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378 TRAVELS
‘ that the board of longitude in London propofed a prize of five
«‘ thoufand. pounds (or thirty-three thoufand three hundred and
“thirty-three rx dollars, more or lefs) to whomfoever fhould
“‘ conftruct new tables of the moon, deduced from the principle
* of univerfal gravitation ; the errors of which fhould 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 object, fo long as the tables on the effects of the pa-
‘¢ rallax are not proportionably exact. It was, among other mo-
“ tives, chiefly to remedy this defeét, that the moft celebrated
‘¢ focieties all over Europe, and particularly the royal academy of
‘«‘ Paris, after the attention of the learned had been called to this
*¢ object by Huygens, confidered it as one of the moft facred du-
‘* ties they could perform for the good of humanity, to clear up
* this difficult point in mathematical cofmography. For this pur-
“¢ pofe meafurements of degrees of the meridian have been planned
‘‘ and executed at different times, and in different places ; which
‘¢ when properly examined, in fact 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 fhort axis, you conftantly ob-
“tain different values for the eccentricity of the generating
‘ ellipfis. This is the true reafon why philofophers have fufpected
‘‘ that this furface, 1ft, is not a {pheroid, or other furface of the
“ fecond order; 2dly, that it is not a figure that is the refult of
‘* revolutions ;
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