BRADLEY. 



tie man well known in the learned world, 

 by many excellentastronomical and other 

 observations, and who would have enrich- 

 ed it much more, if the journals of his 

 voyages had not been burnt at Polu Con- 

 dor, \vhenthe place was set on fire, and 

 the English who were settled there cru- 

 elly massacred, Mr. Pound, himself, very 

 narrowly escaping with his life. With 

 thisgentleman,at Wanstead, Mr. Bradley, 

 passed all the time that he could spare 

 from the duties of his function ; being 

 then sufficiently acquainted with the ma. 

 thematics to improve by Mr. Pound's con- 

 versation. It may easily be imagined that 

 the example and conversation of this 

 gentleman did not render Bradley more 

 fond of his profession, to which he had 

 before no great attachment; he continued, 

 however, as yet to fulfil the duties of it, 

 though at this time he had made such 

 observations, as laid the foundation of 

 those discoveries which afterwards dis- 

 tinguished him as one of the greatest as- 

 tronomers of his age. These observa- 

 tions gained him the notice and friendship 

 of the Lord Chancellor Macclesfield, Mr. 

 Newton, afterwards Sir Isaac, Mr. Halley, 

 and of many other members of the Royal 

 Society, into which he was soon after 

 elected a member. 



Soon after, the chair of Savilian pro- 

 fessor of astronomy at Oxford became 

 vacant, by the death of the celebrate J Dr. 

 John Keil, and Mr. Bradley was elected 

 to succeed him on the 31st of October, 

 1721, at 29 years of age, his colleague 

 being Mr. Halley, who was professor of 

 geometry on the same foundation. Upon 

 this appointment, Mr. Bradley resigned 

 his church livings, and applied himself 

 wholly to the study of his favourite sci- 

 ence. In the course of his observations, 

 which were almost innumerable, he disco- 

 veredand settled the laws oftheaberration 

 of the fixed stars, from the progressive mo- 

 tion of light, combined with the earth's, 

 annual motion about the sun, and the nuta- 

 tion of the earth's axis,arising from the un- 

 equal attraction of the sun and moon on 

 the different parts of the earth. The 

 former of these effects is called the 

 " aberration" of the fixed stars, the theo- 

 ry of which he published in 1727 ? and 

 the latter, the " nutation" of the earth's 

 axis, the theory of which appeared in 

 1737 : so that, in the space of about ten 

 years, he communicated to the world two 

 of the finest discoveries in modern astro- 

 nomy, which will for ever make a memo- 

 rable epoch in the history of that science. 

 See ABERRATION and NUTATION. 



In 1730, Mr. Bradley succeeded Mr, 

 Whiteside, as lecturer in astronomy and 

 experimental philosophy in the Museum 

 at Oxford, which was a considerable 

 emolument to him, and which he held till 

 within a year or two of his death, when 

 his ill state of health induced him to re- 

 sign it. He always preserved the esteem 

 and friendship of Dr. Halley, who, be- 

 ing worn out by age and" infirmities, 

 thought he could not do better for the 

 service of astronomy, than procure for 

 Mr. Bradley the place of regius professor 

 of astronomy at Greenwich, which he 

 himself had many years possessed with 

 the greatest reputation. With this view 

 he wrote many letters, desiring Mr. Brad- 

 ley's permission to apply for a grant of 

 the reversion of it to him, and even of- 

 fered to resign it in his favour, if it should 

 be thought necessary ; but Dr. Halley 

 died before he could accomplish this kind 

 object. Dr. Bradley, however, obtained 

 the place in February, 1741-2, by the in- 

 terest of Lord Macclesfield, who was af- 

 terward president of the Royal Society, 

 and upon his appointment the University 

 of Oxford sent him a diploma of doctor of 

 divinity. 



This appointment of astronomer royal 

 at Greenwich, which was dated the third 

 of February, 1741-2, placed Mr. Bradley 

 in his proper element, and he pursued his 

 observations with unwearied diligence. 

 However numerous the collection of as- 

 tronomical instruments at that observa- 

 tory, it was impossible that such an obser- 

 ver as Dr. Bradley should not desire to 

 increase them, as well to answer those 

 particular views, as in general to make 

 observations with greater exactness. In 

 the year 1748, therefore, he took the op- 

 portunity of the visit of the Royal Society 

 to the observatory, annually made to ex- 

 amine the instruments and receive the 

 professor's observations for the year, to 

 represent so strongly the necessity of re- 

 pairing the old instruments, and provid- 

 ing new ones, that the Society thought 

 proper to make application to the king, 

 who was pleased to order one thousand 

 pounds for that purpose. This sum was 

 laid out under the direction of our author, 

 who, with the assistance of the late cele- 

 brated Mr. Graham and Mr. Bird, fur- 

 nished the observatory with as complete 

 a collection of astronomical instruments 

 as the most skilful and diligent observer 

 could desire. 



During Mr. Bradley's residence at the 

 Royal Observatory, the living of the 

 church at Greenwich became vacant, and 



