“ But it would be endless to enumerate all his valuable discoveries, then communicated to the Royal Society, and published in the Philosophical Transactions, of which for many years his pieces were the chief ornament and support, in all the sciences, astronomy, geometry, and algebra, optics and dioptrics, ballistics and artillery, speculative and experimental philosophy, natural history, antiquities, philology, and criticism; all abounding with ideas new, singular and useful. ”

“ Dr. Edmund Halley, a celebrated mathematician and astronomer, as well as one of the most eminent and useful members of the Royal Society, was born in London, An. 1656, and educated at St. Paul's School there; from whence he was sent 1673 to Queen's College, Oxford, where he chiefly applied himself to mathematics and astronomy, in which he soon distinguished himself in a remarkable manner, being only in his 19th year when he produced the above paper in the Philosophical Transactions, on the aphelia and eccentricity of the planets. ”

“ In 168O he set out on a tour through France and Italy, to establish a friendly communication among the astronomers of Europe. In Paris he completed his observations on the great comet of that year, which he had before seen in England.
He returned to England in 1681, and married a lady, with whom he lived happily for 55 years after. ”