PREFACE.
I have written these pages, not for the professional reader, but with the hope of reaching a part of that educated public on whose support he is so often dependent for the means of extending the boundaries of knowledge.
It is not generally understood that among us not only the support of the Government, but with scarcely an exception every new private benefaction, is devoted to “the Old” Astronomy, which is relatively munificently endowed already; while that which I have here called “the New,” so fruitful in results of interest and importance, struggles almost unaided.
We are all glad to know that Urania, who was in the beginning but a poor Chaldean shepherdess, has long since become well-to-do, and dwells now in state. It is far less known than it should be that she has a younger sister now among us, bearing every mark of her celestial birth, but all unendowed and portionless. It is for the reader’s interest in the latter that this book is a plea.