been computed from other catalogues the difference would have been considerable, it is very unfair to accuse him of cooking; for—those catalogues may have been notoriously inaccurate; or—they may have been superseded by others more recent, or made with better instruments; or—the observer may have been totally ignorant of their existence.
It sometimes happens that the constant quantities in formulæ given by the highest authorities, although they differ amongst themselves, yet they will not suit the materials. This is precisely the point in which the skill of the artist is shown; and an accomplished cook will carry himself triumphantly through it, provided happily some mean value of such constants will fit his observations. He will discuss the relative merits of formulæ he has just knowledge enough to use; and, with admirable candour assigning their proper share of applause to Bessel, to Gauss, and to Laplace, he will take that mean value of the constant used by three such philosophers, which will make his own observations accord to a miracle.
There are some few reflections which I would venture to suggest to those who cook, although they may perhaps not receive the attention which,
