to
lift the vail from his own overwhelming success.

I must quote a line or two of this passage, for it capped the climax of
public curiosity:

"Well might he pause! He was about to become the sole depository of
wondrous secrets which had been hid from the eyes of all men that
had lived since the birth of time. He was about to crown himself
with a diadem of knowledge which would give him a conscious
preeminence above every individual of his species who then lived or
who had lived in the generations that are passed away. He paused
ere he broke the seal of the casket that contained it."

Was not this introduction enough to stimulate the wonder bump of all the
star-gazers, until

"Each particular hair did stand on end,
Like quills upon the fretful porcupine?"

At all events, such was the effect, and it was impossible at first to
supply the frantic demand, even of the city, not to mention the country
readers.

I may very briefly sum up the outline of the discoveries alleged to have
been made, in a few paragraphs, so as not to protract the suspense of my
readers too long.

It was claimed that the "Edinburgh Journal" was indebted for its
information to Doctor Andrew Grant--a savant of celebrity, who had, for
very many years, been the scientific companion, first of the elder and
subsequently of the