100,000 years in advance Of A.D. 1800.

The talent which these researches displayed brought Le Verrier into
notice. At that time the Paris Observatory was presided over by
Arago, a SAVANT who occupies a distinguished position in French
scientific annals. Arago at once perceived that Le Verrier was just
the man who possessed the qualifications suitable for undertaking a
problem of great importance and difficulty that had begun to force
itself on the attention of astronomers. What this great problem was,
and how astonishing was the solution it received, must now be
considered.

Ever since Herschel brought himself into fame by his superb discovery
of the great planet Uranus, the movements of this new addition to the
solar system were scrutinized with care and attention. The position
of Uranus was thus accurately determined from time to time. At
length, when sufficient observations of this remote planet had been
brought together, the route which the newly-discovered body pursued
through the heavens was ascertained by those calculations with which
astronomers are familiar. It happens, however, that Uranus possesses
a superficial resemblance to a star. Indeed the resemblance is so
often deceptive that long ere its detection as a planet by Herschel,
it had been observed time after time by skilful astronomers, who
little thought that the star-like point at which they looked was
anything but a star. From these early observations it was possible
to determine the track of Uranus, and it was found that the great
planet takes a period of no less than eighty-four years to accomplish
a circuit. Calculations were made of the shape of the orbit in which
it revolved before its discovery by Herschel, and these were compared
with the orbit which observations showed the same body to pursue in