328 Biographical Account of Dr. James Bradley. [May, 



his mother and his wife had been aheady interred ; for in '1744 

 he had married Susanna Peach, the daughter of a gentleman in 

 Gloucestershire, by whom he had a daughter, who survived her 

 father. 



The most striking part of his character was the most perfect 

 modesty and a sweetness of temper very uncommon in a man of 

 his lively temperament, and capable of enduring the late nights 

 and the intense application which occupied the whole of his 

 Hfe. His generosity was without bounds to those who required 

 his assistance, and he was perfectly destitute of that selfishness 

 with which literary men are so often reproached. Though he 

 spoke well, and possessed the power of communicating his ideas 

 with the most perfect clearness, he was remarkably silent, never 

 intruding his opinion, except when it was necessary so to do. 

 But when he thought that his conversation could be useful, he 

 was not sparing of it. He even induced his disciples to put 

 questions to him by the accuracy with which he answered them, 

 and by the attention which he always paid to bring himself down 

 to the level of those with whom he conversed. He was not 

 more inclined to protrude his writings than his conversation upon 

 the world. The consequence was that he published very little. 

 He was so diffident of himself that he never was satisfied with 

 his own compositions, and was induced to suppress a great 

 many which probably were highly deserving of publication. 

 Fortunately he was under the necessity as Astronomer Royal of 

 communicating his observations to the Royal Society. T)ie 

 consequence was the preservation of the immense quantity 

 \vhich he had made. 



He became celebrated almost in spite of himself. His meiit 

 alone, without any attempt on his payt to attract attention, pro- 

 duced his reputation. In this respect he furnishes a striking 

 contrast to some men of science of latter years, who have 

 employed as much art and chicanery to attract the regard of the 

 public, have caballed as much to detract from their supposed 

 rivals ; have made as great a sacrifice of truth and uprightness 

 of conduct to secure to themselves a kind of monopoly of the 

 particular science to which they had attached themselves, as if 

 they thought themselves secure of bhnding the whole of man- 

 kind, and oi' appropriating to themselves that exact share of 

 reputation which they have thought proper to claim. Fortunately 

 for the interests of science and of human nature this conduct has 

 never in a single instance been ultimately successful. The 

 cabals and the factions which have shut out the light from con- 

 temporaries gradually disappear, and when the leader of a scien- 

 tific party is subjected to the lynx-eyed scrutiny of posterity, 

 they never fail sooner or later of detecting all the false preten- 

 sions ; of discovering the vanity, the selfishness, the malignity, 

 which our man of science has displayed by his actions. The 

 consequence is, that posterity not merely reduce hira to the 



