View of the Moon two days after first quarter.
From a photograph by Mr. Lewis M. Rutherford.
Frontispiece.
TO
The Members of the London Institution
I DEDICATE
THIS LITTLE BOOK.
PREFACE.
Having been honoured once again with a request that I should lecture before the London Institution, I chose for my subject the Theory of Tidal Evolution. The kind reception which these lectures received has led to their publication in the present volume. I have taken the opportunity to supplement the lectures as actually delivered by the insertion of some additional matter. I am indebted to my friends Mr. Close and Mr. Rambaut for their kindness in reading the proofs.
Robert S. Ball.
Observatory, Co. Dublin,
April 26, 1889.
TIME AND TIDE.
LECTURE I.
It is my privilege to address you this afternoon on a subject in which science and poetry are blended in a happy conjunction. If there be a peculiar fascination about the earlier chapters of any branch of history, how great must be the interest which attaches to that most primeval of all terrestrial histories which relates to the actual beginnings of this globe on which we stand.