37 8 TRAVELS 
that the board of longitude in London propofed a prize of five 
“ thoufand pounds (or thirty-three thoufand three hundred and 
“ thirty-three rix dollars, more or lefs) to whomfoever fhould 
“ conftrud: new tables of the moon, deduced from the principle 
se of univerfal gravitation ; the errors of which ffiould be within 
“ the limits of fifteen feconds, more or lefs. But the moft fcru- 
“ pulous accuracy in the tables of the moon would completely 
“• fail of its objedt, fo long as the tables on the effects of the pa- 
“ rallax are not proportionably exadt. It was, among other mo- 
“ tives, chiefly to remedy this defedt, that the moft celebrated 
i( focieties all over Europe, and particularly the royal academy of 
“ Paris, after the attention of the learned had been called to this 
“ objetft by Huygens, confidered it as one of the moft facred du- 
4 ‘ ties they could perform for the good of humanity, to clear up 
this difficult point in mathematical cofmography. For this pur- 
i( pofe meafurements of degrees of the meridian have been planned 
“ and executed at different times, and in different places ; which 
i( when properly examined, in fadt give a concurrent teftimony 
“ that the earth is a fpheroid, oblate, or flattened towards the 
“ poles; but differ however in this, that when you compare them 
“ two and two, and fuppofe that the earth is generated by the 
“ revolution of an ellipfis round its ffiort axis, you conftantly ob- 
“ tain different values for the eccentricity of the generating 
“ ellipfis. This is the true reafon why philofophers have fufpedted 
“ that this furface, ]ft, is not a fpheroid, or other furface of the 
“ fecond order; 2dly, that it is not a figure that is the refult of 
i( revolutions; 
