SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 41 



universe, the favored lawgiver to worlds unnum- 

 bered, the high priest in the temple of boundless 

 space, was a privilege that could be granted 

 but one member of the human family; and to 

 have executed the last was an achievement which, 

 in its magnitude, can be measured only by the 

 infinite in space, and in the duration of its tri- 

 umphs by the infinite in time. That sage, that 

 lawgiver, that high priest was Newton." 



The "Principia" created the greatest interest 

 throughout Europe, but met with violent opposi- 

 tion. While Laplace said it would take " pre- 

 eminence above all the other productions of human 

 genius," the majority could not believe that great 

 planets were suspended in empty space, and re- 

 tained in their orbits by an invisible power in the 

 sun. 



When Newton presented copies to the heads of 

 colleges, some of them, Dr. Babington of Trinity 

 among the number, said, "they might study seven 

 years before they understood anything of it." 



In 1687, Newton's method of fluxions was first 

 published, twenty years after its invention, and 

 then because the friends of Leibnitz, the author 

 of the " Differential Calculus," claimed priority of 

 discovery. The quarrel aroused the scientific 

 world, embittered the silent mathematician, and 

 impaired his health. 



In 1689, when he was forty-seven, he was chosen 

 member of parliament, and represented Cambridge 

 University in the House of Commons for thirteen 



