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TOC
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If any new discoveries are to be made
in astronomy, they may be expected from
this learned Jesuit; whose attention to
optical experiments for the improvement
of glasses, upon which so much depends;
and whose great number of admirable
instruments of all sorts, joined to the ex-
cellence of the climate, and the wonder-
ful sagacity he has discovered in the con-
struction of his observatory and machines,
form a concurrence of favourable cir-
cumstances, not easily to be found else-
where.
He complained very much of the si-
lence of the English astronomers, who
answer none of his letters. He was seven
months in England, and during
that time was very much with Mr. Mas-
kaline, Dr. Shepherd, Dr. Bevis, and
Dr. Maty, with whom he hoped to keep
up a correspondence. He had, indeed,
lately received from Mr. Professor Mas-
kaline the last Nautical Almanack, with
Mayer's Lunar Tables, who gave him
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