170 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. PT. III. 



accident. One day when he was in chapel his pet dog 

 Diamond turned over a lighted taper, which set fire to all 

 the papers ori which his work was written. When he re- 

 turned and found the charred heap it is said that he merely 

 exclaimed, ' O Diamond, Diamond ! thou little thinkest 

 the mischief thou hast done ! ' but his grief at the loss of 

 his work affected his brain, and though he recovered and 

 lived another forty years, publishing many editions of his 

 works, yet he never made any more great discoveries. 



Newton received many honours in his old age : in 1699 

 he was appointed Master of the Mint, and a member of the 

 French Royal Academy of Sciences ; in 1703 he was made 

 President of the Royal Society, and in 1705 he was knighted 

 by Queen Anne. Like all truly great men, he was modest 

 as to his own abilities, and always willing to be taught by 

 others. He felt so strongly how much we have still to 

 learn about the Universe, that he considered his own dis- 

 coveries as very trifling indeed. A short time before his 

 death he said of himself, ' I know not what the world may 

 think of my labours ; but to myself I seem to have been only 

 like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in 

 now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell 

 than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all un- 

 discovered before me/ Yet this man who spoke so humbly 

 was the discoverer of the greatest and most universal law 

 known to mankind ! He loved to seek out new laws, but he 

 was more anxious to collect facts and to make sure that he 

 was right, than eager to publish his conclusions. It was the 

 truth he loved, and not the fame which it brought. His 

 patience and perseverance were unbounded ; he was never 

 in a hurry, but turned a subject over and over in his mind 

 for years together, seizing upon every new light shed upon 

 it, and waiting patiently for more. And through all his 



