74 DR J. C. GREGORY'S Notice concerning 



think we can be at no loss to find a satisfactory explanation 

 of these, as well as other letters he may have written during this 

 period, without having recourse to the very improbable and gra- 

 tuitous assumption of an idiopathic derangement of his intellect. 

 Not only is there no direct evidence to support this assertion, 

 but there is abundant proof that, during the alleged period of 

 his insanity, he was employed, with all his characteristic vigour 

 of mind and patient reach of thought, upon various abstruse and 

 profound investigations. Among these may be mentioned the 

 celebrated letters to Dr BENTLEY on the Existence of a Deity, 

 which, though only published in 1756, were all written in 1692 

 and 1693. 



Mr DUGALD STEWART, who had an opportunity of reading 



Street : You must not go on a Wednesday, for that is his day for being at the 

 Tower. The reason why I desire you to deliver it to him yourself is, that I would 

 fain discover the reason of his so long silence. I have several reasons to think him 

 truly my friend, but he is a nice man to deal with, and a little too apt to raise in 

 himself suspicions where there is no ground ; therefore, when you talk to him of my 

 papers, and of his opinion of them, pray do it with all the tenderness in the world, 

 and discover, if you can, why he kept them so long, and was so silent. But this 

 you must do without asking why he did so, or discovering in the least that you are 

 desirous to know. You will do well to acquaint him that you intend to see me at 

 Whitsuntide, and shall be glad to bring a letter to me from him, or any thing else 

 he will please to send ; this perhaps may quicken him, and make him despatch these 

 papers if he has not done it already. It may a little let you into the freer discourse 

 with him, if you let him know that when you have been here with me, you have 

 seen me busy on them (and the Romans too, if he mentions them, for I told him I 

 was upon them when he was here,) and have had a sight of some part of what I was 

 doing. 



" Mr NEWTON is really a very valuable man, not only for his wonderful skill in 

 mathematics, but in divinity too, and his great knowledge of the Scriptures, where- 

 in I know few his equals. And therefore pray manage the whole matter so as not 

 only to preserve me in his good opinion, but to increase me in it ; and be sure to 

 press him to nothing, but what he is forward in himself to do." 



