144 Reviews, and Notices respecting New Books. 
We may remark, that it seems impossible to assign any meaning 
to the deposit of the sealed packet but that, 2f necessary, it was to 
be opened. The necessity did occur, for Flamsteed refused to go 
on with the printing. If the work had been allowed to be finally 
stopt, of what use was the packet ? 
«« Newton was acting as the authoritative head of a national body, 
and had, in that capacity, to repress, what must have appeared to 
him, extravagant claims and offensive behaviour.”—p. 13. 
«« Almost thirty years had elapsed during which Flamsteed pos- 
sessed the title of Astronomer Royal, and nothing had proceeded 
from the magnificent Observatory with which he was entrusted.” — 
Halley's Preface. 
In further illustration of the intellectual and moral character of 
Flamsteed, we add the following from Number cxxvz. of the Edin- 
burgh Review, just published, in which we do not find any mention of 
Mr. Whewell’s Remarks : 
“If we consider the vast progress that was made in astronomy 
from the time of Tycho, or rather Hevelius, to Bradly, and the nu- 
merous inventions and discoveries by which every branch of it was 
enriched, we can scarcely find one, either inrespect of theory, or of 
instruments, or of methods of observation or computation, to which 
he [Flamsteed] can justly lay claim. Delambre, indeed, allows him 
the merit of having been the first who practised the method of de- 
termining the place of the equinoxes from observed equal declina- 
tions of the sun; but if we except this, which, moreover, was an 
easy corollary from Picard’s then well-known method of determining 
the time from observations of equal altitudes, zt would be difficult to 
show that he made a single step in advance of his age. The cha- 
racter of his mind is more remarkable for activity, and that sort of 
sagacity which leads to practical skill, than for any of the higher 
endowments. In point of genius, his name is not to be mentioned 
with that of Newton ; he was immeasurably inferior even to his rival, 
Halley. His mathematical knowledge, even for the time, appears 
to have been extremely limited. He set no value on the physical 
speculations of Newton, and evidently never understood them. He 
sneers at his ‘ conceptions’ about gravity, calls him ‘ our great pre- 
tender,’ carps at the lunar theory, does not ‘ relish the small equa- 
tions,’ and determines ‘to lay these crotchets of Newton aside.’ On 
no occasion does he attempt to establish a principle, or refer a phe- 
nomenon to gravitation ; and he left to one of his successors the two 
most brilliant discoveries of modern astronomy, the aberration and 
nutation, though both were within his reach. In fact, he himself 
clearly pointed out the effect of the former, and even defined its 
amount ; but he mistook (in common, however, with others) the 
phenomenon for the effect of parallax, although the simplest mathe- 
matical considerations might have shown him that parallax would be 
manifested in quite a different manner. Newton suggested to him 
the importance of noticing the state of the barometer and thermo- 
meter at the time of the observations, but he neglected the good 
advice. Even in respect of instrumental accuracy he perhaps came 
rather behind than preceded the attainments of his day.”"—p. 369. 
“On the recommendation of Newton and Arbuthnot, a royal 
