SEQUEL TO THE EPOCH OF NEWTON. 221 



solved the problem by the aid of his analysis in 

 1745 13 , and published Tables of the Moon in 1746. 

 His tables were not very accurate at first w ; but he, 

 D'Alembert, and Clairaut, continued to labour at 

 this object, and the two latter published Tables of 

 the Moon in 1754 15 . Finally, Tobias Mayer, an 

 astronomer of Gottingen, having compared Euler's 

 tables with observations, corrected them so suc- 

 cessfully, that in 1753 he published Tables of the 

 Moon, which really did possess the accuracy which 

 Halley only flattered himself that he had attained. 

 Mayer's success in his first Tables encouraged him 

 to make them still more perfect. He applied him- 

 self to the mechanical theory of the moon's orbit ; 

 corrected all the coefficients of the series by a great 

 number of observations ; and, in 1755, sent his new 

 Tables to London as worthy to claim the prize offered 

 for the discovery of longitude. He died soon after 

 (in 1762,) at the early age of thirty-nine, worn out 

 by his incessant labours; and his widow sent to 

 London a copy of his Tables with additional cor- 

 rections. These Tables were committed to Bradley, 

 then Astronomer Royal, in order to be compared 

 with observation. Bradley laboured at this task 

 with unremitting zeal and industry, having himself 

 long entertained hopes that the lunar method of 

 finding the longitude might be brought into general 

 use. He and his assistant, Gael Morris, introduced 



13 Lai. 1460. l4 Bradley's Correspondence. 



15 Lai. 1460. 



