OF ARTS AND SCIENCES : JUNE 9, 1868. 41 



The literary labors of Brewster lose their importance, only in com- 

 parison with his scientific discoveries. In 1807, Brewster became 

 editor of the " Edinburgh Encyclopaedia," which he dedicated to his col- 

 lege friend, Lord Brougham. To write what he did for it himself, and 

 marshal into order the other one hundred and fifty contributors to its 

 eighteen volumes, was his principal occupation for twenty years of his 

 life. Between the years 1819 and 1824 he edited, with Professor 

 Jameson, ten volumes of the " Edinburgh Philosophical Journal " ; be- 

 tween the years 1824 and 1829 he edited, single-handed, ten volumes of 

 the " Edinburgh Journal of Science." From 1832 to the time of his 

 death he was one of the editors of the " London and Edinburgh Philo- 

 sophical Magazine and Journal of Science." In 1811 he edited a 

 new edition of Ferguson's Astronomy, and in 1837 he published a 

 Treatise on Magnetism, which he had written for the seventh edition 

 of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Add to these labors his little work 

 on the Stereoscope, and the two editions of another little work on 

 the Kaleidoscope, his Treatise on New Philosophical Instruments, 

 a Treatise on the Microscope, a volume on Optics which was pub- 

 lished in Lardner's Cyclopaedia, his Letters on Natural Magic, his 

 Martyrs of Science, his Essay on the Plurality of Worlds, his 

 Life of Sir Isaac Newton, published in the Family Library, to say 

 nothing of his numerous contributions to the Edinburgh Quarterly 

 and North British Reviews, and the wonder is that he found any 

 leisure for his scientific pursuits. 



The reflections cast upon Newton by the astronomer Baily, in his 

 Life of Flamsteed, reanimated the spirit of Brewster, never too ready 

 to succumb to his antagonists. He obtained valuable manuscript ma- 

 terials from Lord Portsmouth, brooded over the subject for more than 

 twenty years, and in 1855 published a greatly enlarged work, in two 

 volumes, under the new title of " Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and 

 Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton." Of which a critic, none too 

 friendly, in the London Athenaeum, has said : " This work, with all its 

 faults, is a noble monument to Newton's memory and a pillar of fame 

 to the writer." And in the recent struggle to divide with Pascal the 

 honors of the discoverer of universal gravitation, who can doubt which 

 side Brewster took, or be surprised that the venerable survivor of 

 many hard-fought battles entered into the conflict with all the vigor 

 of youth ? 



The title of one of Brewster's recent publications, " More Worlds 



VOL. VIII. 6 



