1813.] 



the Rev, Nevll Maskehjne, 



409 



all astronomical researches. We may say of the four volumes 

 of observations that he has published, that if by any great revo- 

 lution the sciences were completely lost, and that this collection 

 was preserved, there would be found in it sufficient materials for 

 rebuilding almost the whole edifice of modern astronomy, which 

 cannot be said of any other collection ; because to the merit of 

 an exactness which has been seldom attained, and never sur- 

 passed, it adds the advantage of a long series of observations. 

 Its precision is so great that it is very improbable that much can 

 be added to it. The observations are excellent for the time in 

 which they were made, and this time is the period in which 

 they approached the nearest to perfection. They will only 

 increase in value as they increase in age, which unfortunately 

 is not true either with respect to the observations of Tycho and 

 Helvetius, or with those of Flamsteed and La Hire, which 

 when made, possessed all the exactness of which any idea could 

 be formed; but which, though not far removed from the present 

 age, never can enter into any comparison with the observations 

 of the great astronomers of the 18th century. 



Dr. Maskelyne corresponded with all the astronomers of the 

 world. To be convinced of it we have only to run over the 

 memoirs of philosophers of every nation which he presented to 

 the Royal Society. He himself did not publish quite so often as 

 could have been wished ; but it is very difficult for an astronomer 

 charged with observations to be repeated every day, and almost 

 every moment, to undertake great theoretical researches, which 

 he is under the necessity of interrupting almost every instant. 

 The writings which he has left are remarkable for just ideas and 

 an enlightened criticism. Such is a dissertation on the equation 

 of time, where he has pointed out with the requisite delicacy a 

 mistake of La Caille, and another less important mistake of 

 Lalande. If we may be permitted in our turn to find something 

 reprehensible in his formula, we will acknowledge at least that 

 the trifling negligences to be perceived in it have no sensible 

 effect, and that he allowed them to remain because they were 

 not dangerous. 



Lalande received very well the lesson which he thus got ; but 

 Bernoulli having inserted, seven years after, a translation of Dr. 

 Maskelyne's memoir in his Collection for Astronomers^ one of 

 Lalande's pupils (d'Agelet) took up the cause of his master in a 

 manner that might have produced a coldness between the parties 

 concerned. The quarrel, however, had no consequence, and 

 the two astronomers corresponded as usual. 



Some doubts were attempted to be raised respecting the lati- 

 tude and longitude of Greenwich. Dr. Maskelyne, to whom 

 the memoir was sent, showed, with his usual logic and modera- 

 tion, that the doubts v/ere improper ; but he did not oppose the 



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