an Autograph Manuscript by Sir Isaac Newton. 75 



NEWTON'S letters to LOCKE, some years before they were pub- 

 lished, saw nothing in them but " a humility and candour 

 worthy of himself," and " an ingenuous and almost infantine 

 simplicity." And, with respect to the opinion which NEWTON 

 acknowledges he had entertained as to the tendency of LOCKE'S 

 reasonings against innate ideas, Mr STEWART states, that he 

 appears to have felt precisely in the same manner with Lord 

 SHAFTESBURY, the author of the Characteristics, who, in his re- 

 marks on this subject, appears to Mr STEWART " to place the 

 question about innate ideas upon the right and only philosophical 

 footing ; and to afford a key to all the confusion running through 

 LOCKE'S argument against their existence*." 



That LOCKE, who was intimately acquainted with NEWTON 

 at the period of 1693, as well as for several years before and many 

 afterwards, saw nothing in his conduct or correspondence to in- 

 duce him to infer that he was at that time labouring under any 

 degree of mental derangement, is evident from his requesting 

 NEWTON, as a favour, to point out those passages in his essay 

 which had appeared to him objectionable on account of their 

 tendency, in order that he might correct them and explain him- 

 self better. Had there been any reasonable foundation for the 

 charge of insanity, it is not likely that it would have escaped the 

 penetration of so attentive and accurate an observer of the hu- 

 man intellect. 



The publication of NEWTON'S correspondence with LOCKE, 

 throws further light also on the period of his life at which he 

 turned his attention particularly to theology and the study of the 

 Scriptures. It appears clearly from NEWTON'S letters, that they 



* Dissertation on the Progress of Metaphysical, Ethical, and Political Philo- 

 sophy, Part II. p. 31 Supplement to Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. V. Part I. 



