satellites; but, by reason of the length of telescopes requisite to observe them, and the motion of a ship at sea, those eclipses cannot yet be there observed. 3. A third is by the place of the moon; but her theory is not yet exact for that purpose; it is exact enough to determine the longitude within two or three degrees, but not within a degree. ❝ 4. A fourth is Mr. Ditton's project, and this is rather for keeping an account of the longitude at sea, than for finding it, if at any time it should be lost, as it may easily be in cloudy weather. How far this is practicable, and with what charge, they that are skilled in sea affairs are best able to judge. In sailing by this method, whenever they are to pass over very deep seas, they must sail due east or west; they must first sail into the latitude of the next place to which they are going beyond it, and then keep due east or west, till they come at that place. In the three first three ways there must be a watch regulated by a spring, and rectified every visible sunrise and sunset, to tell the hour of the day or night. In the fourth way such a watch is not necessary. In the first way there must be two watches, this and the other above mentioned. In any of the three first ways, it may be of some service to find the longitude within a degree, and of much more service to find it within forty minutes, or half a degree if it may be, and the success may deserve rewards accordingly. In the fourth way, it is easier to enable seamen to know their distance and bearing from the shore, 40, 60, or 80 miles off, than to cross the seas; and some part of the reward may be given, when the first is performed on the coast of Great Britain, for the safety of ships coming home and the rest, when seamen shall be enabled to sail to an assigned remote harbour without losing their longitude if it may be." The committee brought up their report on the 11th of June, and recommended that a bill should be intro duced into parliament for the purpose of rewarding inventions or discoveries connected with the determination of the longitude. The bill passed the House of Commons on the 3rd of July, and was agreed to by the Lords on the 8th of the same month. Mr. Whiston, in giving an account of this transaction, in his "Longitude Discovered," states that nobody understood Sir Isaac's paper, and that after sitting down he obstinately kept silence, though he was much pressed to explain himself more distinctly. At last seeing that the scheme was likely to be rejected, Whiston ventured to say that Sir Isaac did not wish to explain more through fear of compromising himself, but that he really approved of the plan. Sir Isaac, he goes on to say, repeated every word that he had said. This is the part of Newton's conduct which M. Biot has described as puerile, and "tending to confirm the fact of the aberration of his intellect in 1693." We must be satisfied with the correctness of Whiston's statement before we can admit such a censure. The paper read by Newton is perfectly plain, and we may easily understand how he might have approved of Mr. Ditton's plan as ingenious and practicable under particular circumstances, though he did not think it of that paramount importance which would have authorized the House of Commons to distinguish it by a parliamentary reward. The conflict between public duty and a disposition to promote the interests of Messrs. Whiston and Ditton, was undoubtedly the cause of that embarrassment of manner which the former of these mathematicians has so ungratefully brought before the public. CHAPTER VII. The Respect in which Newton is held at the court of George I. Princess of Wales delighted with his conversation. She obtains a manuscript copy of his system of Chronology. She allows the Abbe Conti to take a copy of it on the promise of secrecy. He publishes it surreptitiously in French. Sir Isaac's defence of his system. Theological studies of Sir Isaac. Origin of Newton's Theological studies. Analogy between the Book of Nature and that of Revelation. Minor Discoveries of Newton. His Reflecting Sextant. Reflecting Microscope. Prismatic Reflector. His method of varying the Magnifying power of Newtonian Telescopes. His Experiments on Impressions on the Retina. SIR ISAAC NEWTON became an object of interest at the British court on the accession of George I., to the throne of these dominions in 1714. His high situation under government-his splendid reputation-his spotless character-and above all, his unaffected piety, attracted the attention of the Princess of Wales. This lady who possessed a highly cultivated mind, derived the greatest pleasure from conversing with Newton and corresponding with Leibnitz. In all her difficulties she applied to Sir Isaac, from whom she received that information and assistance which she had elsewhere sought in vain; and she was frequently heard to declare that she considered herself as fortunate in living at a period which enabled her to enjoy the conversation of so great a genius. But while Newton was thus esteemed by the house of Hanover, Leibnitz, his great rival, endeavoured to weaken and undermine his influence. In his correspondence with the princess he represented the Newtonian philosophy as, not only physically false, but as injurious to the interests of religion. He asserted that natural religion was rapidly declining in England, and he supported this assertion by referring to the works of Locke, and to the beautiful and pious sentiments contained in the 28th query at the end of the Optics. He represented the principles of these great men as precisely the same with those of the materialists, and thus endeavoured to degrade the character of English philosophers. These attacks of Leibnitz became subjects of conversation at court, and when they reached the ear of the king, his majesty expressed his expectation that Sir Isaac would draw up a reply. He accordingly entered the lists on the mathematical part of the con-troversy, and left the philosophical part of it to Dr. Clarke, who was more than a match for the German philosopher. The correspondence which ensued was carefully perused by the princess, and from the estimation in which Sir Isaac continued to be held we may infer that the views of the English philosopher were not very remote from her own. One day, when Sir Isaac was conversing with her royal highness on some portion of ancient history, he was led to mention to her, and to explain, his new system of chronology which he composed during his residence at Cambridge, when he was in the habit, as he himself expresses it, "of refreshing himself with history and chronology when he was weary with other studies." The princess was so much pleased with this ingenious system, that she afterwards sent a message by the Abbe Conti to Sir Isaac, requesting him to speak with her, and she, when he came, earnestly entreated him to favour her with a copy of the interesting work which contained his system of chronology. Sir Isaac informed her, that it existed merely in separate papers, which were not only in a state of confusion, but which contained a very imperfect view of the subject, and he promised, in a few days to draw up an abstract of it for her own private use, and on the condition that it should not be communicated to any other person whatever. Some time after the princess received the manuscript, she requested that the Abbe Conti might be allowed to have a copy of it. Sir Isaac granted this request, and the Abbe was informed that he received a copy of the manuscript with Sir Isaac's permission, at the princess's request, and that it was to be kept secret. The manuscript which was thus confidingly put into the hands of a foreigner, was entitled "A short Chronicle from the first Memory of Things in Europe to the Conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great." It consists of about twenty four quarto printed pages, with an introduction of four pages, in which Sir Isaac states that he "does not pretend to be exact to a year, that there may errors of five or ten years, and sometimes twenty, but not much above." The Abbe Conti kept his promise of secresy so long as he remained in England, but he no sooner reached Paris, than he communicated it to M. Freret, a learned antiquarian, who not only translated it, but drew up observations upon it for the purpose of refuting some of its principal results. Sir Isaac was unacquainted with this transaction till he was informed of it by the French bookseller, M. Cavalier, in whose hands it had been placed, who requested his leave to publish it, and charged one of his friends in London to procure Sir Isaac's answer, which was speedily given as follows: "I remember that I wrote a Chronological Index for a particular friend, on condition that it should not be communicated. As I have not seen the manuscript which you have under my name, I know not whether it be the same. That which I wrote was not all done with design to publish it. I intend not to meddle with that which hath been given you under |