It
has, indeed, been alleged that some serious cause of estrangement
arose between them. There is, however, no satisfactory ground for
this statement; indeed, it may be regarded as effectually disposed of
by the fact that, in the year 1727, Halley took up the defence of his
friend, and wrote two learned papers in support of Newton's "System
of Chronology," which had been seriously attacked by a certain
ecclesiastic. It is quite evident to any one who has studied these
papers that Halley's friendship for Newton was as ardent as ever.
The generous zeal with which Halley adopted and defended the
doctrines of Newton with regard to the movements of the celestial
bodies was presently rewarded by a brilliant discovery, which has
more than any of his other researches rendered his name a familiar
one to astronomers. Newton, having explained the movement of the
planets, was naturally led to turn his attention to comets. He
perceived that their journeyings could be completely accounted for as
consequences of the attraction of the sun, and he laid down the
principles by which the orbit of a comet could be determined,
provided that observations of its positions were obtained at three
different dates. The importance of these principles was by no one
more quickly recognised than by Halley, who saw at once that it
provided the means of detecting something like order in the movements
of these strange wanderers.
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