PREFACE. THE following work was left unfinished at the death of its author; and its completion, as far as possible, and publication, were entrusted to myself. It was necessary for me, therefore, to complete those portions which were so far advanced that the form which Professor Bond desired to give them could be distinctly recognized ; and for the remainder, to give, as far as practicable, the original observations, as they stand in the records of the Observatory of Harvard College, with the amount of discussion necessary to enable astronomers to derive as much advantage as possible from them. The portion containing the original observations of stars and the General Catalogue was in a very forward state of preparation at Professor Bond's decease; and the work of the editor upon that has been mostly one of revision. The remainder of the book has been extracted from the manuscripts, under my direction, or has been written by myself. I have appended the charts and engraving, which were executed by Mr. Watts under the author's personal supervision; the engraving of the nebula was completed in 1864, and the edition of it printed. The drawing by Professor W. C. Bond, from which an engraving is given in Vol. III. of the New Series of the Memoirs of the American Academy, was also given to Mr. Watts to reëngrave, as the original plate did not appear to be sufficiently accurate. The differences between the two are also of some importance in respect to controverted points. It has, however, been found an extremely difficult task to represent exactly the original drawing. I would take this opportunity to express my earnest thanks to Mrs. R. F. Bond, and to Miss Bond, for the great interest they have taken in the present work, and for their assistance in completing it, without which my task would have been much more difficult, if not impossible. My warmest thanks are also due to J. Ingersoll Bowditch, Esq., Trustee of the Sturgis Fund, for his constant interest in the book and his earnest desire that it should be creditable to its author's memory, as well as for his wise counsel and kind assistance to me in my endeavor to make it such. TRUMAN HENRY SAFFORD. |