NKUTON NEW YEAR'S DAY. 



In 1687, Newton was one of the delegates sent by 

 the university of Cambridge, to maintain its rights 

 before the high commission court, when they were 

 attacked by James II., and, in 1688, was elected, by 

 the university, to the convention parliament, but 

 never distinguished himself in that body. He had 

 always taken great interest in chemistry, and occu- 

 pied himself occasionally with experiments in that 

 science. He had constructed a small laboratory for 

 prosecuting his investigations, and seems, after the 

 publication of the Principle, to have devoted almost 

 his whole time to them. One morning (1692), he 

 had accidentally shut up his little pet dog Diamond 

 in his room, and, on returning, found that the animal, 

 by upsetting a candle on his desk, had destroyed the 

 labours of several years. On perceiving his loss, he 

 only exclaimed, " Oh, Diamond ! Diamond ! you little 

 know the mischief you have done." But the grief 

 caused by this circumstance injured his health, and, 

 M. Biot endeavours to show, for some time impaired 

 his understanding. This fact of a derangement of 

 his intellect, according to Biot, explains why New- 

 ton, though only forty-five years old when the Prin- 

 cipia was published, never after gave to the world a 

 new work in any branch of science, and merely pub- 

 lished some which had been previously composed. 

 Doctor Brewster, however, refutes this notion. 



In 1696, he was appointed warden of the mint, a 

 general recoinage having then been undertaken. 

 In this office, he rendered essential service, and, in 

 1699, was made master of the mint. In 1701, he 

 was again returned to parliament by his university; 

 in 1 703, he was chosen president of the royal society; 

 and, in 1705, was knighted by queen Anne. In 

 1704, he gave to the world his Optics (in English; 

 translated into Latin by doctor S. Clarke), which 

 contains all his researches on light. The whole merit 

 of this extraordinary work has not been fully appre- 

 ciated till within a few years. Other works, pub- 

 lished about this time, were his Arithmetica Univer- 

 salis (1707; more complete, 1712); Methodus Dif- 

 ferentialis (1711); and his Analysis per Equationes 

 Numero Terminorum infinitas (1711). We have 

 already given an account of the celebrated dispute 

 between Newton and Leibnitz (1712), in the article 

 Leibnitz. (See the Commercium Epistolicum, or 

 Collection of Letters, published by the Royal So- 

 ciety in 1712.) The princess of Wales (daughter-in- 

 law of George I.), a woman of a cultivated mind, had 

 received Newton with great kindness, and was fond 

 of conversing with him. Newton having one day 

 explained to her a system of chronology which he 

 had composed for his amusement, she requested a 

 copy for her own use. A copy was also given, to 

 abbe Conti, who immediately published it without 

 Newton's knowledge ; and it therefore became ne- 

 cessary to prepare a more correct edition, which 

 appeared in 1728, under the title Chronology of 

 Ancient Kingdoms amended. His observations upon 

 the Prophecies of Holy Writ (1733) is an attempt to 

 show the fulfilment of the prophecies. In his Histo- 

 rical Account of two notable Corruptions of the 

 Scriptures, he discusses the two passages in the 

 Epistles of St John and St Paul, relating to the 

 Trinity, which he supposes to have been altered by 

 copyists. 



At this period of his life, the reading of religious 

 works, with the conversation of his friends, formed 

 almost his only amusement, after performing the 

 duties of his office. He had almost ceased to think 

 of science ; and, during the last ten years of his life, 

 when consulted about any passage in his works, he 

 would reply, "Ask Mr De Moivre; he knows 

 better than I do." When his friends expressed their 

 admiration of his discoveries, he said, " To myself I 



seem to have been as a child playing on the sea- 

 shore, picking np a pebble here and there, while the 

 immense ocean of truth lay unexplored before me." 

 His countenance was rather calm than expressive; 

 his manner, rather languid ; his health was good until 

 his eightieth year, when he suffered from a calculous 

 disorder, which occasioned his death March 20, 1726 

 7. His corpse lay in state, in Jerusalem chamber, 

 Westminster, and, on the 28th, was interred in West- 

 minster abbey. A monument was erected to his 

 memory, by his family, with an inscription ending 

 with these words, applicable to Newton only: Sibi 

 gratulentur mortales tale tantumque exstitisse humani 

 generis.* His statue, by Roubiliac, stands in his 

 college, at Cambridge. Horsley's edition of his 

 Works (5 vols., 4to, 1779 85), with the Opusmla, 

 collected by Castillon (3 vols., 4to, Lausanne, 1744), 

 and his letters, inserted in the Biographia Britannica, 

 contains nearly all his printed works.f Pemberton's 

 View of Newton's Philosophy (1728), and Maclaurin's 

 Account of Newton's Discoveries, are valuable 

 works. See, also, Birch's History of the Royal So- 

 ciety (vol. 3d). The best edition of the Principia is 

 that of Lesueur and Jacquier (4 vols., 4to, Geneva, 

 173942 ; 4 vols., 8vo, Glasgow, 1822). A Life of 

 Newton, by doctor Brewster, appeared in 1831. The 

 article Newton, in the Biographie Universelle, by M. 

 Biot, is very complete. The Collections for the 

 History of Grantham, with authentic Memoirs of Sir 

 Isaac Newton, contains much important matter. 



NEWTON, THOMAS, an English Theological 

 writer, born at Lichfield in 1703, was educated at 

 Trinity college, Cambridge, where he obtained a 

 fellowship. In 1744, he obtained the rectory of St 

 Mary-le-Bow, London, and, in 1745, took the degree 

 of D.D. He published an edition of the Paradise 

 Lost of Milton, with notes, and a memoir of the 

 author, in 1749 ; and he afterwards edited, in a 

 similar manner, the Paradise Regained. But his 

 literary reputation depends chiefly on his Disserta-' 

 tions on the Prophecies (1759, 3 vols., 8vo), several 

 times reprinted. In 1761, doctor Newton was made 

 bishop of Bristol, and afterwards obtained the deanery 

 of St Paul's, which he held till his death (1782.) His 

 works were published with an autobiographical me- 

 moir (2 vols., 4to). 



NEW WORLD ; a name frequently applied to 

 the Americas, not because they are supposed to have 

 been of a later origin than the eastern hemisphere, 

 or the Old World, but because they became known 

 to the Europeans at a comparatively recent date. 



NEW YEAR'S DAY ; the first day of a year. 



* Pope's epitaph on Newton is well known : 



Isaacus Newton hicjacet, 

 Quern immortalem cceli, natura., 



Tempus ostendunt, 

 Mortalem hoc marmor fatetur. 

 Nature and nil her works lay hid in night, 

 Ood said, Let Newton be, and all was light. 



f The manuscripts, letters, and other papers of Newton, 

 have been preserved in different collections. His correspondence 

 with Cotes, relative to the second edition of the Principia, and 

 amounting to between sixty and a hundred letters, a consider- 

 able portion of the manuscript of that work, and two or three 

 letters to doctor Keill, on the Leibnitzian controversy, are pre- 

 served in the library of Trinity college, Cambridge. Newton's 

 letters to Flamstead, about thirty-four in number, are deposited 

 in the library of Corpus Christ! college, Oxford. Several letters 

 of Newton, and, we believe, the original specimen which lie 

 drew up of the Principia, exist among the papers of Mr Wil- 

 liam Jones (the father of Sir William Jones), which are pre- 

 served at Shirburn castle, in tlie library of lord Macclesfield. 

 But the great mass of Newton's papers came into the possession 

 of the Portsmouth family, through his niece, lady Lymington, 

 and have been safely preserved by that noble family. There is 

 reason to believe that they contain nothing which could be pecu- 

 liarly interesting to sciencox but as the correspondence of 

 Newton with contemporary philosophers must throw consider- 

 able light on his personal history, we trust that it will, ere long, 

 be given to the public. Brewstcr's Lift; of Newton. 



