can Association for the advancement of Science, and an expression of opinion by the section of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy to undertake. Thus was established the Astronomical Journal, published at Cambridge. The high scientific ability of the editor and the judicious and careful character of his supervision won for the journal the applause of the highest authorities of the United States and in Europe and the good will of numerous contributors. The patronage of the journal was even smaller than could reasonably have been anticipated, no observatory or institution as such contributing more than merely subscriptions to a limited number of copies of the journal to its support. It is due to the friends of Dr. Gould to say that they did contribute as far as he would permit them to alleviate the pecuniary burthen thus thrown upon him, but the independence of the editor always rebelled against offers of aid, and he preferred from his own moderate means to make the sacrifice required to sustain the publication. His labor should not have been rendered gratuitously, but even this contribution did not suffice; he was called upon to labor in other fields and to devote what was thus acquired to the progress of astronomy in his country. An example of devotion to science which well merits that it should be dragged publicly from its concealment and brought to light before those assembled this day.

The sacrifice is now to cease, a fact which will surprise no one more than the Editor himself. The spirit which has done so much in this city for astronomical science has prompted twelve gentlemen of Albany to contribute the sum necessary to support the Astronomical Journal for six years; and that journal will be hereafter published in connection with the Dudley Observatory of Albany.

Hon. Edward Everett followed with an Address which occupied nearly two hours in the delivery, and which is so admirably an exposition of the uses of Astronomy, that we transfer it almost entire to our pages.

The subscription to the Dudley Observatory stands at present, (October 1,) as follows:

VII. THE USES OF ASTRONOMY.

A DISCOURSE DELIVERED AT ALBANY ON THE 28Th of august, 1856, ON OCCASION

OF THE INAUGURATION OF THE DUDLEY OBSERVATORY: BY EDWARD EVERETT.

[The introduction relative to the History of Albany is omitted.- ED.] DURING the colonial period, and in the first generation after the revolution, no department of science was, for obvious causes, very extensively cultivated in America,-astronomy perhaps as much as the kindred branches. The improvement in the Quadrant, commonly known as HADLEY'S, had already been made at Philadelphia, by GODFREY, in the early part of the last century, and the beautiful invention of the collimating telescope was made at a later period by RITTENHOUSE, an astronomer of distinguished repute. The transits of Venus of 1761 and 1769 were observed, and orreries were constructed in different parts of the country, and some respectable scientific essays are contained, and valuable observations are recorded in the early volumes of the transactions of the Philosophical Society, at Philadelphia, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, at Boston and Cambridge. But, in the absence of a numerous class of men of science to encourage and aid each other, without observatories, and without valuable instruments, little of importance could be expected in the higher walks of astronomical life.

AMERICAN OBSERVATIONS.

The greater the credit due for the achievement of an enterprise commenced in the early part of the present century, and which would reflect honor on the science of any country and any age.--I mean the translation and commentary on Laplaces Mecanique Celeste, by Bowditch; a work of whose merit I am myself wholly unable to form an opinion, but which I suppose places the learned translator and commentator on a level with the ablest astronomers and geometers of the day. This work may be considered as opening a new era in the history of American science. The country was still almost wholly deficient in instrumental power; but, the want was generally felt by men of science, and the public mind in various parts of the country began to be turned towards the means of supplying it. In 1825, President John Quincy Adams, brought the subject of a National Observatory before Congress. Political considerations prevented its being favorably entertained at that time; and, it was not till 1842, and as an incident of the exploring expedition, that an appropriation was made for a depot for the charts and instruments of the Navy. On this modest basis has been reared the National Observatory, at Washington; an institution which has already taken

and fully sustains an honorable position among the scientific establishments of the age.

Besides the institution at Washington, fifteen or twenty observatories have, within the .ast few years, been established in different parts of the country; some of them on a modest scale, for the gratification of the scientific taste and zeal of individuals, others on a broad foundation of expense and usefulness. In these establishments, public and private, the means are provided for the highest order of astronomical observation, research, and instruction. There is already in the country an amount of instrumental power, (to which addition is constantly making.) and of mathematical skill, on the part of our men of science, adequate to a manly competition with their European contemporaries. The fruits are already before the world in the triangulation of several of the States, in the great work of the coast survey, in the numerous scientific surveys of the interior of the Continent, in the astronomical department of the exploring expedition, in the scientific expedition to Chili, in the brilliant hydrographical labors of the observatory at Washington, in the published observations of Washington and Cambridge, in the journal conducted by the Nestor of American Science, now in its eighth lustrum ; in the Sidereal Messenger, the Astronomical Journal, and the National Ephemeris; in the great chronometrical expeditions to determine the longitude of Cambridge, better ascertained than that of Paris was, till within the last year; in the prompt rectification of the errors in the predicted elements of Neptune, in its identification with Lalande's missing star, and in the calculation of its ephemeris; in the discovery of the satellite of Neptune, of the eighth satellite of Saturn, and of the innermost of its rings; in the establishment both by observation and theory of the non-solid character of Saturn's rings; in the separation and measurement of many double and triple stars, amenable only to superior instrumental power, in the immense labor already performed in preparing Star Catalogues, and in numerous accurate observations of standard stars; in the diligent and successful observation of the meteoric showers; in an extensive series of magnetic observations; in the discovery of an asteroid and ten or twelve telescopic comets; in the resolution of nebulæ, which had defied everything in Europe but Lord Ross's great Reflector; in the application of electricity to the measurement of differences in longitude; in the ascertainment of the velocity of the electro-magnetic fluid, and its truly wonderful uses in recording astronomical observationsThese are but a portion of the achievements of American astronomical science within fifteen or twenty years, and fully justify the most sanguine anticipations of its further progress.

How far our astronomers may be able to pursue their researches will depend upon the resources of our public institutions, and the liberality of wealthy individuals in furnishing the requisite means. With the exception of the observatories at Washington and West Point, little can be done, or expected to be done by the government of the Union or the States; but, in this, as in every other department of liberal art and sci

ence, the great dependence, and may I not add the safe dependence, as it ever has been, must continue to be upon the bounty of enlightened, liberal, and public-spirited individuals.

THE DUDLEY OBSERVATORY.

It is by a signal exercise of this bounty, my friends, that we are called together to-day. The munificence of several citizens of this ancient city, among whom the first place is due to the generous lady, whose name has, with great propriety, been given to the institution, has furnished the means for the foundation of the Dudley Observatory, at Albany. On a commanding elevation, on the northern edge of the city, liberally given for that purpose by the head of a family, in which the patronage of science is hereditary, a building of ample dimensions has been erected, upon a plan which combines all the requisites of solidity, convenience, and taste. A large portion of the expense of the structure has been defrayed by Mrs. Blandina Dudley, to whose generosity, and that of several other public-spirited individuals, the institution is also indebted for the provision which has been made for an adequate supply of first-class instruments, to be executed by the most eminent makers in Europe and America; and which, it is confidently expected, will yield to none of their class in any observatory in the world.

With a liberal supply of instrumental power; established in a community to whose intelligence and generosity its support may be safely confided, and whose educational institutions are rapidly realizing the conception of a university; countenanced by the gentleman who conducts the United States coast survey with such scientific skill and administrative energy; committed to the immediate supervision of an astronomer to whose distinguished talent had been added the advantage of a thorough scientific education in the most renowned universities of Europe, and who, as the editor of the American Astronomical Journal, has shown himself to be fully qualified for the high trust; under these favorable circumstances, the Dudley Observatory, at Albany, now takes its place among the scientific foundations of the country and the world.

WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY.

It is no affected modesty which leads me to express the regret that this interesting occasion could not have taken place under somewhat dif ferent auspices. I feel that the duty of addressing this great and enlightened assembly, comprising so much of the intelligence of the community and of the science of the country, ought to have been elsewhere assigned; that it should have devolved upon some one of the eminent persons, many of whom I see around me, to whom you have been listening the past week, who, as observers and geometers, could have treated the subject with a master's power; astronomers, whose telescopes have penetrated the depths of the heavens, or mathematician, whose analysis unthreads the maze of their wondrous mechanism. If, instead of commanding, as you easily could have done, qualifications of this kind, your choice has rather fallen on one, making no pretensions to the honorable name of a man of science, but whose delight it has al

ways been to turn aside from the dusty paths of active life, for an interval of recreation in the green fields of sacred nature in all her kingdoms,— it is, I presume, because you have desired on an occasion of this kind, necessarily of a popular character, that those views of the subject should be presented which address themselves to the general intelligence of the community, and not to its select scientific circles. There is, perhaps, no branch of science, which, to the same extent as astronomy, exhibits phenomena which, while they task the highest powers of philosophical research, are also well adapted to arrest the attention of minds barely tinctured with scientific culture, and even to teach the sensibilities of the wholly uninstructed observer. The profound investigations of the chemist into the ultimate constitution of material nature, the minute researches of the physiologist into the secrets of animal life, the transcendental logic of the geometer clothed in a notation, the very sight of which terrifies the uninitiated, are lost on the common understanding. But the unspeakable glories of the rising and the setting sun; the serene majesty of the moon, as she walks in full-orbed brightness through the heavens; the soft witchery of the morning and the evening star; the imperial splendors of the firmament on a bright, unclouded night; the comet, whose streaming banner floats over half the sky, these are objects which charm and astonish alike the philosopher and the peasant;-the mathematician who weighs the masses and defines the orbits of the heavenly bodies, and the untutored observer who sees nothing beyond the images painted upon the eye.

WHAT IS AN ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY?

An astronomical observatory, in the general acceptation of the word, is a building erected for the reception and appropriate use of astronomical instruments, and the accommodation of the men of science employed in making and reducing observations of the heavenly bodies. These instruments are mainly of three classes, to which I believe all others of a strictly astronomical character may be referred.

1. The instruments by which the heavens are inspected, with a view to discover the existence of those celestial bodies which are not visible to the naked eye, (beyond all comparison more numerous than those which are.) and the magnitude, shapes, and other sensible qualities, both of those which are and those which are not thus visible to the unaided sight. The instruments of this class are designated by the general name of Telescope, and are of two kinds, the refracting telescope, which derives its magnifying power from a system of convex lenses, and the reflecting telescope, which receives the image of the heavenly body upon a concave mirror.

2. The second class of instruments consists of those which are designed principally to measure the angular distances of the heavenly bodies from each other, and their time of passing the meridian. The transit instrument, the meridian circle, the mural circle, the heliometer and the sextant belong to this class. The brilliant discoveries of astron