The Paths of the Comets, and the Tides of the Ocean. The different Refrangibilities of the Rays of Light, That there has existed such and so great AN ORNAMENT OF HUMAN NATURE. Born 25th Dec. 1642, Died 20th March, 1727. In the beginning of 1731, a medal was struck at the Tower in honour of Sir Isaac Newton. It had on one side the head of the philosopher, with the motto, Felix cognoscere causas, and on the reverse a figure representing the mathematics. On the 4th February, 1755, a magnificent fulllength statue of Sir Isaac Newton in white marble was erected in the antechapel of Trinity College. He is represented standing on a pedestal in a loose gown, holding a prism, and looking upwards with an expression of the deepest thought. On the pedestal is the inscription, Qui genus humanum ingenio superavit. Who surpassed all men in genius. This statue, executed by Roubiliac, was erected at the expense of Dr. Robert Smith, the author of the Compleat System of Optics, and professor of astronomy and experimental philosophy at Cambridge. -It has been thus described by a modern poet: Hark where the organ, full and clear, Absorbed in thought great Newton stands Where tints of thousand hues were stored. Dr. Smith likewise bequeathed the sum of 500%. for executing a painting on glass for the window at the south end of Trinity College, Cambridge. The subject represents the presentation of Sir Isaac Newton to his majesty George III., who is seated under a canopy with a laurel chaplet in his hand, and attended by the British Minerva, apparently advising him to reward merit in the person of the great philosopher. Below the throne, the Lord Chancellor Bacon is proposing to register the reward about to be conferred upon Sir Isaac. The original drawing of this absurd picture was executed by Cypriani, and cost one hundred guineas. The personal estate of Sir Isaac Newton, which was worth about 32,000l., was divided among his four nephews and four nieces of the half-blood, the grandchildren of his mother by the Reverend Mr. Smith. The family estates of Woolsthorpe and Sustern he bequeathed to John Newton, the heir-atlaw, whose great-grandfather was Sir Isaac's uncle. This gentleman does not seem to have sufficiently valued the bequest, for he sold them in 1732, to Edmund Turnor of Stoke Rocheford.* A short time before his death, Sir Isaac gave away an estate in Berkshire to the sons and daughter of a brother of Mrs. Conduit, who, in consequence of their father dying before Sir Isaac, had no share in the personal estate; and he also gave an estate of the same value, which he bought at Kensington, to Catharine, the only daughter of Mr. Conduit, who afterward married Mr. Wallop, the eldest son of Lord Lymington. This lady was afterward Viscountess Lymington, and the estate of Kensington descended to the late Earl of Portsmouth, by whom it was sold. Sir Isaac was succeeded as master and warden in the mint by his nephew, John Conduit, Esq., who wrote a treatise on the gold and silver coin, and who died in 1737, leaving behind him his wife and daughter, the former of whom died in 1739, in the 59th year of her age. * Turnor's Collections, &c. p. 158. See APPENDIX, p. 316. CHAPTER XIX. Permanence of Newton's Reputation-Character of his Genius-His Methods of Investigation similar to that used by Galileo-Error in ascribing his Discoveries to the Use of the Methods recommended by Lord Bacon-The Pretensions of the Baconian Philosophy examined -Sir Isaac Newton's social Character-His great Modesty-The Simplicity of his Character-His religious and moral CharacterHis Hospitality and Mode of Life-His Generosity and CharityHis Absence-His personal Appearance-Statues and Pictures of him-Memorials and Recollections of him. SUCH were the last days of Sir Isaac Newton, and such the last laurels which were shed over his grave. A century of discoveries has since his day been added to science; but brilliant. as these discoveries are, they have not obliterated the minutest of his labours, and have served only to brighten the halo which encircles his name. The achievements of genius, like the source from which they spring, are indestructible. Acts of legislation and deeds of war may confer a high celebrity, but the reputation which they bring is only local and transient; and while they are hailed by the nation which they benefit, they are reprobated by the people whom they ruin or enslave. The labours of science, on the contrary, bear along with them no counterpart of evil. They are the liberal bequests of great minds to every individual of their race, and wherever they are welcomed and honoured they become the solace of private life, and the ornament and bulwark of the commonwealth. The importance of Sir Isaac Newton's discoveries has been sufficiently exhibited in the preceding chapters: the peculiar character of his genius, and the method which he pursued in his inquiries, can be gathered only from the study of his works, and from the history of his individual labours. Were we to judge of the qualities of his mind from the early age at which he made his principal discoveries, and from the rapidity of their succession, we should be led to ascribe to him that quickness of penetration, and that exuberance of invention, which is more characteristic of poetical than of philosophical genius. But we must recollect that Newton was placed in the most favourable circumstances for the development of his powers. The flower of his youth and the vigour of his manhood were entirely devoted to science. No injudicious guardian controlled his ruling passion, and no ungenial studies or professional toils interrupted the continuity of his pursuits. His discoveries were, therefore, the fruit of persevering and unbroken study; and he himself declared, that whatever service he had done to the public was not owing to any extraordinary sagacity, but solely to industry and patient thought. Initiated early into the abstractions of geometry, he was deeply imbued with her cautious spirit; and if his acquisitions were not made with the rapidity of intuition, they were at least firmly secured; and the grasp which he took of his subject was proportional to the mental labour which it had exhausted. Overlooking what was trivial, and separating what was extraneous, he bore down with instinctive sagacity on the prominences of his subject, and having thus grappled with its difficulties, he never failed to intrench himself in its strongholds. To the highest powers of invention Newton added, what so seldom accompanies them, the talent of simplifying and communicating his profoundest speculations. In the economy of her distributions, nature is seldom thus lavish of her intellectual gifts. The inspired genius which creates is rarely con *This valuable faculty characterizes all his writings, whether theological, chyinical, or mathematical; but it is peculiarly displayed in his treatise on Universal Arithmetic, and in his Optical Lectures. ferred along with the matured judgment which combines, and yet without the exertion of both the fabric of human wisdom could never have been reared. Though a ray from heaven kindled the vestal fire, yet an humble priesthood was required to keep alive the flame. The method of investigating truth by observation and experiment, so successfully pursued in the Principia, has been ascribed by some modern writers of great celebrity to Lord Bacon; and Sir Isaac Newton is represented as having owed all his discoveries to the application of the principles of that distinguished writer. One of the greatest admirers of Lord Bacon has gone so far as to characterize him as a man who has had no rival in the times which are past, and as likely to have none in those which are to come. In a eulogy so overstrained as this, we feel that the language of panegyric has passed into that of idolatry; and we are desirous of weighing the force of arguments which tend to depose Newton from the high-priesthood of nature, and to unsettle the proud destinies of Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler. That Bacon was a man of powerful genius, and endowed with varied and profound talent,—the most skilful logician,-the most nervous and eloquent writer of the age which he adorned, are points which have been established by universal suffrage. The study of ancient systems had early impressed him with the conviction that experiment and observation were the only sure guides in physical inquiries; and, ignorant though he was of the methods, the principles, and the details of the mathematical sciences, his ambition prompted him to aim at the construction of an artificial system by which the laws of nature might be investigated, and which might direct the inquiries of philosophers in every future age. The necessity of experimental research, and of advancing gradually from the study of facts |