186 Mr Baily's Account of 



cessarily slow, and he could not make much advancement in the 

 fundamental points of astronomy. It is true that he observed 

 an immense number of intermutual distances of the stars with 

 the sextant, but he was obliged to depend on Tycho's catalogue, 

 for their positions with respect to the equinoctial points, having 

 no instrument for determining such quantities. 



When this first mural arc was finished, Flamsteed found, as 

 I have already stated, that it was made too weak for his pur- 

 pose ; nevertheless he contrived to take with it the meridional 

 altitudes of a great number of stars ; by means of which, and 

 the intermutual^^distances taken with the sextant, he formed an 

 approximate catalogue of a few of the principal stars to serve 

 his present purpose. The reader is requested to bear this cir- 

 cumstance in mind, as it explains and justifies a part of the con- 

 duct pursued by Flamsteed towards Newton, as related in the sub- 

 sequent pages. Yet, notwithstanding all these difficulties under 

 which Flamsteed laboured, notwithstanding the obstructions thus 

 thrown in his way, the public (the scientific public of that day, 

 not the ignorant and unwary multitude, for they knew nothing 

 of the matter), were repeatedly asking " why he did not print 

 his observations .?" * Flamsteed replied very justly, that he had 

 as yet made no observations that could be turned to any valu- 

 able account, for want of the requisite instruments ; indeed, it 

 could scarcely be expected of him that he should be able to make 

 " bricks without straw." 



About this period (1684), he was presented to the living of 

 Burstow by the Lord Keeper North ; soon after which his father 

 died (1688) ; and Flamsteed, finding his income somewhat in- 

 creased by these events, resolved on expending a portion of his 

 property in constructing a new mural arc, much stronger than 

 the former. He had been assured by Lord Dartmouth, the 

 Master of the Ordnance, that whatever he laid out on this occa- 

 sion should be repaid to him ; but in this also he found himself, 

 eventually, most grievously disappointed, as he never received 

 a farthing for the moneys expended on this instrument, which 



• « Some people," says Flamsteed, " to make me uneasy, others out of a 

 sincere desire to see the happy progress of my studies, not understanding 

 amid what hard circumstances I lived, called hard upon me U> print my observa- 

 tions."— See p. 54. 



