SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 



IN the same year, 1642, in which Galileo, sad 

 and blind, went away from the earth, Sir Isaac 

 Newton came to make his home upon it. 



He was born December 25, the only child of 

 Isaac Newton and Hannah Ayscough. The father 

 died at thirty-seven, a few months after his mar- 

 riage, and the young wife, after the birth of her 

 child, was both father and mother to the helpless 

 infant. He was so frail that there seemed little 

 probability that he could live to manhood, or even 

 boyhood. Naturally, between mother and son 

 there grew a most ardent affection, which neither 

 time nor death could change. 



The manor-house of Woolsthorpe in Colster- 

 worth, Lincoln county, was a two-story stone 

 building, owned for a century by the Newton fam- 

 ily, and bringing a limited income from the little 

 farm in connection with it. Here Isaac passed his 

 childhood, going to the schools near by, and learn- 

 ing to read, write, and cipher. 



At twelve, he was sent to the public school at 

 Grantham, where he showed little taste for study, 

 and managed easily to stand at the foot of his 



