The planet Neptune: an exposition and history / By J.P. Nichol.

  • John Pringle Nichol
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The planet Neptune: an exposition and history / By J.P. Nichol. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    descried the necessity of the Planet as the comple¬ ment of our System, and the industry of some excel¬ lent Observers, have already accomplished enough, to enable us to speak with no inconsiderable pre¬ cision, alike of its individual and peculiar habi¬ tudes, and of the modifications which its existence imposes on our former ideas of the magnitudes and connections of its companion Globes. I believe that, in respect of the larger propor¬ tion of those who will peruse this Essay, I might safely have assumed, the general disposition of the Solar System, as well as the grand Law of Gravita¬ tion, to be familiar and understood characteristics of Nature—an expression in a form and language no longer foreign to the intelligent classes of society, of the manner of that Order which per¬ vades the mechanism of the starry Universe: but probably the employment of a few moments in recalling succinctly the character of that Law, especially in the two separate phases in which it appeared to its Immortal Discoverer, will not, at this very outset of our exposition, be altogether thrown away; inasmuch as the distinctest idea of it must be borne along with us, if we would tread with pleasure and understanding even through
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