The important historical and philosophical insights in Smith’s essay should not be overshadowed by his occasional errors or omissions. His account of the development of
astronomy essays is largely correct, and it serves well to illustrate his philosophy of science. Most impressively, Smith’s emphasis on the subjective aspects of theory choice mirrors the positions of some of today’s most prominent philosophers of science. As a scholarly work on the history of astronomy, Smith’s essay would soon be completely supplanted by, for example, the work of Delambre.