144 S& VENTER NTH CENTUR Y. PT. m. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



SCIENCE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY (CONTINUED). 



Newton Fluxions and differential Calculus Theory of Gravitation 

 Attraction varies inversely as the Squares of the Distance The 

 ' Principia.' 



Newton, 1642. We must now leave the living creation and 

 return to physical science, for, during all those years with 

 which we have been occupied since the time of Galileo 

 and Kepler, a boy had been growing up into manhood, who 

 was to become one of the greatest men of science that Eng- 

 land has ever known. In 1642, the same year in which 

 Galileo died, a. child was born at Woolsthorpe, near Gran- 

 tham in Lincolnshire, who was so tiny that his mother said 

 * she could put him into a quart mug.' This tiny delicate 

 baby was to become the great philosopher Newton. 



We hear of him that he was at first very idle and 

 inattentive at school, but, having been one day passed in 

 the class by one of his schoolfellows, he determined to regain 

 his place, and soon succeeded in rising to the head of them 

 all. In his play hours, when the other boys were romping, 

 he amused himself by making little mechanical toys, such as 

 a water clock, a mill turned by a mouse, a carriage moved 

 by the person who sat in it, and many other ingenious con- 

 trivances. When he was fifteen his mother sent for him 

 home to manage the farm which belonged to their estate ; 



