Worcester, Lichfield, Leogerensem and Dorchester. It has been observed that he had "a bold and overbearing temper;" but with more truth, that he "possessed the spirit of government." He instituted schools, we should rather say colleges, in Canterbury, in other parts of Kent, and at Cricklade near Oxford, where he and Abbot Adrian "drew together large numbers of students, to whom "they read lectures on divinity, philosophy, arithmetic, geometry, "astronomy, and sacred music." Hence, as Birchington observes, he justly received the title Magnus. Such indeed was their extraordinary success in teaching, that the venerable Bede, a cotemporary and most respectable authority, assures us that "many of their scholars were able to speak Greek and Latin with the readiness and fluency of "their mother tongue." Among their pupils were Tobias bishop of Rochester, a vir doctissimus, Ostforus or Ostfor, bishop of Worcester, Aldhelm, bishop of Sherborne, a poet, and John of Beverley, archbishop of York. Of Theodore himself, a man no less learned than a friend to learning, there remained of all his writings only his Penitentiale, which has been considered a model of that kind of composition. Being advanced in years, he gave an example of Christian forgiveness by sending for Wilfred, and offering him his friendship. His life, indeed, was a happy practical illustration of his religious principles: imitating the energy of St. Paul and the benevolent meekness of St John, he directed our countrymen to the paths of both temporal and eternal happiness. To his memory we owe respect and gratitude; he brought into our island a most invaluable dibrary of Greek and Latin books, with several copies of the Scriptures, which happily survived the wreck of ages; he planted among us the language of the gospels, and sowed those seeds both of divine and human learning, which, under the blessing of providence have grown and flourished in our country, have exalted our religion, and consequently our morality, expanded our minds, embellished them with science, and added to our physical enjoyments the comforts of the arts. Those who unfortunately cannot relish the animated pious effusions of Chrysostom, (which, however, would have equally served religion and virtue, had they been less severe on women,) may at least respect the man who brought the α TOTO of Homer to our shores. In the time and by the exertions of Theodore, observes Malmesbury, learning so flourished in our island, that from "being a nursery (or nation) of tyrants, it became a peculiar seminary of "philosophy." The present age bears ample evidence of the benign effects of Theodore's wisdom; the lessons of piety and learning which he left us, may have been suppressed, but were never annihilated.'The human mind, indeed, is not a plant that buds, flowers, and decays in a summer's sun; it requires the lapse of ages to develop its full powers, to This the savage into the civilized man. should teach us the value of education. Even in our city of Canter

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* The copies of Homer, David's Psalms, and Chrysostom's Homilies brought by Theodore, were still extant at the beginning of the last century.'

bury, the disinterested observer will recognise traces of that mellow maturity, which sufficiently indicates the happy effects of early civilization. For this we are deeply indebted to our good archbishop Theodore, who being old and full of days, expired in his eightyeighth year, on the 19th of September 690.'

To the illustrious Theodore, the first truly protestant archbishop, we felt bound to pay our grateful tribute. convinced that if St. Paul did not preach the gospel in our island, his townsman extended its influence and identified it with our soil. It is in vain that monks and friars have laboured to make him a papist: his learning and Christian piety, and his religious principles have descended unallayed to Wickliffe, Greathead, Cranmer, and the present day.'

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We have extracted the preceding passage, not because we admire the style in which it is written, but because it conveys information at once interesting and but little known, respecting a bright ornament of our early episcopal Church. It would gratify us to see more ample justice done to this active and learned prelate. The requisite materials for his life are by no means out of reach and if it be thought reputable for Protestants to draw up memoirs of popes and cardinals, simply because they were patrons of literature, how hostile soever they might have been to true religion or to liberty of conscience; we cannot but think it would be full as honourable, and far more useful, to trace the benefits resulting from the exertions of a man who was as anxious to promote piety, as learning; and who resisted papal encroachments with as much constancy and success, as he taught the unlearned how to think, the obdurate how to feel, and the despairing sinner, where to seek for refuge and consolation.

Our readers will perceive that we think well of the volume before us In truth, we are of opinion that much commendation is due to the spirit of the proprietors, the ingenuity of the artists, and the judgement and research of the different writers. We cordially wish them an ample reward in the liberality of the public.

Art. VI. 1. Astronomie Théorique et Pratique; Par M. Delambre, Trésorier de l'Université de France, Secrétaire perpétuel de l'Institut pour les Sciences Mathématiques, Professeur d'Astronomie au Collége Royal de France, Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, &c. 3 gros vol. en 4to. pp. lxiv. 1925: avec 29 planches. Paris, Mme. Ve. Courcier, 60 francs. (London, Bossange, Masson, and Co. 51. 8s.) 1814.

2. Abrégé d'Astronomie, ou Leçons Elémentaires d'Astronomie Théorique et Pratique; Par M. Delambre, Chevalier de l'Empire, &c. 8vo. pp. xvi. 652: avec 14 planches. Paris, Mme. Ve. Courcier, 10 francs. (London, Bossange, Masson, and Co. 18s.) 1813. THE number and variety of treatises on astronomy, have

been as great during the last thirty years, as the progress of this branch of science has been rapid; yet, before the publication of the volumes now on our table, there were only two works, which could with any sort of propriety be denominated complete treatises on astronomy; we mean the respective performances of M. Lalande, and Professor Vince. The first of these was rich in information, but excessively defective in point of method and arrangement, manifesting in almost every page, the strange gossiping propensities of that singular astronomer, and not less singular man, Lalande. Professor Vince's work also, we mean his " Complete System," in three quarto volumes, and not his ill-proportioned dwarfish abridgement of that treatise,-is at once copious, profound, and valuable; exhibiting an extreme variety of methods and investigations; and containing an extensive, correct, and well arranged series of astronomical tables. But, though the variety and excellency of its contents, render it a rich acquisition to every mathematical student, he will, nevertheless, be often tempted to complain, that this treatise also is defective in arrangement; that its author does not seem to have duly appreciated the logical requisites of a good treatise; and that he too generally neglects to reduce the comprehensive materials he has brought together, into the symmetry and order which are so fascinating in a well digested work of science.

There was room, then, even if the science of astronomy had not made some considerable advances since the treatises of Lalande and Vince appeared, for another work on this interesting subject; and we cannot but rejoice that the labour has been undertaken by a philosopher so adequate to the due completion of it as the Chevalier Delambre. This new course of instruction for young astronomers, is constituted principally of the lessons or lectures he gave in the Royal College at Paris, during six years prior to its publication. We cannot better either explain the motives which prompted

this distinguished astronomer to the undertaking, or develop the principles by which he was guided in its execution, than by translating a portion of his first chapter. After remarking that the solution of one of the simplest problems which could. well be proposed, viz. the determination of the hour of the day by the observation of a star, presupposes, independently on the uniformity of the diurnal motion, the knowledge of the precession, the aberration, the nutation, the refraction, and, if the body observed were a planet, of the parallax, and all the planetary inequalities, he proceeds thus:

Hence it results that the student who would devote himself to the science of astronomy, is reduced to this alternative, either to read and reflect for a long time before he can make the simplest observation, or to observe for a long time without at all comprehending the reductions of every kind which he is obliged to apply to the immediate results of his observations: it cannot be till after some months' application, that he will be able to assign any reason for the practice which he has adopted blindly and on the word of his preceptor.

This inconvenience must have been thought inevitable, and so it is to a certain point, since no astronomer either ancient or modern, in the numerous treatises we possess, has taken any care to subject himself to a more satisfactory and luminous order; but each contents himself, for the most part, with an exposition more or less methodical, of phenomena and of processes, supposing throughout, the observations carefully made and carefully reduced, without showing how those reductions are made; a matter, indeed, respecting which many authors have kept the most profound silence.

Yet this inconvenience will be considerably diminished, if he who would become an astronomer will apply himself first to observations. A study of a few hours will suffice for the acquiring of those ideas which have led to the invention of the principal astronomical instruments: a noviciate of a few days will suffice to familiarize the use of those instruments, to observe with precision the passage of a star over the different wires of a telescope, to regulate a pendulum, to measure a zenith distance, to compute the first reductions; and, in fine, to keep a register in which may be found in succession all the data which will conduce, step by step, to the explication of the system of the world, and to the calculation of all the celestial motions.

Thus, observation will precede theory, and the theories will spring by degrees from the computation of the observations. I shall take for data only the most striking phenomena, such as an attentive observer cannot fail to remark: I shall suppose the student to possess only the most elementary knowledge of mathematics: I shall, however, suppose him capable of raising himself above prejudices, and of rectifying by reason the errors of his senses: but, he must be equally freed from all contrary notions, which VOL. III. N. S. 2 F

cannot be regarded as less than prejudices in him, if he have adopted them without mature examination: he shall doubt of every thing, and only yield to evidence; and yet he shall discover, of himself, by the observations, the system of astronomy, such as it was sixty years ago, that is to say, before the modern analysis had explained and computed the celestial motions, even to the minutest irregularities.

It has been said, with much reason, that Astronomy is the daughter of Time. We are not in a state to explain clearly, or to predict a phenomenon, till it has been frequently observed; and astronomy has several phenomena which only return at very long intervals; nor is that the only cause which has retarded the course of this science. The progress of inventors was very slow, because they did not enjoy the aids which are now within our reach. In the state of perfection which the mechanical arts and the analytical science have now attained, fifty years would be sufficient to elevate astronomy, nearly to the point of perfection it has now reached, even if it had been little, or not at all, cultivated previously.

By profiting by our actual knowledge, and availing ourselves of the invention of telescopes, and the progress of horology, we shall show by what process a geometer might now discover all that we know of astronomy. But, if the reader cannot make the observations himself, we shall imagine that he can consult the collections which have been made during the last fifty years: he may take the observations simply as the observer has disposed them in his registers; he may compare those of different astronomers; and he will at once be convinced that they have all desirable authenticity.

Without adopting any hypothesis, any system, he shall only reason from incontestible facts. If he have an observatory at command, or possess instruments, his own observations, should he continue them solely for a few years, will enable him to find the same theories, to deduce the same consequences; but with a little less precision and certainty, in proportion as the interval has been

short.

We shall suppose, then, that a young man, struck with the regularity of the celestial motions, devotes his nights for a year or two to the observation of the stars and planets; that during the days he observes the transits and the altitudes of the sun's upper and lower limbs, especially at the meridian; that he employs himself in finding rules for the solution of such problems in spherical astronomy as thus occur: he will not even need for some time to regard the earth as a globe; this knowledge will long be useless. He will ascertain which of the phenomena are regular, and the small irregularities which affect them; and though he may not, at first, perceive the causes, he will at least possess the measure and the rules of the calculus which will determine them nearly to the minuter circumstances. Thus will he learn astronomy, such as it was sixty years ago, and with this approximate