RECORDS 



OF 



GENERAL SCIENCE, 



NOVEMBER, 1835. 



Article I. 



Life of the Rev. John Flamsteed, First Astronomer- Roy aL 

 Written hy himself^ 



God suffers not man to be idle, although he swim in the 

 midst of delights ; for when He had placed His own image 

 (Adam) in a paradise so replenished (of his goodness) with 

 varieties of all things, conducing as well to his pleasure as 

 sustenance, that the earth produced of itself things conve- 

 nient for both, — He yet (to keep him out of idleness) com- 

 mands him to till, prune, and dress his pleasant verdant 

 habitation ; and to add (if it might be) some lustre, grace, 

 or conveniency to that place which, as well as he, derived 

 its original from his Creator. We may suppose man, in his 

 innocency, did strictly prosecute the just injunctions of his 

 Divine Creator ; and Scripture shows us that he did retain 

 the pleasure of this gorgeous habitation, till, striving to 

 equal his Creator in knowledge, he lost the pleasure of his 

 paradise, together with the presential knowledge of his 



* This auto-biography is extracted from an unpublished work entitled, " An 

 Account of the Rev. John Flamsteed, the First Astronomer Royal, compiled from 

 his own Manuscripts, and other authentic Documents, never before published, 

 to which is added, his British Catalogue of Stars, corrected and enlarged. By 

 Francis Baily, Esq." &c., 4to. 1835. " Printed by order of the Lords Commis- 

 sioners of the Admiralty." The Editor observes that the whole of the text is 

 printed verbatim and literatim from Flamsteed's Manuscripts, except as to the 

 orthograpyh. 



VOL. II. Y 



