Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/236

NO. 1. during those thirteen days, The Author is induced to remark here, that in such of Dr. Maskelyne's works as he has seen, that distinguished Astronomer invariably argues as if he concealed from himself that the laws of nature interpose insurmountable obstacles to the Mariner two-thirds of his time, that would avail himself of the Moon, with the assistance of the tables, compiled for his use. Even under other circumstances, the agitation of the ship, or succession of cloudy nights, may disappoint the most enthusiastic ardour after the object sought. A common answer resulting from which untoward combination, when the Gentlemen of the Navy are questioned on the subject, is, that "the Moon may be depended on nine days out of the twenty-eight, if the weather is clear and the ship steady"—reservations which amount almost to a nullity.—How could it be supposed that so ordinary a case as that of a ship taking her departure from Portsmouth for Madeira, when the Moon is at the full, and expecting to arrive in a fortnight, would be overlooked by any dispassionate enquirer, even admitting that we are all of us "disposed to exalt in estimation what has engrossed much of our time and more of our labour, like the man on whom Alexander of Macedon bestowed a basket of peas, because he could throw them from a distance through the eye of a bodkin, or some such implement, without missing; and who no doubt thought his method could not be too much prized on account of its difficulty. Yet in 1818, Mr. Croker, who had not the same professional bias as Dr. Maskelyne and Co., is found volunteering on the same side of the question. After adverting to "a Frenchman, of the name of Meran, in the time of Lewis XIII. having first hit on the idea of lunar observations" thus applied; and the failure of this method, for want of the tables which were afterwards invented, he continues—"that though it was originally thrown aside, as not likely to lead to a successful result, it was now relied on with the greatest confidence." we must depend upon observations of the Moon and stars, and upon a