The Scenery of the Heavens. By J. E. Gore, F.R.A.S.
(Roper and Drowley.)—Mr. Gore has chosen a subject of inexhaustible interest, and will be certain to find readers. Now and then, per- haps, he might have spared 1113 a word of explanation. " The last total eclipse," he writes, " visible in this country took place on May 22nd, 1724, and the next will not happen till August 11th, 1999 (after an interval of 275 years)." He might have written, absolutely total. Most people who saw the eclipse of 1858 supposed that it was total. "The Moon" naturally follows "The Sun" in order of treatment, and is almost equally interesting. "The Inferior and Superior Planets," " Fixed Stars," " Nebula)," are dealt with in succession. If Mr. Gore has little that is new to tell us, he is careful in collecting and lucid in expressing his knowledge. His final chapter is " The Astronomy of the Poets." We may observe that the stanzas quoted by Mr. Proctor (with the expression " the snowy poles of moonless Mars" in them) are no longer to be found in " The Palace of Art," where they originally appeared. The discovery of the two moons of Mars possibly sealed their fate. In " Timbuctoo," we find the "small opal lakes" of the moon. We now know that the moon has neither water nor air. But the poet has not thought fit to admit this piece into his " Collected Works."—The Elements of Astronomy, by Charles A. Young (Ginn and Co., Boston, U.S.A. ; Arnold, London), is a "Text- Book for High Schools and Academies." This is conveniently arranged (with the necessary amount of mathematics to make its statements complete), well illustrated, and well printed. Dr. Young, we should say, is professor of Astronomy at Princeton, (New Jersey).
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