contrary, the State has received, indirectly it is true, thousands of dollars annually from the Church in the support of the Govern ment. As has been already indicated, there is abundant room for reform on this subject. Let all church property held for speculation or business gain, all property not in actual use for religious purposes, be subjected to taxation; let the State withdraw all aid heretofore given to sectarian institutions; let the amount of property to be hereafter held by any religious corporation be limited by express legislation; let no special charters, containing special privileges, be granted, except in a very few cases, where the equities are beyond dispute; let the Church learn to build less costly houses of worship; let her abolish the pew system, and make all sittings, as they ought to be, absolutely free to the general public; let the masses be convinced that the Church is sincerely and earnestly seeking their good; let the Church cease from all attempts to exercise political influence and to dictate the policy of the State in secular matters, and we shall come much nearer to a solution of this question that will be satisfactory to all concerned. Unless we are much mistaken, the principle adopted by the Federal Legislature will be generally adopted, viz. : Tax all church property not in actual and exclusive use for purposes of public religious worship; exempt from all taxation all property that is thus held and used. The following brief propositions contain an imperfect summary of the subject: 1. The value of church property has been largely over-estimated. 2. It has been the uniform policy of the State in this land to exempt churches from taxation. 3. The Church has never demanded this exemption, but the State has spontaneously granted it. 4. The exemption was granted upon grounds of public policy, as being for the best interests of the Commonwealth. 5. The Church does indirectly bear its fair proportion of the burdens of government. 6. The exemption of churches does not violate the letter or spirit of the Constitution. 7. The Church is a reform, charitable, and educational institute; and if, as such, she is taxed, then must other such institutions be taxed. 8. The Church by her schools and charities saves to the State annually thousands if not millions of dollars. 9. Churches are not erected for purposes of gain, but for the general good. 10. If the uniform policy of the entire human race on this subject is to be reversed, it ought to be after mature deliberation, and for good and sufficient reasons. A. W. PITZER. RECENT PROGRESS IN ASTRONOMY. It is impossible in this place to give any adequate account of recent astronomical papers of a mathematical character. Hence it is sought simply to submit brief analyses of some of the more generally interesting memoirs which have been published within the last few months. Even the list of these can not be made complete. Decidedly the most important recent contribution of observing astronomy is the "Uranometria Argentina"* of Dr. Gould. This is the first astronomical publication of the National Observatory of the Argentine Republic. One of the first objects of Dr. Gould, on the establishment of the new observatory in 1870, was the making of a uranometry of the southern sky which should contain the position and magnitude of every star visible to the naked eye at his station. The model on which it is made is the celebrated "Uranometria nova" of Argelander, of Bonn, which was published in 1843. This latter contains 3,256 stars, from the first to the sixth magnitude, which are to be seen above the horizon of Bonn. Its magnitudes are expressed in thirds of a whole magnitude, and Argelander's scale, so established, has served for a standard in all observations in the northern hemisphere. Dr. Gould's problem was to extend this enumeration over the whole southern sky, keeping accurately to the standard set by Argelander. This is by no means an easy task, as the minimum visibile at Cordoba was found to be not the 6'0 magnitude, but 71; that is, stars can still be seen at Cordoba which have less than four tenths of the light of the faintest of Argelander's stars. This extraordinary transparency of the atmosphere required the extension of Argelander's scale downward, and that this was accomplished successfully is shown by a comparison of the * "Resultados del Observatorio Nacional Argentino." Vol. i, "Uranometria Argentina," Buenos Aires, 1879, 4to, with Atlas. magnitudes of all the stars which are common to the two uranometries. The mean difference is rather less than one tenth of a magnitude. The method of settling the standard was to select from the "Uranometria nova" a belt of stars which had the same altitude at Bonn and at Cordoba. The 722 stars of this belt were observed by the four assistants at the southern observatory (Messrs. Rock, Thome, Davis, and Hathaway), and those stars for which their estimated magnitudes were precisely the same were chosen for standards. Thus, a number of stars of each magnitude as 3-00, 3-33, 3-66, 400, 4:33, etc., became types to be constantly referred to. From these types a number of others in a zone near the south pole (and hence constantly visible) were constructed. The process of observation consisted in referring each star in the heavens to this set of types, so that its magnitude could finally be determined upon. This was done by the four observers independently, but often in duplicate, and so well were the standards fixed that each observer's comparisons differed from the mean of all four by quantities very much less than a tenth of a magnitude. It should be said that the magnitudes in the southern uranometry are given to tenths. In all, there are 10,649 stars visible to the naked eye at Cordoba. Of these, 8,198 are as bright or brighter than the 70 magnitude, and these alone are given in the catalogue and in the maps. Of these 10,000 stars, more than 46,000 observations were made. In the progress of the work quite a number of variable stars were detected, of each of which a full history is given in the notes. Indeed, Dr. Gould's firm conviction is, that "stellar variability is by no means an exceptional phenomenon, but that at least one half of the stars above the 70 magnitude vary by amounts which careful observation can not fail to detect." An atlas of fourteen charts accompanies the catalogue, and gives an exact pictorial representation of the state of the sky at the epoch of the work. Besides giving a representation of the isolated stars, the shadings and gradations of the milky way are given with the greatest detail from repeated observations and revisions. By no means the least valuable part of the work is the discussion of the course of the milky way throughout the whole sky. The course of the galaxy is now, and only now, known with precision. The data of this and preceding uranometries are discussed by Dr. Gould with reference to the question of the distribution of the stars in space, starting from the assumption that, on the whole, stars are equally scattered. Dr. Gould finds that there is a marked excess of the stars from the first to the fourth magnitude. Furthermore, he finds that there is in the sky a zone or belt of bright stars as marked as the milky way, and that all the bright stars are distributed more symmetrically with respect to this belt than with regard to the milky way itself. From these facts Dr. Gould concludes that " our own solar system forms a part of a small cluster distinct from the vast organization of that which forms the milky way." This cluster may perhaps be comparable with that of the Pleiades, since by a rough estimate it would seem to consist of about 500 stars. It is situated nearly in the plane of the belt of bright stars. No more valuable work than this has been given to astronomy within a decade; and it will be a source of pride to Americans to find such important contributions coming from one of their countrymen in the southern hemisphere, with which the name of Gilliss was already indissolubly associated. There are no marks about the work itself which would show that it was done in a community in about the state of Europe during the dark ages, and it will add not to the value of the work but to the credit of the workers if one remembers that this is strictly the case. It has long been known to students of the philosophical writings of Emmanuel Swedenborg that he was the author of an elaborate theory of the origin of the solar and stellar system, which was the prototype of those now received. The facts in the case are briefly these In his "Principia," published in 1734, a complete system of cosmogony was proposed in which the genesis of the planets and satellites from a primitive nebulous mass was maintained. The details of the processes imagined are given and illustrated with drawings in the fullest manner. Its resemblances and differences with the nebular hypothesis of Laplace we shall consider later. The question is now one of history. Laplace, in announcing his own theory in the "Exposition du Système du Monde" (1809), (note vii), quotes the theory of Buffon (1749), introducing it by the phrase "Buffon est le seul que je connaisse, qui, depuis la découverte du vrai système du monde, ait essayé de remonter à l'origine des planètes et des satellites." A large part of this memorable note is given up to the refutation of Buffon's theory, which, though ill grounded according to Laplace, still serves as a point of departure for him, and without which the nebular hypothesis, as we know it, might not have had an existence. In the original statement of his own |