480 HISTORY OF PHYSICAL ASTRONOMY. 



the king had conferred upon him, fixed him in France. The impulse 

 which his arrival (in 16G9) and his residence gave to astronomy, 

 showed the wisdom of the measure. In the same spirit, the French 

 government drew to Paris Romer from Denmark, Huygheus from Hol- 

 land, and gave a pension to Hevelius, and a large sum when his ob- 

 servatory at Dantzic had been destroyed by fire in 1679. 



When the sovereigns of Prussia and Russia were exertino- themselves 



- > O 



to encourage the sciences in their countries, they followed the same 

 course which, had been so successful in France. Thus, as we have said, 

 the Czar Peter took Delisle to Petersburg in 1725; the celebrated 

 Frederick the Great drew to Berlin, Voltaire and Maupertuis, Euler and 

 Lagrange ; and the Empress Catharine obtained in the same way Euler, 

 two of the Bernoullis, and other mathematicians. In none of these in- 

 stances, however, did it happen that "the generous plant did still its 

 stock renew," as we have seen was the case at Paris, with the Cassinis, 

 and their kinsmen the Maraldis. 



[2d Ed.] [I may notice among instances of the patronage of As- 

 tronomy, the reward at present offered by the King of Denmark for 

 'the discovery of a Comet.] 



It is not necessary to mention here the more recent cases in which 

 sovereigns or statesmen have attempted to patronize individual as- 

 tronomers. 



Sect. 5. Astronomical Expeditions. 



BESIDES the pensions thus bestowed upon resident mathematicians 

 and astronomers, the governments of Europe have wisely and usefully 

 employed considerable sums upon expeditions and travels undertaken 

 by men of science for some appropriate object. Thus Picard, in 1671, 

 was sent to Uraniburg, the scene of Tycho's observations, to determine 

 its latitude and its longitude. He found that " the City of the Skies" 

 had utterly disappeared from the earth ; and even its foundations were 

 retraced with difficulty. With the same object, that of accurately 

 connecting the labors of the places which had been at different periods 

 the metropolis of astronomy, Chazelles was sent, in 1693, to Alexan- 

 dria. We have already mentioned Richer's astronomical expedition 

 to Cayenne in 1672. Varin and Deshayes 3 were sent a few years later 

 into the same regions for similar purposes. Halley's expedition to St. 



Enilly, ii. 374. 



