Mechanical Philosophy/. 61 



These companies, after devoting several years to 

 the task committed to them, and encountering nu- 

 merous difficulties in the prosecution ot it, at length 

 completed their design. The result proved to be 

 an ample confirmation of Newton's opinion ; for 

 a degree near the Pole being found to measure 

 more than one near the Equator, they necessarily 

 inferred that the polar degree must be part of a 

 larger circle.* 



At the beginning of the eighteenth century, our 

 knowledge of the Aloon was extremely defective. 

 Since that period, so many discoveries have been 

 made respecting this attendant on our earth, and 

 the laws of her motion have been so ably and dili- 

 gently investigated, that this part of astronomy 

 may now be ranked among those which are most 

 fully known and understood. For these investi- 

 gations we are indebted to Clairault, D'Alem^ 



EERT, EULER, MaYER, SiMPSON, WaLMSL\% 



Burg, Bouvard, De la Grange, De la Place, 

 and others. By the labours of these great astro- 

 nomers, the inequalities in the moon's motion 

 have been detected, ascertained, and reduced to a 

 system; accurate Lunar Tables have been formed; 

 and the theory of this satellite has been carried to 

 such a degree of perfection, that her place in the 

 heavens may be computed with a degree of preci- 

 sion, which would have been pronounced, a few 

 years ago, altogether impossible. With respect to 

 the condition and aspect of the moon's surface, 

 many important discoveries have been made, and 

 much valuable information given to the world, by 

 M. Schroeter,-^ a celebrated astronomer of Goet- 



K It is impossible to recollect the attempt by M. Bernardin de St. 

 Pierre, in h.i& Studies of Nature^ to revive the opinion of Cassini on this 

 subject without surprize. That so learned and ingenious a man should op- 

 pose such distinct mathematical demonstration, is one of those caprices of 

 respectable minds not easy to be accounted for. 



y See Selenotopographtsche FragmentCj &c. by JoHAN. HyERONTMUS 

 SCHROETER, 4t0. I79I. 



