INDUCTIVE EPOCH OF NEWTON. 193 



The magnificent and striking questions which, 

 during this period, he must have had daily rising 

 before him ; the perpetual succession of difficult 

 problems of which the solution was necessary to his 

 great object; may well have entirely occupied and 

 possessed him. "He existed only to calculate and 

 to think 26 ." Often, lost in meditation, he knew not 

 what he did, and his mind appeared to have quite 

 forgotten its connexion with the body. His servant 

 reported that, in rising in a morning, he frequently 

 sat a large portion of the day, half-dressed, on the 

 side of his bed ; and that his meals waited on the 

 table for hours before he came to take them. Even 

 with his transcendent powers, to do what he did, 

 was almost irreconcileable with the common con- 

 ditions of human life ; and required the utmost 

 devotion of thought, energy of effort, and steadiness 

 of will, the strongest character, as well as the 

 highest endowments, which belong to man. 



Newton has been so universally considered as 

 the greatest example of a natural philosopher, that 

 his moral qualities, as well as his intellect, have 

 been referred to as models of the philosophical 

 character; and those who love to think that great 

 talents are naturally associated with virtue, have 

 always dwelt with pleasure upon the views given of 

 Newton by his contemporaries; for they have uni- 

 formly represented him as candid and humble, mild 

 and good. We may take as an example of the 



28 Biot. 

 VOL. II. 



