LETTERS ON ASTRONOMY. To MRS. C LETTER I. INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. "Ye sacred Muses, with whose beauty fired, M Dryden's Virgil DEAR MADAM,-In the conversation we recently held on the study of Astronomy, you expressed a strong desire to become better acquainted with this noble science, but said you had always been repelled by the air of severity which it exhibits, arrayed as it is in so many technical terms, and such abstruse mathematical processes: or, if you had taken up some smaller treatise, with the hope of avoiding these perplexities, you had always found it so meager and superficial, as to afford you very little satisfaction. You asked, if a work might not be prepared, which would convey to the general reader some clear and adequate knowledge of the great discoveries in astronomy, and yet require for its perusal no greater preparation, than may be presumed of every well-educated English scholar of either sex. You were pleased to add the request, that I would write such a work, a work which should combine, with a luminous exposition of the leading truths of the science, some account of the interesting historical facts. with which it is said the records of astronomical discovery abound. Having, moreover, heard much of the grand discoveries which, within the last fifty years, have been made among the fixed stars, you expressed a strong desire to learn more respecting these sublime researches. Finally, you desired to see the argument for the existence and natural attributes of the Deity, as furnished by astronomy, more fully and clearly exhibited, than is done in any work which you have hitherto perused. In the preparation of the proposed treatise, you urged me to supply, either in the text or in notes, every elementary principle which would be essential to a perfect understanding of the work; for although, while at school, you had paid some attention to geometry and natural philosophy, yet so much time had since elapsed, that your memory required to be refreshed on the most simple principles of these elementary studies, and you preferred that I should consider you as altogether unacquainted with them. Although, to satisfy a mind, so cultivated and inquisitive as yours, may require a greater variety of powers and attainments than I possess, yet, as you were pleased to urge me to the trial, I have resolved to make the attempt, and will see how far I may be able to lead you into the interior of this beautiful temple, without obliging you to force your way through the "jargon of the schools." Astronomy, however, is a very difficult or a comparatively easy study, according to the view we take of it. The investigation of the great laws which govern the motions of the heavenly bodies has commanded the highest efforts of the human mind; but profound truths, which it required the mightiest efforts of the intellect to disclose, are often, when once discovered, simple in their complexion, and may be expressed in very simple terms Thus, the creation of that element, on whose mysteri ous agency depend all the forms of beauty and loveliness, is enunciated in these few monosyllables, "And God said, let there be light, and there was light;" and the doctrine of universal gravitation, which is the key that unlocks the mysteries of the universe, is simply this, that every portion of matter in the universe tends towards every other. The three great laws of motion, also, are, when stated, so plain, that they seem hardly to assert any thing but what we knew before. That all bodies, if at rest, will continue so, as is declared by the first law of motion, until some force moves them; or, if in motion, will continue so, until some force stops them, appears so much a matter of course, that we can at first hardly see any good reason why it should be dignified with the title of the first great law of motion; and yet it contains a truth which it required profound sagacity to discover and expound. It is, therefore, a pleasing consideration to those who have not either the leisure or the ability to follow the astronomer through the intricate and laborious processes, which conducted him to his great discoveries, that they may fully avail themselves of the results of this vast toil, and easily understand truths which it required ages of the severest labor to unfold. The descriptive parts of astronomy, or what may be called the natural history of the heavens, is still more easily understood than the laws of the celestial motions. The revelations of the telescope, and the wonders it has disclosed in the sun, in the moon, in the planets, and especially in the fixed stars, are facts not difficult to be understood, although they may affect the mind with astonishment. The great practical purpose of astronomy to the world is, enabling us safely to navigate the ocean. There are indeed many other benefits which it confers on man; but this is the most important. If, however, you ask, what advantages the study of astronomy promises, as a branch of education, I answer, that few subjects promise to the mind so much profit and entertainment. It is agreed by writers on the human |