302 NOTES TO BOOK VII. 



Isaac Newtoris Discoveries, published in 1748. This is 

 still one of the best books on the subject. 



The late Professor RigaucT s Historical Essay on the 

 First Publication of Sir Isaac Newton's ' Principia" (Oxf. 

 1838) contains a careful and candid view of the circum- 

 stances of that event. 



(i.) p. 204. In the first Edition I had spoken of 

 Flamsteed as having ultimately rejected Newton's theory, 

 declaring in 1714 to his correspondent Abraham Sharp, 

 " I have determined to lay these crotchets of Sir I. 

 Newton's wholly aside."" And I had given as the reason 

 of this, that Flamsteed, though a good observer, was no 

 philosopher; could never understand by a Theory any- 

 thing more than a Formula which should predict results ; 

 and was incapable of comprehending the object of New- 

 ton's Theory, which was to assign causes as well as rules, 

 and to satisfy the conditions of Mechanics as well as 

 Geometry. 



I do not see any reason to retract what was thus 

 said ; but it ought perhaps to be noticed that On these 

 very accounts Flamsteed's rejection of Newton's rules did 

 not imply a denial of the doctrine of gravitation. In the 

 letter above quoted, Flamsteed says that he has been 

 employed upon the Moon, and that " The heavens reject 

 that equation of Sir I. Newton which Gregory and New- 

 ton called his sixth : I had then [when he wrote before] 

 compared but 72 of my observations with the tables, now 

 I have examined above 100 more. I find them all firm 

 in the same, and the seventh too." And thereupon he 

 comes to the determination above stated. 



At an earlier period Flamsteed had received Newton's 

 suggestions with great deference, and had regulated his 



