LITTLE this scientist and philosopher par excellence had to 

 JOURNEYS moisten his diploma at the tavern for the benefit of good 



fellows who little guessed with whom they drank. 

 He also had " poor relation " come to visit him ; and it 

 is significant that while there are various items show- 

 ing where he lost money at cards, there are no refer- 

 ences to any money won at the same business, from 

 which we infer that while there was no one at Cam- 

 bridge who could follow him in his studies, there yet 

 were those who could deal themselves better hands 

 when it came to the pasteboards. 



Evidently he got discouraged at playing cards, for after 

 the year 1668, there are no more items of "treating at 

 the tavern" or "lost at cards." The boys had tried to 

 educate him, but had not succeeded. In card exploi- 

 tation he fell a victim of arrested development. 

 I suppose it -will not cause any one a shock to be told 

 that " the greatest original thinker of all time ' was 

 not exactly a perfect man. So let the truth be known 

 that throughout his life, Newton had a well-defined 

 strain of superstition running through his character. He 

 never quite relinquished the idea of transmutation of 

 metals, and at times astrology was quite as interest- 

 ing to him as astronomy. 



In writing to a friend who was about to pay a visit to the 

 mines of Hungary he says: " Examine most carefully 

 and ascertain just how and under what conditions na- 

 ture transforms iron into copper and copper into silver 

 and gold." 



In his laboratory he had specimens of iron ore that 

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