68 Mechanical Philosophy, 



themselves in this branch of astronomy, M. Tries* 

 3^ECKER, of Germany, and M. Goudin, of France, 

 are entitled to peculiar honour/ 



To discover an easy and certain method of find- 

 ing the Longitude, has long been a grand deside-r 

 7'atum among astronomers and navigators. In 

 1714, an association was formed in Great-Britain, 

 under the denomination of the Board of Longitude, 

 aided by the authority and patronage of the go- 

 vernment. The exertions and the liberality of this 

 body have done honour to their age and country, 

 and in a very pleasing degree, attained their im- 

 portant object. The most approved mode of asr 

 certaining the Longitude now in use, viz. by ob- 

 serving the distance of the moon from the sun, or 

 from certain stars, though repeatedly suggested, 

 was never reduced to practice till the eighteenth 

 century. In promoting this object Dr. H ^lley 

 early distinguished himself. To him succeeded 

 several others, who formed Lunar Tables^ with a 

 view to facilitate the necessary calculations; but 

 among these, none laboured with so much success 

 as Professor Mayer, of Gottingen, whose tables 



d The attempts made by certain infidels, during the eighteenth century, 

 to derive an argument against th-e chronology of the sacred "writings, from 

 some astronomical records, said to be found in Asia, is well known ; as are 

 also the ample refutation of their reasoning, and the total disappointment 

 of their hopes, from this quarter. We have been recently informed, that 

 some of the learned men of France, connected with the late military expe- 

 dition to Egypt, assert, that in the course of their inquiries in that country, 

 they discovered astronomical records, which prove the age of the world to 

 be many thousands of years greater than the sacred history represents it. It is 

 not the part of a wise man to ansiver a matter before he heareth it, and therefore 

 until more shall be known concerning the facts stated, and the reasonings 

 employed by these men, it would be improper to attempt a discussion of the 

 subject. But the extreme fallacy to which arguments derived from sources 

 of this kind are liable, mu5t be obvious to every astronomer ; and he must 

 have little acquaintance with the history of human knowledge who does not 

 know, that assertions as bold as those in question have more than once been 

 demonstrated to be false ; that expectations as sanguine have been often 

 blasted; and that modern discoveries in science, and the observations of 

 travellers, instead of discrediting the sacred history, have uniformly tende<| 

 tp illustrate and confirm it. 



