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Biographical Account of 



[June, 



to study tliem, and acquired in a few months the elements of 

 geometry and algebra. This first success was the earnest of what 

 he could not avoid obtaining by reading the principal treatises on 

 astronomy and the higher analysis, with which he employed 

 himself habitually. At this time he went to Cambridge, and 

 entered first into Catherine's Hall, and afterwards into Trinity 

 College, where he received with eclat the title of Bachelor of Arts, 



In 1755 he accepted of a curacy in. the neighbourhood of 

 London, where he resided for some years, employing the whole 

 of his leisure time in his favourite study. About this period he 

 connected himself with the great astronomer Bradley, for whom 

 it appears he made different calculations of importance. In 

 1758 he became Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the 

 next year he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. 



But it was in the year \^Q\ that his real astronomical career 

 began, when he was chosen to go to the island of St. Helena, to 

 observe the transit of Venus over the sun's disk. To render this 

 voyage the more useful he offered to the Royal Society to make 

 observations on the parallax of Sirius. This beautiful star had 

 been often observed by La Caille at the Cape of Good Hope. 

 Dr. Maskelyne, from calculating these observations, thought he 

 saw proofs for the existence of a parallax of from which it 



would result that Sirius is not nearly so far distant from the earth 

 as was commonly imagined. But while he did full justice to our 

 celebrated astronomer [La Caille], he observed that these obser- 

 vations made with another object in view, were neither suffi- 

 ciently numerous, nor made in circumstances sufficiently favour- 

 able, to determine the point with exactness; and that the 

 variations which we remark in these observations, though pretty 

 regular in general, might however proceed, in part at least, 

 from inevital)le errors of observation. 



The Abbe de la Caille, being informed of the project of 

 Maskelyne, wrote to Warton, their common friend, to recom- 

 mend the transit of the moon over the meridian to verify like- 

 wise the parallax of that luminary, which he had himself deter- 

 mined at the Cape of Good Hope with so much care and success. 

 He sent him at the same time a note of the observations which 

 be thought useful; thus giving a striking proof of that love for 

 truth to which he sacrificed on all occasions his time, his repose, 

 and even bis self-partiality. 



Dr. Maskelyne on his side took similar precautions, and 

 without knowing that he was anticipated, sent a note to the 

 French astronomers containing the observations which he recom- 

 mended them to make, as La Caille had done eight years before. 



Clouds prevented the observation of the transit of Venus, 

 which had given occasion to the voyage; but Maskelyne, fur- 

 nished with an excellent pendulum of yhelton, which had been 



