36 SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 



some of the sublimest things in nature, and was 

 henceforward to rank as one of the few master- 

 minds of science. Newton's doctrine of colors met 

 with the most bitter opposition. At last, he became 

 so tired of the controversy, that he wrote Leibnitz, 

 " I was so persecuted with discussions arising out of 

 my theory of light, that I blamed my own impru- 

 dence for parting with so substantial a blessing as 

 my quiet to run after a shadow." To another he 

 wrote, " I see I have made myself a slave to philos- 

 ophy ; but if I get free of Mr. Linus's business, I will 

 resolutely bid adieu to it eternally, excepting what I 

 do for my private satisfaction, or leave to come out 

 after me; for I see a man must either resolve 

 to put out nothing new, or to become a slave to de- 

 fend it." 



Newton was also troubled pecuniarily at this 

 time, and asked to be excused from the weekly 

 payments to the Royal Society, thereby resigning 

 his membership. He even meditated the study of 

 law, as his income was so limited. Strange that 

 so many of the great things of this life are wrought 

 out by those who are in sorrow or privation. 



But amid all the opposition to his discoveries 

 and his poverty, the unparalleled devotion to 

 study was continued. When he was weary of 

 other branches, he said " he refreshed himself with 

 history and chronology." Years afterward he pub- 

 lished the " Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms amen- 

 ded, to which is prefixed a short chronicle, from the 

 first memory of things in Europe, to the Conquest 



