MANUAL OF ASTRONOMY.
Manual of Astronomy. By Charles A. Young. (Ginn and Co. 10s. 6d.)—Professor Young, whose "General Astronomy" may be ranked, along with the "Popular Astronomy" of his countryman, Professor Newcomb, above any books of the kind which our own land has produced, tells us that he prepared the excellent manual which we have just had the pleasure of reading "in response to a rather pressing demand for a text-book intermediate between the author's 'Elements of Astronomy' and his 'General Astronomy:" At the same time the book is in most respects a new one, and is well adapted to be placed in the bands of the private inquirer, as well as to be used in the classes of those high schools and Colleges for which it is directly intended. Professor Young has covered the whole ground of astronomical research, from the preliminary considerations which involve comprehension of the fact that the earth is not at rest but in rapid motion, and is not the centre of all things but a tiny satellite of an inconsiderable star, up to the most recondite speculations as to the origin of our system and the arrangement and limits of the stellar universe. How thoroughly his book is up to date may be seen from the fact that it includes the latest facts and hypotheses as to the behaviour of the remarkable "new star" in Perseus ; and those who are familiar with Professor Young's earlier writings will not need to learn that the lucidity of his style is only equalled by the acturacy of his statements. Perhaps we may appropriately quote his estimate of astronomy's place in education,—a place which is more often recognised, one fears, in American than in British schools:—" Apart from the utility of astronomy in the ordinary sense of the word, the study of the science is of high value as an intellectual training. No other so operates to give us, on the one hand, just views of our real insignificance in the universe of space, matter, and time, or to teach us, on the other hand, the dignity of the human intellect as being the offspring, and measurably the counterpart, of the Divine,—able in a sense to comprehend the universe and understand its plan and meaning. The study of the science cultivates nearly every faculty of the mind; the memory, the reasoning power, and the imagination all receive from it special exercise and development. By the precise and mathematical character of many of its discussions it enforces exactness of thought and expression, and corrects the Vague in. definiteness which is apt to be the result of merely literary training; while, on the other hand, by the beauty and grandeur of the subjects which it presents, it stimulates the imagination and gratifies the pectic sense."
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