SIX ISAAC NEWTON. 37 



of Persia, by Alexander the Great." Says a gentle- 

 man who was with him for years, " I never knew 

 him to take any recreation or pastime, either in 

 riding out to take the air, walking, boating, or any 

 other exercise whatever, thinking all hours lost 

 that were not spent in his studies, to which he kept 

 so close that he seldom left his chamber except at 

 term time, when he read in the schools, as being 

 Lucasianus Professor, where so few went to hear 

 him, and fewer that understood him, that often- 

 times he did in a manner, for want of hearers, read 

 to the walls. . . . 



" So intent, so serious upon his studies that he 

 ate very sparingly, nay, ofttimes he has forgot 

 to eat at all, so that, going into his chamber, I have 

 found his mess untouched, of which when I have 

 reminded him he would reply, ' Have I ? ' and 

 then making to the table, would eat a bit -or two 

 standing, for I cannot say I ever saw him sit at 

 table by himself. At some seldom entertainments 

 the masters of colleges were chiefly his guests. 



" He very rarely went to bed till two or three of 

 the clock, sometimes not till five or six, lying about 

 four or five hours, especially at spring and fall of 

 the leaf, at which times he used to employ about 

 six weeks in his elaboratory, the fire scarcely going 

 out either night or day, he sitting up one night, 

 and I another, till he had finished his chemical ex- 

 periments, in the performances of which he was the 

 most accurate, strict, exact. . . ." 



When his most intense studies were carried on, 



