122 A REMARKABLE COINCIDENCE. 



course towards the north, Bradley would probably have been 

 led to believe that the Pole exercised upon it a peculiar 

 attraction ; but he perceived that many other stars rose in 

 like manner towards the Pole with an uniform and constant 

 march; it was, therefore, more natural to suppose that the 

 Pole advanced towards them. And what strengthened the 

 probability of this hypothesis was, that the stars situated in 

 the neighbourhood of the course of the solstices exhibited a 

 corresponding displacement. But there was already recog- 

 nised as in existence a peculiar movement which explained 

 the precession of the equinoxes. Was it necessary, therefore, 

 to suppose a second, a kind of rotatory movement ? Newton 

 had already thought of it, by imagining a nutation, through 

 which the Pole might alternately rise and sink on the plane 

 of the Ecliptic in the space of a year. But the displacement 

 which occurs in that interval is too slight to be perceptible to 

 observation. There might, therefore, be a reasonable doubt 

 of the accuracy of Newton's idea. 



Bradley resumed the idea of his illustrious compatriot. He 

 recognised in the northward movement of the stars the effect 

 of a similar rotation, but one which took much longer in its 

 accomplishment. By doubling the interval of nine years, to 

 the term of which he had seen the movement become sta- 

 tionary, he obtained a period nearly approaching that which 

 the moon employs in returning to the same nodes. This 

 coincidence flashed upon him like a ray of light. 



We must here remind the reader, who, we hope, is not 



