198 HISTORY OF PHYSICAL ASTRONOMY. 



immediately and zealously. Men whose pursuits 

 had lain rather in literature than in science, and 

 who had not the knowledge and habits of mind 

 which the strict study of the system required, 

 adopted, on the credit of their mathematical friends, 

 the highest estimation of the Principia, and a strong 

 regard for its author, as Evelyn, Locke, and Pepys. 

 Only five years after the publication, the principles 

 of the work were referred to from the pulpit, as so 

 incontestably proved that they might be made the 

 basis of a theological argument. This was done by 

 Dr. Bentley, when he preached the Boyle's Lectures 

 in London, in 1692. Newton himself, from the time 

 when his work appeared, is never mentioned except 

 in terms of profound admiration ; as, for instance, 

 when he is called by Dr. Bentley, in his sermon 1 , 

 " That very excellent and divine theorist, Mr. Isaac 

 Newton." It appears to have been soon suggested, 

 that the Government ought to provide in some way 

 for a person who was so great an honour to the 

 nation. Some delay took place with regard to 

 this; but, in 1695 his friend Mr. Montague, after- 

 wards earl of Halifax, at that time Chancellor 

 of the Exchequer, made him Warden of the 

 Mint; and, in 1699, he succeeded to the higher 

 office of Master of the Mint, a situation worth 

 1200/. or 1500/. a year, which he filled to the end 

 of his life. In 1703, he became President of the 

 Royal Society, and was annually re-elected to this 

 1 Serm.A'H. 221. 



