Copy 1, Volume 1
The gallery of nature and art; or, a tour through creation and science. Comprising new and entertaining descriptions of the most surprising volcanoes, caverns, cataracts, whirlpools, waterfalls, earthquakes, and other wonderful and stupendous phenomena of nature. Forming a rich and comprehensive view of all that is interesting and curious in every part of the habitable world. By the Rev. E. Polehampton, and John M. Good, F.R.S. Illustrated by one hundred engravings / [Edward Thomas William Polehampton].
- Polehampton, Edward (Edward Thomas William), 1777?-1830.
- Date:
- 1821
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The gallery of nature and art; or, a tour through creation and science. Comprising new and entertaining descriptions of the most surprising volcanoes, caverns, cataracts, whirlpools, waterfalls, earthquakes, and other wonderful and stupendous phenomena of nature. Forming a rich and comprehensive view of all that is interesting and curious in every part of the habitable world. By the Rev. E. Polehampton, and John M. Good, F.R.S. Illustrated by one hundred engravings / [Edward Thomas William Polehampton]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![Pogre] CHAP. II, ASTRONOMY OF THE SCHOOL OF ALEXANDRIA, a Hiruerro the practical astronomy of different people has only offered us some rude observations relative to the seasons and eclipses ; objects of their necessities or their terrors. Their theoretical astronomy consisted in the knowledge of some periods, founded on very long intervals of time, and of various fortunate conjectures, relative to the constitution of the universe, but mixed with consi- derable error. We see, for the first time, in the school of Alexan-. dria, a connected series of observations ; angular distances were made with instruments suitable to the purpose, and they were calculated by trigometrical methods. Astronomy then took a new form, which the following ages have adopted and brought to perfection. The positions of the fixed stars were determined, the paths of the planets carefully traced, the inequalities of the sun and moon were better known, and, finally, it was the school of Alexandria that gave birth to the first system of Astronomy, that had ever comprehended an entire plan of the celestial motions. This system was, it must be allowed, very inferior to that of the school of Pythagoras, but being founded on a comparison of observations, it afforded, by this yery comparison, the means of its own destruction, and the true system of nature has been elevated on its ruins. After the death of Alexander, his principal generals divided his empire among themselves, and Ptolemy Soter received Egypt for his share. His munificence and love of the sciences, attracted to Alexandria, the capital of his kingdom, a great number of the most learned men of Greece. Ptolemy Philadelphus, who inherited with the kingdom, his father’s love of the sciences, established them there under his own particular protection. A vast edifice, in which they were lodged, contained both an observatory, and that magnificent library which Demetrius Phalereus had collected with immense trouble and expense. Here they were supplied with whatever books and instruments were necessary to their pursuits; and their emulation was excited by the presence of a prince, who often came amongst them to participate in their conversation and their labours. Arystillus and Timochares were the first observers of the rising](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33091304_0001_0031.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
