l8o Account of the late "Peter Charles Le Monnier. 



remains no longer any doubt refpe6ling the importance of 

 the fervice rendered by Stephanopoli. His method will be in- 

 troduced and extended in our manufa£iories, to the advantage 

 of feveral branches of induftry and of the general intereft/^ 



XIV. Some Account of the late Peter Charles 

 Le Monnier. 



i ETER Charles Le Monnier, the oldeft aftronomer 

 in Europe at the time of his death, which happened on the 

 ad of April 1799, at Lizieux in Normandy, was born at 

 Paris on the 20th of November 17 15. At a very early pe- 

 riod of life he applied to the ftudy of aftronomy, and made 

 his firft obfervation of the oppofition of Saturn on the 23d of 

 September 173 1, when he was only fixteen. At (he age of 

 twenty he was chofen a member of the Academy of Sciences 

 at Paris. In 1735 he was fent to Lapland, along with Mau- 

 pertuis, to meafuie a degree of the earth: In 1748 he accom- 

 panied Lord Macclesfield to Scotland to oblerve the annular 

 eclipfe of the fun, which could be feen with moft advantage 

 in that country ; and he was the firil aftronomer who had 

 the pleafure of meafuring the diameter of the moon on the 

 fun's diflc. 



Louis XV. who was fond of and patronifed aftronomy, 

 fiiowed a great efteem for Le Monnier. When his Majefty 

 wiftied to obferve any of the celeftial phenomena, he always 

 attended him; and it appears, by the memoirs of the Aca- 

 demy of Sciences at Paris, that the King obferved in this 

 manner, at his country palace of St. Hubert, both the tranf- 

 its of Venus over the fun's difk in the years 1761 and 1769. 

 It is worthy of notice, and defer'es to be here recorded, how 

 much his Majefty feemed to be interefted in the fuccefs of 

 thefe obfervations, and how careful he was not to interrupt 

 the aftronomers during the courfe of their operations. Le 

 Monnier, in his paper on this fubjeft in the Memoirs of the 

 Academy, fays — '< His Majefty perceiving that we confi- 

 dered the laft contaft to be of the utmoft importance, we 

 vyere at that moment furrounded by the moft profound 



filence." 



