C H ] 
50" of Preceflion would caufc * and it continued to 
diminifh. till the Year 1736. when the Moon's 
Attending Node was about the Beginning of Libra, 
and her Orbit had the leaf Inclination to the Equa- 
tor. But by this time, tome of the Stars near the 
Solftitial Colure had altered their Declinations 18" 
lefsy fince the Year 1727. than they ought to have 
done from a Piecettion of 5 o ", For y^Draconis, 
which in thofe nine Years fhould have gone about 
S" more Southerly , was obferved in 1 736. to appear 
10" more Northerly , than it did in the Year 1727. 
As this Appearance in y 'Draconis, indicated a Di- 
minution of the Inclination of the Earth's Axis to 
the Plane of the Ecliptic; and as feveral Attrono* 
mers have fuppofed that Inclination to diminifh re- 
gularly } if this Phenomenon depended upon fuch a 
Caufe, and amounted to 18" in nine Years, theObli- 
quity of the Ecliptic would, at that rate, alter a whole 
Minute in thirty Years j which is much fatter than any 
Obfervations, before made, would allow. I had Reafon 
therefore to think, that fome Part of this Motion 
at the lead, if not the Whole , was owing to the 
Moon's ACtion upon the Equatorial Parts of the 
Earth ; which I conceived, might caufe a libratory 
Motion of the Earth's Axis. But as I was unable to 
judge, from only nine Years Obfervations, whether 
the Axis would entirely recover the fame Pofition, 
that it had in the Year 1727. I found it neceflary to 
continue my Obfervations thro' a whole Period of 
the Moon's Nodes; at the End of which I had the 
Satisfaction to fee, that the Stars returned into the 
fame Pofttions again; as if there had been no Al- 
teration at all in the Inclination of the Earth’s Axis : 
which 
3 
