Society in 1761. In the same year, November 30, he was struck by apoplexy, while attentively engaged in reading Clairaut's Theory of the Moon, which had then just appeared. He died in a few hours afterwards, in the fifty-sixth year of his age. His son Peter Dollond, already mentioned, continued the business in partnership with a younger brother; and it is now most ably carried on by his daughter's son, who has, by permission, assumed the name of Dollond.

The following extract is from the memoir written by Dr. Kelly, in which we find nothing to regret, except that so few traits of character are related in it. Those who write memoirs of remarkable men from personal knowledge should remember that details of their habits and conversation will be much more valuable to posterity, than disquisitions upon their scientific labours and discussions, which, coming from the pens of friends or relations, will always be looked upon as ex parte statements. Had the learned author borne this in mind, we should have been able to give a better personal account of Dollond than the following; which is absolutely the only information relative to his private character which we can now obtain. "He was now content with private devotion, as he was always an advocate for social worship; and with his family regularly attended the public service of the French Protestant church, and occasionally heard Benson and Lardner, whom he respected as men, and admired as preachers. In his appearance he was grave, and the strong lines of his face were marked with deep thought and reflection; but in his intercourse with his family and friends he was cheerful and affectionate; and his language and sentiments are distinctly recollected as always making a strong impression on the minds of those with whom he conversed. His memory was

extraordinarily retentive, and amidst the variety of his reading he could recollect and quote the most important passages of every book which he had at any time perused.”

Or all men who have combined both astronomical theory and practice, Bradley is one of the most remarkable. In this respect, we must assign to him the first place in English history; and if we were disposed to add, in that of the world, we are convinced that no country would pretend to offer more than one candidate to dispute his claim.

James Bradley* was born in March, 1692-3, at Sherbourn in Gloucestershire. He was educated at the Grammar School of Northleach, and admitted of Baliol College, Oxford, in March 1710-11, where he proceeded to the degrees of B.A. and M.A. in the years 1714 and 1717 respectively. His mother's brother was James Pound (deceased 1724), rector of Wanstead in Essex, and known as an ob

The facts here given are entirely taken from the searching account of Bradley given by Professor Rigaud in his " Miscellaneous Works, &c. of James Bradley, Oxford, 1832."

server, particularly by the observations which he furnished to Newton, as described in the Principia. With him Bradley spent much of his younger life, and was his assistant in his astronomical pursuits; and some observations of 1718-19 on double stars are in good accordance with the relative motions which have been since established in the case of those bodies. His tables of Jupiter's satellites, on which he was employed at the same time, show that he had detected the greater part of the inequalities in their motions which have since been observed.

In 1718 he was elected fellow of the Royal Society; in 1719 he was ordained to the vicarage of Bridstow, in Monmouthshire; in the following year he received a sinecure preferment. But in 1721 he resigned these livings, on obtaining the Savilian professorship of Astronomy at Oxford, the holder of which, by the statutes, must not have any benefice. To finish what we may call the gazette of his life, he was engaged in Observation (with what results we shall presently see) both at Kew and Wanstead till 1732, when he went to reside at Oxford, having since 1729 given yearly courses of lectures on Experimental Philosophy. In 1742 he was appointed to succeed Halley as Astronomer Royal, and he held this appointment for the remainder of his life. In the same year he obtained the degree of D.D. In 1752, having refused the living of Greenwich, because he thought the duty of a pastor to be incompatible with his other studies and necessary engagements, he was presented with a pension of 2501. The last observation made by him in the observatory is dated Sept. 1, 1761; and he died July 13, 1762, at Chalford in Gloustershire, having been afflicted by various diseases for several years, and particularly by a depression of spirits, arising from the fear lest he should survive his faculties. He married in 1744

and left one daughter, who died at Greenwich in 1812.

There are now no lineal descendants of Bradley. Most of his writings, which were few in number, were published in the Philosophical Transactions. His personal merits are proved by the number of his friends, and the warmth with which they endeavoured to serve him when occasion arose, as well as by the strength of the testimonies which those who survived bore to his reputation as a man and a member of society.

We have much abridged the preceding account, in order to make room for a popular exposition of his two great discoveries-the aberration of light, and the nutation of the earth's axis. If we were to blot these discoveries out of his life, there would remain an ample stock of useful labours, fully sufficient to justify us in stating that Bradley was unequalled as an observer, and of no mean character as a philosopher. But for the latter we must refer the reader to the excellent account from which our facts have been taken, or to any history of astronomy.

The parallax of the fixed stars had been long a subject of inquiry. If a body describe a circle, and a spectator on that body be unconscious of his own motion, all other bodies will appear to describe circles parallel to that of the spectator's motion, and, absolutely speaking, equal to it; consequently, the greater the distance of the body from the spectator, the smaller will its apparent annual motion be; and it will not be circular, because the projection of the circle upon the apparent sphere of the heavens will foreshorten, and cause it to appear oval. If we suppose a star to describe an oval in the course of a year, the consequence will be that it will pass the spectator's meridian sometimes before a star in the