the glimpses at systems beyond that to which our sun belongs;--these are
all splendid results, which may fairly be attributed to the school of
Herschell, and will for ever insure no secondary place to that name in
the annals of science.

[Footnote A: See the remarkable memoir of Professor Alexander, "On the
origin of the forms and the present condition of some of the clusters of
stars, and several of the nebulæ," (Gould's _Astronomical Journal_, Vol.
iii, p. 95.)]


RELATIONSHIP OF THE LIBERAL ARTS.

In the remarks which I have hitherto made, I have had mainly in view
the direct connection of astronomical science with the uses of life and
the service of man. But a generous philosophy contemplates the subject
in higher relations. It is a remark as old, at least, as Plato, and
is repeated from him more than once by Cicero, that all the liberal
arts have a common bond and relationship.[A] The different sciences
contemplate as their immediate object the different departments of
animate and inanimate nature; but this great system itself is but
one, and its parts are so interwoven with each other, that the most
extraordinary relations and unexpected analogies are constantly
presenting themselves; and arts and sciences seemingly the least
connected, render to each other the most effective assistance.

[Footnote A: Archias, i.; De Oratore, iii., 21.]

The history of electricity, galvanism, and magnetism, furnishes the most
striking illustration of this remark. Commencing with the meteorological