Halley, and Flamsteed, 221 
This passage is copied from a paper in Halley’s own hand- 
writing, and shows that ‘self-convicted” is the last term 
which can with propriety be applied to him. I hope that I feel 
as much as any man a deep abhorrence of irreligion, and I 
would not say a word to palliate its baneful nature; but to 
overload accusations of this kind with unsupported preju- 
dice seems to me to be the surest way of destroying their 
effect. 
That anything should have induced Newton to use harsh 
language to Flamsteed is sincerely to be deplored; but there 
are circumstances not to be neglected which may be gathered 
from Flamsteed’s own account of what passed on the 26th of 
Octeber 1711. His ironical thanks and recommendation to 
restraint of passion, were no soothers of irritation. While the 
accusation of robbery was dwelt on, it must be remembered 
that Newton was under the persuasion of Flamsteed having 
*¢ called him an atheist”; that Flamsteed, when this was men- 
tioned, left him, without the slightest notice, in error on so 
grave a point; and though he denies that he had uttered it, 
he does not deny that he had entertained the suspicion; for 
he only adds, “I hope he is none.” If Newton, under such 
provocation, had remained unmoved, he would have been not 
merely (as he was) one of the first of men, but he must have 
been more than man; if the mildness of his natural temper 
had not wholly unfitted him for personal altercation, he never 
could have used such an unappropriate appellation as ‘ puppy ’ 
—how he would have expressed himself if more familiar with 
the Janguage of reproach, I am unwilling to inquire. 
When Newton called for the catalogue of stars, ** It would 
neither be prudent nor safe,” Flamsteed said, “to trust a copy 
of them out of my own keeping. He [Newton] answered, 
‘that I might put them into his hands sealed up; whereby I 
understood they were to be so kept by him till I had finished 
the whole, and was ready to print it.” Here then was no 
** solemn pledge”; not even any express conditions or precise 
explanation are said to have accompanied the delivery. Now 
Newton’s undoubted object was to secure the publication of 
the catalogue, and as Flamsteed had taken his own view for 
himself, Newton may, on his side, have understood that the 
precaution of the seal was only to make the papers “safe” 
until the time came for printing them. There are difficulties 
about the story of this seal being broken, for it is told (I do 
not mean intentionally) without sufficient precision. Every 
honest mind revolts against a breach of trust; but we ought to 
be well convinced of the character of the act and of the crimi- 
nality of the person against whom it is alleged, before we pour 
