The personal estate of Sir Isaac Newton, which was worth about £32,000, was divided among his four nephews and four nieces of the half-blood, the grandchildren of his mother by the Eev. Mr. Smith. The family estates of "Woolsthorpe and Sustern he bequeathed to John Newton, the heir-at-law, whose great-grandfather was Sir Isaac's uncle. This gentleman sold them in 1732 to Edmund Turnor of Stoke Rocheford. A short time before his death, Sir Isaac gave away an estate in the parish of Baydon, in Wiltshire, to the sons and daughter of a brother of Mrs. Conduitt, 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 Catherine, the only daughter of Mr. Conduitt, who afterwards married Mr. Wallop. This lady was afterwards Viscountess Lymington, and the estate of Kensington descended to the Earl of Portsmouth, by whom it was sold. Sir Isaac was succeeded as Master in the Mint by his nephew, John Conduitt, Esq., who wrote a treatise on the gold and silver coin, and died in 1737, in the 49 th year of his age. His widow, Mrs. Conduitt, erected a handsome monument to his memory in Westminster Abbey, and died in 1739, in the 59th year of her age.

CHAPTER XIX.

Permanence of Newton's Reputation—Character of his Genius —Hie Method* of Investigation timUar to that need by Galileo—Error in atcribing hie Discoveries to the Use of the Methods recommended by Lord Bacon—The Pretension* of the Baconian Philosophy examined—Sir Isaac Newton's Social Character—His great Modesty—The simplicity of his Character—His Religious and Moral Character—His Hospitality and Mode of Life—His Generosity and Charity — Hit Absence — Hit personal Appearance— Statues and Pictures of him—Memorials and Recollections of him.

Sucn were the last days of 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 aud honoured, they become CHARACTER OF HIS OENTUS.

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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 ungonial 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 entrench 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 conferred 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 a 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,

* This valuable faculty characterizes all his writings, whether theological, chemical, or mathematical; but it is peculiarly displayed in his treatise on Universal Arithmetic, tuid in his Optical Lectures.

BACONIAN PHTJLOSOPHY.

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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 to the determination of their cause, though the ground-work of Bacon's method, is a doctrine which was not only inculcated but successfully followed by preceding philosophers. In a letter from Tycho Brahc to Kepler, this industrious astronomer urges his pupil " to lay a solid foundation for his views by actual observation, and then by ascending from these to strive to reach the causes of things ;" and it was no doubt under the influence of this advice that Kepler submitted his wildest fancies to the test of observation, and was conducted to his most splendid discoveries. The reasonings of Copernicus, who preceded Bacon by more than a century, were all founded upon the most legitimate induction. Dr. Gilbert had exhibited in his Treatise on the Magnet * the most perfect specimen of physical research. Lionardo da Vinci had described in the clearest manner tho proper method of philosophical investigation; t and the whole scientific

• De Magneto, pp. 42, 52, 169, and Prof., p. 30.

f The following passages from Lionardo da Vinci are very striking:—

"Theory is the general and practice the soldiers.

"Experiment is the interpreter of the artifices of nature. It never deceives us; it is our judgment itself which sometimes deceives us, because we expect from it effects which are contrary to experiment. We must consult experiment by varying the drcumstances till we have deduced from it general laws; for it is it which furnishes true laws."

"In the study of the sciences which dopend on mathematics, those who do not consult nature, but authors, are not the children of nature; they are only her grandchildren. Nature alone is the master of true genius.

"In treating any particular subject, I would first of all make some experiments, because my design is first to refer to experiment, and then