Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/161

137&#93; AST. lehrated pupil, Regiomontanus, or John Muller, of Montere- gio, who flourished at Niirnbergin the latter part of the fifteenth, and by John "Werner in the begin- ning of the sixteenth century ; till at length arose the justly celebrat- ed Nicolaus Copernicus, the greatest luminary that ever appear- ed on the shores of the Baltic, and who is undoubtedly the principal reformer of astronomical science. After having studied physic at Rome, and returned i his native country, at present called West Prussia, he began, in the year 1507, to doubt the accuracy of" ail other systems, except that of P vth ago- ra s. Endowed with a compre- hensive and penetrating mind, a correct, judgment, and inexhausti- ble powers of application, he could not fail to discover the truth of the hypothesis advanced by that sagacious Greek, " who placed the sun in the centre, and sup- posed a!l the planetary bodies, and the earth itself, to revolve around him." Since that period, astronomy has been progressively cultivated by dhh rent nations, especially the Germans, Italians, French, and English. The principal characters, xvlio? names will be transmitted to posterity, for their useful lab ; in the immense field of pracucal and theoretical astronomy, are near- ly the following: Tycho-Brahe, the Portuguese, who spent a great part of his time in useless ei.jrtsof op osing the immutable system of Copernicus ; Clairult, D A- lembert, La Caille, and De Lalande, in France ; — Galileo, Cassini, Fontana, Boscovicii, BlANCHINI, FRISI, MaNFREDI, Zanotti, and others, in Italy ; — Kepler, Ursinus, Hevelius, AST [ x 37 RoEMER,thetWoELTLERS,MEYER, Kaestner, Lambert, Gris chow, Miller, Burja, FIehl, Bode, Roesler, Fischer, Reckard, Rudigf.r, Scheibel, Olbers, and more especially V. Zach, the leader of German astronomers, who now resides at the new observatory, nearGotha; — Wargentin.Blin- genstern, Mallet, and Plan- man, in Sweden ; — and Wright, Napier, Briggs,Horrox, New- ton, Flamstead, Halley, Pound, Huygens,Hook, Brad- ley, Ferguson, Gregory, Mas- kelyne, and in a more eminent degree than any of his compatriots on the continent, the transcendant Hersghel, under the immediate patronage of his present Majes- ty, who, since the days of the Ptolemys, affords the most illus- trious example of a truly philoso- phic monarch. Of the latest and most popular publications on this subject, we shall state only the following ; A Com- pendious System of Astronomy, by Margaret Bryan, 4to. ll.7s.0'd„ boards ; Leigh and Sotheby, 1797- — The Study of Astronomy, adapted to the Capacities of Youth, by J. Stedman, 12mo. pp. 154; 2s. 6d. Diily,l79f3. — PraStical Astronomy, by A. Ewing, 8vo. pp. 400 ; 5s. boards j Longman, 17 gS. — Lastly, a work of a more scientific charac- ter, is the Rev. S. Vince's Com* plete System of Astronomy, vol. 1„ 4to. ll. 4s. boards ; Win grave, 1/97. The author excludes fa- miliar explanations, moral reflec- tions, and historical details ; but has carefully examined whatever relates to the subject, and bestow- ed the greatest attention on the correctness of the tables ; a cir- cumstance of the first importance to a book of this nature. Jtha-