Unknown to himself, therefore, he was called upon to decide a question that has proved fundamental to the policy of Greenwich Observatory, and he decided it wrongly--the question of publication. Newton had urged upon him as early as 1691 that he should not wait until he had formed an exhaustive catalogue of all the brighter stars, but that he should publish at once a catalogue of a few, which might serve as standards; but Flamsteed would not hear of it. He failed to see that his office had been created for a definite practical purpose, not for the execution of some great scheme, however important to science. All his work of thirty years had done nothing to forward navigation so long as he published nothing. But if, year by year, he had published the places of the moon and of a few standard stars, he would have advanced the art immensely and yet have not hindered himself from eventually bringing out a great catalogue. No doubt the little incident of Newton's difficulty with the microscope, of which he had forgotten the object-glass, had given Flamsteed a low opinion of Newton's qualifications as a practical astronomer. If so, he was wrong, for Newton's insight into practical matters was greater than Flamsteed's own, and his practical skill was no less, though his absent-mindedness might occasionally lead him into an absurd mistake. The following extract from Flamsteed's own 'brief History of the Observatory' gives an account of his view of Newton's action towards him in desiring the publication of his star catalogue, and at the same time it illustrates Flamsteed's touchy and suspicious nature.