(130.) Our first chapters have been devoted to the acquisition chiefly of preliminary notions respecting the globe we inhabit, its relation to the celestial objects which surround it, and the physical circumstances under which all astronomical observations must be made, as well as to provide ourselves with a stock of technical words and elementary ideas of most frequent and familiar use in the sequel. We might now proceed to a more exact and detailed statement of the facts and theories of astronomy: but, in order to do this with full effect, it will be desirable that the reader be made acquainted with the principal means which astronomers possess, of determining, with the degree of nicety their theories require, the data on which they ground their conclusions; in other words, of ascertaining by measurement the apparent and real magnitudes with which they are conversant. It is only when in possession of this knowledge that he can fully appretiate either the truth of the theories themselves, or the degree of reliance to be placed on any of their conclusions antecedent to trial: since it is only by knowing what amount of error can certainly be perceived and distinctly measured, that he can satisfy himself whether any theory oifers so close an approximation, in its numerical results, to actual phenomena, as will justify him in receiving it as a true representation of nature.

(131.) Astronomical instrument-making may be justly regarded as the most refined of the mechanical arts, and that in which the nearest approach to geometrical precision is required, and has been attained.