se alterations, were in no hurry for their
hasty adoption; they were aware of their magnitude, and anxious for the
fullest investigation before one of them should be tried.

Unfortunately, the concluding recommendation of the Committee did not
coincide with the views of Mr. Gilbert, whom the party had determined to
make their new President. That gentleman made such arrangements for the
Council of the succeeding year, that when the question respecting the
consideration of the Report of that Committee was brought forward, it
was thrown aside in the manner I have stated. Thus a report, sanctioned
by the names of such a committee, and recommended by one Council to
"THE MOST SERIOUS and EARLY consideration of the Council for the ensuing
year," was by that very Council rejected, without even the ceremony of
discussing its merits. Was every individual recommendation it contained,
not merely unfit to be adopted, but so totally deficient in plausibility
as to be utterly unworthy of discussion? Or did the President and his
officers feel, that their power rested on an insecure foundation, and
that they did not possess the confidence of the working members of the
Society?

CHAPTER V. OF OBSERVATIONS.

There are several reflections connected with the art of making
observations and experiments, which may be conveniently arranged in this
chapter.

SECTION 1. OF MINUTE PRECISION.

No person will deny that the highest degree of attainable accuracy is an
object to be desired, and it is generally found that the last advances
towards precision require a greater devotion of time, labour, and
expense, than those which precede them. The first steps in the path of
discovery, and the first approximate measures, are those which add most
to the existing knowledge of mankind.

The extreme accuracy required in some of our modern inquiries has, in
some respects, had an unfortunate influence, by favouring the opinion,
that no experiments are valuable, unless the measures are most minute,
and the accordance amongst them most perfect. It may, perhaps, be of
some use to show, that even with large instruments, and most practised
observers, this is but rarely the case. The following extract is taken
from a representation made by the present Astronomer-Royal, to the
Council of the Royal Society, on the advantages to be derived from the
employment of two mural circles:--

"That by observing, with two instruments, the same objects at the sa