Accotmt of the late Peter Charles Lc Monnicr. l8l 



filence." During the tranfit of Venus in 1769, his Majefty 

 allowed that able naval officer the Marquis de Chabert, who 

 had juft returned from a fcientific voyage to the Levant, to 

 have a fhare in the obfervations made on that occafion. 



In th6 year 1750 Le Monnier was reqiiefted by the. King 

 to draw a meridian line at the palace of Belle-vue, where he 

 often made obfervations ; and his Majefty for this fervice gave 

 Le Monnier a pref^nit of 15,000 livres (about 600/. ilerling). 

 In 1743 his Majefty gave him a houfe in Rue de la Pajie at 

 Paris, where he reftded and made obfervations till the period 

 of the Revolution. In 1751 the King prefentcd him with a 

 block of marble eight feet in height, fix in breadth, and fif- 

 teen inches in thicknef?, in order that he might affix to it 

 his five feet mural quadrant. This large mafs of marble, with 

 all the infl:ruments attached to it, moves on a large brafs 

 globe, by which the quadrant can be turned from fouth to 

 north, and by which the great eight feet mural quadrant, 

 which is fattened in an immoveable pofition to a wall front- 

 ing the fouth, can be adjufted. 



With thefe quadrants Le Monnier, for the fpace of forty 

 years, obferved the moon, with unwearied attention, at all 

 hours of the nighi. No perfon but a diligent aftronomer 

 can know to what inconveniences one is expoied in making 

 an uninterrupted feries of obfervations of the moon. As the 

 moon, during one revolution, may pafs the meridian at every 

 hour of the dav and the night, which is the moment for ob- 

 fervation, the aftronomer who purfues thefe obfervations niufl 

 be prepared at all hours of the day and night, and facrifice 

 fleep and every other enjoyment. 



Le Monnier was Lalande's afl:ronomical preceptor; and 

 the fcholar has, indeed, fhown himfelf worthy of the mafter. 

 The difcerning mind of Le Monnier could readily forefee in 

 young Lalande, then only fixteen, what the courfe of a little 

 time afterwards confirmed. In the twentieth year of his age 

 Lalande, on th% recommendation of his preceptor, was eletSled 

 4 Men)ber of the Royal Academy of Sciences; and in 1752, 

 on a propoful made by him, he was fent to Berlin along with 

 La Caille, who afterwards undertook a voyage to the Cape 

 of Good Hope to make cq^refponding obfervations, in order 



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