424 Life of the Rev. John Flamsteed, [Dec. 



consequently against that one describing any parabolic line 

 as he now asserted, and will appear by his own foremen- 

 tioned letters to me. From this time till the year 1695, we 

 corresponded civilly ; especially about the years 1694 and 

 1695, when, on his repeated requests, I imparted to him 

 about 150 places of the moon deduced from observations 

 made with the mural arch, and compared with my own 

 tables, fitted to Mr. Horrocks's theory; but covenanted at 

 the same time that he should not impart them to anybody 

 without my consent. For, I told him (and he knew it very 

 well) that I had made use of an old catalogue of the fixed 

 stars, made to the beginning of the year 1686, from obser- 

 vations taken with the sextant : that I was busy now with a 

 better and more convenient instrument ; and that, as soon 

 as I had got the new catalogue, I intended, perfected, all 

 those places of the moon should be calculated over again, 

 and imparted to him : but the hopes he had of making that 

 theory his own, and the glory of restoring the moon's mo- 

 tions, would not suj9fer him to stay so long for. 



It was not a full year after but I was told that he had 

 perfected the lunar theory : and Dr. Gregory gave out 

 that there was no need for further observations ; for his 

 aumber would answer all my observations within two 

 or three minutes, or less. I had covenanted with him 

 to have his emendations first imparted to me, because 

 I imparted to him the observations from which they 

 were derived. But, his promise was overlooked or for- 

 got : at last it came to my hands. I found the solar 

 numbers were the same I had freely given him : and the 

 lunar but little altered ; save that he had added a parcel of 

 very small equations which, whether the heavens would 

 bear or not, was only to be found by comparing his numbers 

 with good observations. I therefore made new lunar tables 

 exactly agreeable to his sentiment : but when I compared 

 the moon's places, calculated from them, with her places 

 deduced from the observations, I found that those numbers 

 which were said to agree with the observations within two 

 or three minutes, would very seldom come so near, but 

 often differed 7, 9, or 10 minutes; which I did not admire 

 then at all, being very sensible that the persons who so 

 loudly on all occasions cried up his performances in amend- 



