We hardly know whether to admire more the sublime discoveries at
which he arrived, or the extraordinary character of the intellectual
processes by which those discoveries were reached. Viewed from
either standpoint, Newton's "Principia" is incomparably the greatest
work on science that has ever yet been produced.
[PLATE: SIR ISAAC NEWTON'S SUN-DIAL IN THE ROYAL SOCIETY.]
FLAMSTEED.
Among the manuscripts preserved at Greenwich Observatory are certain
documents in which Flamsteed gives an account of his own life. We
may commence our sketch by quoting the following passage from this
autobiography:--"To keep myself from idleness, and to recreate
myself, I have intended here to give some account of my life, in my
youth, before the actions thereof, and the providences of God
therein, be too far passed out of my memory; and to observe the
accidents of all my years, and inclinations of my mind, that
whosoever may light upon these papers may see I was not so wholly
taken up, either with my father's business or my mathematics, but
that I both admitted and found time for other as weighty
considerations."
The chief interest which attaches to the name of Flamsteed arises
from the fact that he was the first of the illustrious series of
Astronomers Royal who have presided over Greenwich Observatory.
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