Letters on Astronomy in which the Elements of the Science are Familiarly Explained in Connection with Biographical Sketches of the Most Eminent Astronomers

"Ye sacred Muses, with whose beauty fired, My soul is ravished, and my brain inspired, Whose priest I am, whose holy fillets wear; Would you your poet's first petition hear, Giv...

LET us now consider what astronomy is, and into what great divisions it is distributed; and then we will take a cursory view of the doctrine of the sphere. This subject will pro...

"Here truths sublime, and sacred science charm, Creative arts new faculties supply, Mechanic powers give more than giant's arm, And piercing optics more than eagle's eye; Eyes t...

----"the broad circumference Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb Through _optic glass_ the Tuscan artist views At evening, from the top of Fesolé Or in Valdarno, to d...

"We, though from heaven remote, to heaven will move, With strength of mind, and tread the abyss above; And penetrate, with an interior light, Those upper depths which Nature hid...

HAVING hitherto been conversant only with the many fine and sentimental things which the poets have sung respecting Old Time, perhaps you will find some difficulty in bringing d...

"He took the golden compasses, prepared In God's eternal store, to circumscribe This universe, and all created things; One foot he centred, and the other turned Round through th...

WITH the elementary knowledge already acquired, you will now be able to enter with pleasure and profit on the various interesting phenomena dependent on the revolution of the ea...

"Go, wondrous creature! mount where science guides, Go measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides; Instruct the planets in what orbs to run, Correct old Time, and regulate th...

"Great source of day! best image here below Of thy Creator, ever pouring wide, From world to world, the vital ocean round, On Nature write, with every beam, His praise."--_Thoms...

WE have seen that the apparent revolution of the heavenly bodies, from east to west, every twenty-four hours, is owing to a real revolution of the earth on its own axis, in the...

"What though in solemn silence, all Move round this dark, terrestrial ball! In reason's ear they all rejoice, And utter forth a glorious voice; For ever singing, as they shine,...

WE discover in Nature a tendency of every portion of matter towards every other. This tendency is called _gravitation_. In obedience to this power, a stone falls to the ground,...

"The heavens are all his own; from the wild rule Of whirling vortices, and circling spheres, To their first great simplicity restored. The schools astonished stood; but found it...

HAVING now learned so much of astronomy as relates to the earth and the sun, and the mutual relations which exist between them, you are prepared to enter with advantage upon the...

"First to the neighboring Moon this mighty key Of nature he applied. Behold! it turned The secret wards, it opened wide the course And various aspects of the queen of night: Whe...

"Some say the zodiac constellations Have long since left their antique stations, Above a sign, and prove the same In Taurus now, once in the Ram; That in twelve hundred years an...

----"As when the sun, new risen, Looks through the horizontal misty air, Shorn of his beams, or from behind the moon, In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds On half the natio...

"First in his east, the glorious lamp was seen, Regent of day, and all the horizon round Invested with bright rays, jocund to run His _longitude_ through heaven's high road; the...

"First, Mercury, amidst full tides of light, Rolls next the sun, through his small circle bright; Our earth would blaze beneath so fierce a ray, And all its marble mountains mel...

"With what an awful, world-revolving power, Were first the unwieldy planets launched along The illimitable void! There to remain Amidst the flux of many thousand years, That oft...

"They leave at length the nether gloom, and stand Before the portals of a better land; To happier plains they come, and fairer groves, The seats of those whom Heaven, benignant,...

THE consideration of the system of Jupiter and his satellites led us to review the interesting history of Galileo, who first, by means of the telescope, disclosed the knowledge...

"God of the rolling orbs above! Thy name is written clearly bright In the warm day's unvarying blaze, Or evening's golden shower of light; For every fire that fronts the sun, An...

----"Fancy now no more Wantons on fickle pinions through the skies, But, fixed in aim, and conscious of her power, Sublime from cause to cause exults to rise, Creation's blended...

"Incensed with indignation, Satan stood Unterrified, and like a comet burned, That fires the length of Ophiucus huge In the Arctic sky, and from his horrid train Shakes pestilen...

"Oft shalt thou see, ere brooding storms arise, Star after star glide headlong down the skies, And, where they shot, long trails of lingering light Sweep far behind, and gild th...

----"O, majestic Night! Nature's great ancestor! Day's elder born, And fated to survive the transient sun! By mortals and immortals seen with awe! A starry crown thy raven brow...

"O how canst thou renounce the boundless store Of charms that Nature to her votary yields? The warbling woodland, the resounding shore, The pomp of groves, and garniture of fiel...

HAVING now explained to you, as far as I am able to do it in so short a space, the leading phenomena of the heavenly bodies, it only remains to inform you of the different syste...

----"Philosophy, baptized In the pure fountain of Eternal Love, Has eyes indeed; and, viewing all she sees As meant to indicate a God to man, Gives Him the praise, and forfeits...

WITHIN a few years, astronomy has been enriched with a number of valuable discoveries, of which I will endeavor to give you a summary account in this letter. The heavens have be...