Correspondence and papers of Edmond Halley : preceded by an unpublished memoir of his life by one of his contemporaries and the 'Éloge' / by D'Ortous de Mairan; arranged and edited by Eugene Fairfield MacPike.

Edmond Halley

Date:: [1937]

Credit: Correspondence and papers of Edmond Halley : preceded by an unpublished memoir of his life by one of his contemporaries and the 'Éloge' / by D'Ortous de Mairan; arranged and edited by Eugene Fairfield MacPike. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$him with great Joy and respect; and they Fell to observing the same Evening. Mr. Halley stay’d at Dantzic ’till near the End of July;1 was present at a very great many of Hevelius’s observations; and has done great Justice to that worthy Person’s care and Exactness, as well as to the goodness of his Instruments, which he found to per¬ form, far beyond what he thought possible to be done with plain sights only. He show’d Mr. Hevelius the Uses and Conveniencys of the Telescopic sights; but the old Gentleman was too much rivitted to his Opinion, of those he had so long and so successfully used; and had besides been too much sour’d by the manner in which Dr. Hooke had too freely treated his Labours, to think of altering his method or opinion; as appears from what he has said in his Annus Climactericus,2 which Contains the account of this years observations : He was nevertheless highly pleased with this visit, and satisfy’d with the Justice Mr. Halley had done him, whom he stiles in the just mention’d work, Hospitem gratissimum^ Virum integerrimum et veritatis amantissimum. It was a few weeks after Mr. Halleys departure, the 16 of the following September, that that dreadfull Fire3 happen’d, in which Mr. Hevelius’s Observatory, with his whole Library, and all his instruments, in which he had expended so vast a sum, together with his dwelling house, several others, and almost all that belong’d to him, were in the most calamitous manner totally destroyed.4 The next year, Mr. Halley having a mind to make the Tour of France and Italy, and to converse with the Eminent Astronomers and other Learned Men of those parts, set out for Paris,5 on the ist of December 1680, in Company with Mr. Nelson, well known by his religious writings: and I remember to have heard him say, he was on the road between Calais and Paris,6 when he first saw the 1 Halley’s letter to Hevelius, after the conclusion of their joint observations, was dated ‘Gedani, Julij 8/18, 1679’, (See p. 44). A letter from Halley dated Oxford, Nov. 16, 1679, to John Aubrey (see p. 47), shows that he had returned into England before that date. In fact, Robert Hooke, in the folio journal before mentioned, records, under date Thursday, August 14, 1679, ‘Hally returnd this day from Dantzick’. (See ‘Extracts from Hooke’s MS. Diaries’ in Appendix III.) 2 Hevelius, Johannes: Annus Climactericus, Gedani, 1685; reviewed by Dr. John Wallis, in Phil. Trans. (1685), vol. xv, pp. 1162-83. 3 16 Sept. 1679, °-s* The fire broke out in the night of 26 and 27 Sept. 1679, n.s., while Hevelius was at his country-seat. Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, vol. xii, p. 342, Leipzig, 1880. There was, until recently, in the library of the Royal Society, a copy of Capellus, De Incendio Heveliano, 1679, a very rare tract. Cf. Birch, Hist. Roy. Soc., vol. iii, p. 519. 4 Some particulars of the loss of instruments, books, and records appear in Phil. Trans. (1685), vol. xv, pp. 1163-4. Hevelius rebuilt his observatory and, by August 1681, had acquired new instruments, although inferior to the old {ibid., p. 1182). 5 Aubrey, Brief Lives, ed. Clark, vol. i, p. 283; and Biog. Brit., vol. iv, p. 2499. 6 Halley arrived in Paris, 24 Dec. 1680 (Weld, Charles Richard: Hist. Roy. Soc., vol. i, pp. 267-8, London, 1848).$