406 



Biographical Account of 



observations tKat he made every day. It was under his direction 

 that Mason published a corrected and enlarged edition of these 

 tables, brought to perfection afterwards by Burg, and quite 

 recently by M. Burckhardt, who have had the advantage of 

 having recourse on the one hand to thousands of observations 

 made byMaskelyne, and on the other to the analytical researches 

 of Laplace, winch furnished them with equations that it would 

 have been difficult to discover among so many others, had there 

 been no other resource but that of observations. 



It was the post of Astronomer Royal, to which he was 

 appointed in I'JGb, which put it in his power to render this 

 important service to the science. The observatory is placed in 

 Greenwich Park, about six miles from London. It was in this 

 retreat that Dr. Maskelyne, for 47 years, without interruption, 

 observed the heavens, and collected an inestimable treasure, to 

 which, for these 30 years past, every one has had recourse who 

 wished to improve the tables or the theories of astronomy. For 

 it is not sufficient that an astronomer possesses sufficient courage 

 to employ all his days in calculations, after having consecrated 

 his nights to observations; he must hav^ at his disposal a situa- 

 tion and a set of instruments such as private individuals cannot 

 command, and which are only to be found in establishments 

 founded by governments. This well-known truth occasioned 

 the building of the Observatories of Paris and Greenwich almost 

 at the same time. But in these two celebrated establishments 

 an essential article was forgotten. Maskelyne first thought of 

 remedying that defect, and by that means he rendered an im- 

 portant service to science, which constitutes the principal 

 difference between the destiny of these two rival observatories. 

 There was a difference in their regulations, which could not but 

 produce very sensible effects. 



At Paris the architect w^as chiefly consulted, and at a great 

 expense a beautiful monument was constructed, but indifferently 

 suited for observations. The astronomers, all academicians, 

 formed in it a species of republic without magistrates, where 

 each was employed in labours useful indeed, but whhout any 

 general plan. The Cassinis, the Lahires, the Maraldis, pub- 

 lished from time to time their discoveries, or some interesting 

 result, but they alone were acquainted with their own observa- 

 tions, and others adopted on their word the consequences which 

 they had had time or sagacity to c'educe themselves. 



At Greenwich the building is less sumptuous, but better 

 adapted for astronomical purposes. There was only a single 

 iastronomer, with an assistant. The law which had established 

 the observatory imposed upon the astronomer the obligation to 

 observe every day the sun and the moon, and every thing which 

 could interest geography and navigation. 



