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On the PRECESSION of the EQUINOXES, By the Rev. 

 MATTHEW YOUNG, D. D. S. F. T. C. D. ^ M. R. I. A. 



1 T is univerfally acknowledged, that Sir Ifaac Newton has Read April i, 



. '797' 



fallen into fome error in his calcvilation of the fan's force to 



produce the preceflion of the equinoxes, making it by one 



half lefs than the truth : but the pa'tlcular fovirce of this' error 



has not been fo generally agreed upon. 



Thotgh feveral excellent mathematicians, of whom D'Alam- 

 bert feems to have been the firft, have given genuine fo- 

 lutions of this problem, by.procefTes entirely different from 

 each other, perhaps it ftill may be worth while to endeavour 

 to difcover diftinctly in what confills the fallacy of New on's 

 reafoning, and whether in 'ome of the folutions of this curious 

 qucftion, which aie received as genuine, there do not lie fome 

 fecrtt and unobferved errors, which being equal and contrary, 

 compenfate each other, and thus leave the reiuit corred:, though 

 the premifes from which it is deduced are faulty. 



A 2 The 



