FIG. 79. SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



NEWTON. 



ISAAC NEWTON was born at Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire, on the 

 25th December, 1642 (old style), the year in which Galileo died. 

 Newton's boyhood was remarkable for the decided taste he showed 

 for mechanical and scientific pursuits. Instead of employing his play- 

 hours in sports and games, he was making models of machinery, 

 water-clocks, and sun-dials. Until he had reached his eighteenth year 

 he attended a school at Grantham, where he showed great fondness 

 for books, and is described as " a sober, silent, thinking lad." But he 

 does not seem to have given any extraordinary attention to mathema- 

 tical study until his admission into Trinity College, Cambridge, where 

 he took up his residence in 1660. At Cambridge Newton had the 

 advantage of the instruction of Dr. Barrow as the professor of mathe- 

 matics, and here he began his studies with Euclid's "Elements," 

 Descartes' "Geometry," Kepler's "Optics," and Wallis's "Arithmetica 



180 



