the whole, was owing to the moon's action upon the
equatorial parts of the earth; which, I conceived, might
cause a libratory motion of the earth's axis. But as I
was unable to judge, from only nine years observations,
whether the axis would entirely recover the same
position that it had in the year 1727, I found it
necessary to continue my observations through a
whole period of the moon's nodes; at the end of
which I had the satisfaction to see, that the stars,
returned into the same position again; as if there had
been no alteration at all in the inclination of the earth's
axis; which fully convinced me that I had guessed
rightly as to the cause of the phenomena. This circumstance
proves likewise, that if there be a gradual
diminution of the obliquity of the ecliptic, it does not
arise only from an alteration in the position of the
earth's axis, but rather from some change in the plane
of the ecliptic itself; because the stars, at the end of the
period of the moon's nodes, appeared in the same
places, with respect to the equator, as they ought to
have done, if the earth's axis had retained the same
inclination to an invariable plane."[2]


FRENCH ASTRONOMERS

Meanwhile, astronomers across the channel were by
no means idle. In France several successful observers
were making many additions to the already long list
of observations of the first astronomer of the Royal