biographer[1] remarks, "it could not be foreseen that his astronomical labours would lead to any establishment in life, and it became necessary for him to embrace a profession." He accordingly took orders, and was fortunate enough to be presented almost at once to two livings, the duties attached to which do not seem to have interfered appreciably with the prosecution of his astronomical studies at Wansted.
In 1721 he was appointed Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, and resigned his livings. The work of the professorship appears to have been very light, and for more than ten years he continued to reside chiefly at Wansted, even after his uncle's death in 1724. In 1732 he took a house in Oxford and set up there most of his instruments, leaving, however, at Wansted the most important of all, the "zenith-sector," with which his two famous discoveries were made. Ten years afterwards Halley's death rendered the post of Astronomer Royal vacant, and Bradley received the appointment.
The work of the Observatory had been a good deal neglected by Halley during the last few years of his life, and Bradley's first care was to effect necessary repairs in the instruments. Although the equipment of the Observatory with instruments worthy of its position and of the state of science at the time was a work of years, Bradley had some of the most important instruments in good working order within a few months of his appointment, and observations were henceforward made systematically. Although the 20 remaining years of his life (1742-1762) were chiefly spent at Greenwich in the discharge of the duties of his office and in researches connected with them, he retained his professorship at Oxford, and continued to make observations at Wansted at least up till 1747.
207. The discovery of aberration resulted from an attempt to detect the parallactic displacement of stars which should result from the annual motion of the earth. Ever since the Coppernican controversy had called attention to the importance of the problem (cf. chapter iv., § 92, and chapter vi., § 129), it had naturally exerted a fascination
