false or authentit it is needless for me to consider,) it is observed that Lord W. is always frank and cheerful among his brother officers; an example of frankness and reserve existing (as they almost invariably do) at one and the same time in a great character.' In the essay on the Character of Sir William Jones,'-that "mind of ages in a single breast," as Wrangham nobly says,→→→ his Farewell to the Muse is prettily translated: but the remarks on Rousseau want much revision. A perusal of the character of that extraordinary being, which we lately selected from the "Picture of French Literature," would be of service to the essayist. Number 100. contains some good observations on Johnson. Having alluded to his unfortunate fondness for victory in argument, which degenerated at times into a complete passion for contradiction, the author proceeds: But there was another circumstance which had a tendency to warp the justice of his sincere opinions. Early in life he had probably discovered the inclination of his own imagination to predominate dangerously over his reason. On this account he used every exertion to subdue it; to reduce it to the severest trammels of argumentation, and the most sober paths of mental employment. Hence he acquired a habit of preferring the lower departments of the muse; he best liked reasoning in verse; dry ethical couplets; and practical observations upon daily life,' We acknowlege much justice in these reflections; and we think that they are not undeserving of the attention of those who, from feeling the predominant bias of their mind towards the exercise of the imagination, are apt to run into the contrary. extreme, and labour to extinguish all their natural enthusiasm. We shall leave the Ruminator exulting, in his 102d number, over the illustrious deeds of the noble family of Clifford, with which he claims honourable connection; only observing that it depends entirely on ourselves whether hereditary pride in the merits of our ancestors be the most pleasing or the most painful of sensations. ART. V. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. For the Year 1813. OBSE [Article concluded from p. 79.] ASTRONOMICAL PAPERS in PART I. BSERVATIONS of the Summer Solstice, 1812, at the Royal F.R.S. * See Appendix to Vol. lxxi. of the Monthly Review. A Catalogue of North Polar Distances of some of the principal fixed Stars. By the Same. Observation of the Winter Solstice of 1812, with the Mural Circle, at Greenwich. By the Same. ASTRONOMICAL PAPERS in PART II. Catalogue of North Polar Distances of eighty-four principal fixed -Stars, deduced from Observations made with the Mural Circle at the Royal Observatory. By the Same. Observations of the Summer Solstice, 1813, with the Mural Circle, at the Royal Observatory. By the Same. We are here presented with the first series of observations which have been made with the new mural circle at Greenwich, and we are happy to find that this beautiful instrument is likely to possess that extreme degree of accuracy which the celebrity of the artist and the well known talents and experience of its original projector led us to anticipate. Dr. Maskelyne had long looked forwards with pleasure to the time at which he might commence a course of observations with this new circle, but unfortunately he did not live to see it completed; and it is now, therefore, from his successor, Mr. Pond, that astronomers are expecting the confirmation or correction of former observations, and the dependent results. We could have wished to have seen a description of this master-piece of art, before our attention had been called to its application: but this interesting communication has been reserved till the instrument can be completely finished; and probably it would have been as well to have waited the same time before the results of the observations themselves had been reported, since the final completion seems to be as necessary in the latter case as in the former : As it is intended,' says Mr. Pond, that a minute description of the mural circle lately erected at the Royal Observatory, when completely finished, shall be laid before the Royal Society, I think it unnecessary to accompany this communication with any other remarks on its construction, than such as are absolutely necessary to render the annexed observations intelligible; being only anxious to take an early opportunity of transmitting the result of the observations of the sun, made at the last summer solstice. For, notwithstanding the instrument was at that time in a very unfinished and imperfect state, I have reason to think, that the observations made with it were much more exact than could have been made with any other instrument hitherto constructed: the uncertainty of the result, as far as the instrument itself is concerned, does not, I believe, exceed a small fraction of a second; but I think it necessary to offer a few remarks on the elements of the computation, by which the result is obtained. The distance of the sun from the pole at the moment of the solstice, may either be considered as a simple arc, or as composed of two others, namely, the distance of the sun from the zenith, and the ' distance of the zenith from the pole. From the construction of instruments which take their point of departure from the position of a plumb-line or level, it is a general method to measure these two arcs separately; that is to say, the zenith distance of the sun is considered as the immediate object of investigation, and the remaining arc, or, as it is usually termed, the co-latitude of the place, (the knowledge of which is presumed,) is added to complete the polar distance. But in whatever way we consider the subject, it is evident that the sole object of the practical astronomer is to obtain by some mechanical means the measure of this total arc. The mural circle at Greenwich has neither level nor plumb-line, nor do I conceive that the least advantage could be derived from the application of either: its principle enables the observer to determine this total arc without any intermediate or zenith point; hence the colatitude, the knowledge of which is so essential from the construction of other instruments, is in this case rather a question of curiosity than of absolute necessity. I find it, however, convenient (for reasons which I hope to have an opportunity of stating more at large in a future paper) to assume an intermediate point, which I call the zenith point, without being at all anxious to know whether it is really so or not; because I find my self possessed of the means of determining the position of this imaginary point of departure, on the instrument, to within the tenth of a second, a degree of precision, which I apprehend no level or plumb. line can ever be expected to equal. From this point of departure, I measure the distance of the sun to the southward, and of the pole to the northward, and the sum of these two measures is evidently the north polar distance of the sun, which in every method is the ultimate object to be attained. I have, as an example, annexed a computation of the same solstice obtained by direct measurement, from the pole, without the aid of the intermediate point above mentioned; and it will be seen that the results do not in this case differ above a quarter of a second from each other. There is indeed no other difference between these two methods but that, in the former case, the part of the arc Z P is obtained rather more accurately, by a great number of observations both before and after the solstice, than could be done in the short interval of time in which the solstice itself is observed. By sixty observations of y draconis, of which only three differ so much as 1" from the mean, it appears that the zenith point which I have assumed is 2', 18", 64, south of the mean position of y draconis for the beginning of the year 1812, which is the same quantity that is found by the observations with the zenith sector, 1811.' We are anxious to see an illustration of the principle adopted to avoid the use of the plumb-line and level; which, we apprehend, if once well established, must be deemed an important improvement in astronomical observations: since we presume that it will be the means of avoiding those errors which have been, been, in some cases, suspected to arise from local attraction, and which, while the level and plumb-line are used for determining the point of departure, it is impossible to detect. Very little, however, can be said on this subject till we are furnished with the necessary data. In the mean-time, we are happy to find that it is the intention of the Astronomer-royal to avail himself of the extreme accuracy of his new instrument to examine Dr. Bradley's tables of refractions, which are suspected, both by the French and the English astronomers, to require some modification; and should Mr. Pond succeed in making the necessary corrections relative to this subject, he will doubtless render an essential service to the science of astronomy. With regard to the mechanical part of the observations which form the contents of these papers, we cannot doubt that the author's attention and assiduity have been equal to that which the importance of the subject required: but we do not observe that complete degree of accuracy in the detail which we could have wished to have seen. Thus, for example, the obliquity of the ecliptic, as ascertained by direct measurement from Polaris, is stated to be 23° 27′ 52",25, and, as drawn from the usual method, 23° 27′ 52",10: agreeing with each other, as Mr.Pond states, within a quarter of a second. This latter, however, depends on assuming the arc Z P = 38°31 21,153 which, in the author's account of his observations of the winter-solstice, he assumes at 38° 31′ 21′′,5: an alteration which he has been induced to make from the mean of 120 subsequent observations of Polaris. The summer-solstice, thus corrected, gives for the obliquity, January 1st, 1813, 23° 27′ 51,5: whereas the same, as deduced from the observations of the winter-solstice, gives this obliquity only 23 27 4735; differing from the former by nearly 4", which the author calls a small discordance, that may be easily reconciled by a slight modification of Bradley's refractions, and to which principle it may perhaps ultimately be necessary to have recourse for its explanation.' In referring to the following summer-solstice, however, it seems that the original results require a still more important alteration; the correction of the sun's latitude having been taken +0,95, instead of —-0",6: which reduces the original obliquity from 23° 27' 52′′, 25, to 23° 27′ 50′′, 5, according to the author's statement: though we cannot find that either this or his other result, as drawn from the usual observations, brings out precisely the above quantity. Mr. Pond may term these very small errors, as he does in speaking of the latter, though it amounts to more than a second and a half;-and as he does in his account of the discordance of the winter and summer-solstices, though he he makes it amount to nearly four seconds; and as he does again in a correction of a second in the north polar distance of Procyon-but, small as they may be, they will, if frequently repeated, tend very much to shake that confidence which we ought to repose in the observations and computations of the Astronomer-royal. On the Light of the Cassegrainian Telescope, compared with that of the Gregorian. By Captain Henry Kater, Brigade-major. -This memoir relates to a subject of great moment in practical astronomy, and will no doubt engage the serious attention of all such observers as possess the means of repeating the experiments of the author. They are thus detailed: The Cassegrainian telescope, from its first invention to the present time, has generally been considered to be merely the Gregorian disguised, and to possess no other advantage over it than the capability of being made shorter with the same magnifying power. This opinion, joined to the inconvenience of its inverting the object, has caused it to be thrown aside, perhaps too hastily, and without a sufficient examination of its properties. As the experiments which I am about to detail may possibly lead to important conclusions, I shall perhaps be pardoned if I relate the circumstances which induced me to engage in them. A self-taught artist of the name of Crickmore, who resides at Ipswich, had, by exclusive attention to the subject, brought the Gregorian telescope to a degree of perfection surpassing any thing of the kind I have ever yet met with. Some months since, in the course of his experiments, he first completed a Cassegrainian telescope of one foot in length; and on viewing Jupiter with it, with a power of about ico, I was instantly struck with the brightness of the image, far exceeding what might have been expected from the aperture; but I supposed this to have been a deception arising from the specula being more exquisitely figured than usual, which, producing greater distinctness, occasioned the idea of superior light. A short time after this, the same artist received an order for another telescope, which, from the success that had attended his recent efforts, he recommended to be of the Cassegrainian form. The aperture was five inches, the length thirty inches, and with a power of near 400 the image was so perfectly distinct and luminous, that I could no longer hesitate to conclude that, from some unknown cause, the Cassegrainian telescope actually possessed far more light than the Gregorian, and I waited most anxiously for an opportunity of verifying this, and determining the difference by experiment. Such an opportunity soon presented itself, and under circumstances peculiarly favourable, as another excellent telescope of the Cassegrainian form was made, and I was fortunate enough to procure a Gregorian made by Mr. Crickmore some time before. The mirrors of both these telescopes were cast at the same time, and from the same pattern, so that no difference of light could arise from any dif ference in the composition of the metal. The magnifying power of both |