Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/156

 132 HISTORY OF THE [1860-70 Fortunately our object is not to formulate new schemes, but rather to recognise the tradition handed down to us and do homage to the men of old. We can no more anticipate how our science will stand a hundred years hence than our founders could predict whither their methods and their labours would lead us. To an astronomer who looks back through the century, the feature which will probably strike him most is rather how little in essential details is the change of outlook on the problems to be studied and solved. The work of Newton had laid down lines along which men's minds had contentedly followed ; and every new observation that was made seemed to fall naturally into its place in the system of the universe which Newton had formulated. Even the most recent developments of Einstein and his followers may be regarded, not so much as upsetting the Newtonian universe, but rather as affording an opportunity of gauging phenomena that present themselves in conditions which transcend those contem- plated in Newton's philosophy. The stimulating influence of the Society on the production of the work can hardly be over-estimated. The Society was a focus, which performed a double service of the greatest value. It served to bring the professional workers in contact, not only with one another, but also with the large body of amateur astronomers, who in this country have always formed so marked a proportion of the whole constituency. The meetings afforded an interested audience, before whom investigators were proud to lay their contributions. The publications of the Society insured their distribution to still wider circles in all parts of the world, and so led to correspondence with foreign astronomers, who gladly exchanged with our Fellows notes on points of common interest in the activities of the time. This is naturally true of the whole history of our Society, but probably the increased facilities of communication by post and railway made themselves especially felt as the decade 1860-70 was approached. For we see signs of a distinct change in the management of our publications at that time, in the direction of increasing the importance of our shorter communications in the Monthly Notices, relatively to the larger papers in the Memoirs. The custom of printing the octavo Monthly Notices and the quarto Memoirs has continued throughout the history. The Council considered the possibility of a departure from this custom, and decided in 1858 against making any change. In the following year, 1859, the Council had given further consideration to the matter, and announced their change of decision in their Report on 1859 February, as follows : " The Monthly Notices continue to offer an easily accessible channel of publication to observers and computers of all classes