Note 52 — Chapter II · The Inductive Epoch of Newton.—Discovery of the Universal Gravitation of Matter, according to the Law of the Inverse Square of the Distance.

The quarrel on the subject of the publication of Flamsteed’s Observations took place at a later period. Flamsteed wished to have his Observations printed complete and entire. Halley, who, under the authority of Newton and others, had the management of the printing, made many alterations and omissions, which Flamsteed considered as deforming and spoiling the work. The advantages of publishing a complete series of observations, now generally understood, were not then known to astronomers in general, though well known to Flamsteed, and earnestly insisted upon in his remonstrances. The result was that Flamsteed published his Observations at his own expense, and finally obtained permission to destroy the copies printed by Halley, which he did. In 1726, after Flamsteed’s death, his widow applied to the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, requesting that the volume printed by Halley might be removed out of the Bodleian Library, where it exists, as being “nothing more than an erroneous abridgment of Mr. Flamsteed’s works,” and unfit to see the light.