"Until very recently, the heavenly bodies have been investigated only with reference to their position and their laws of motion, and a quarter of a century ago astronomy was little more than celestial topography"

This quote by George Phillips Bond is describing the state of astronomy in the mid-1800s. At that time, astronomers were mostly focused on the positions and movements of the celestial bodies, and the field of astronomy was mainly minimal to mapping out the night sky. This was a time prior to the development of the telescope, and prior to the discovery of the laws of gravity and other basic principles of physics. Astronomy was still in its infancy, and the research study of the stars and planets was mostly minimal to their positions and movements. Bond's quote works as a suggestion of how far the field of astronomy has actually come in the past 2 centuries, and just how much more we now learn about the universe.