In Starry Realms. By Sir Robert S. Ball. (Isbister.)—This is
a republication of several papers of the " popular-scientific " kind, by Sir Robert Ball, which have already seen the light in several magazines, including the Contemporary, Macmillan's, Long- man's, and Good Words. Sir Robert has undoubtedly the gifts of exposition, if not quite of such brilliant exposition as Mr. Huxley. Sometimes, as in such papers as " What we Owe to the Sun" and "A Visit to an Observatory," he may write too much after the manner of a schoolmaster explaining a subject to a class of very young pupils, and somewhat elaborately endeavouring to keep to their level. But it is better that an explanation of a scientifi; point should err on the side of over-simplicity than on that of too great abstruseness ; and, on the whole, these papers, of which " The Moon's History," " The Greatest Planet," and " An Astronomer's Thoughts about Krakatoa," may be mentioned, hit the desirable medium between simplicity and abstruseness. Taken together, they form a good introduction to astronomy and other sciences as well. Like lectures, too, that are delivered by experts, they may be found useful by intelligent, all-round readers, who have in their days of enthusiasm for general culture made themselves masters of the leading principles and general outlines of astronomy, but whose knowledge, in Coleridge's phrase, "lies bedridden in the dormitory of the soul."
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