Halley was wise enough to spare no pains to derive all possible
advantages from his intercourse with the distinguished savants of the
French capital. In the further progress of his tour he visited the
principal cities of the Continent, leaving behind him everywhere the
memory of an amiable disposition and of a rare intelligence.
After Halley's return to England, in 1682, he married a young lady
named Mary Tooke, with whom he lived happily, till her death
fifty-five years later. On his marriage, he took up his abode in
Islington, where he erected his instruments and recommenced his
observations.
It has often been the good fortune of astronomers to render practical
services to humanity by their investigations, and Halley's
achievements in this respect deserve to be noted. A few years after
he had settled in England, he published an important paper on the
variation of the magnetic compass, for so the departure of the needle
from the true north is termed. This subject had indeed early engaged
his attention, and he continued to feel much interest in it up to the
end of his life. With respect to his labours in this direction, Sir
John Herschel says: "To Halley we owe the first appreciation of the
real complexity of the subject of magnetism.
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