SEQUEL TO THE EPOCH OF NEWTON. 201 



dwelt upon as a matter of importance in our aca- 

 demic teaching. At any rate, if they were brought 

 among us, they were soon dissipated. Newton's 

 college, and his university, exulted in his fame, 

 and did their utmost to honour and aid him. He 

 was exempted by the king from the obligation of 

 taking orders, under which the fellows of Trinity 

 College in general are ; by his college he was re- 

 lieved from all offices which might interfere, how- 

 ever slightly, with his studious employments, though 

 he resided within the walls of the society thirty- 

 five years, almost without the interruption of a 

 mouth 2 . By the University he was elected their 

 representative in parliament in 1688, and again in 

 1701 ; and though he was rejected in the dissolu- 

 tion in 1705, those who opposed him acknowledged 

 him 3 to be "the glory of the University and na- 

 tion," but considered the question as a political 

 one, and Newton as sent "to tempt them from 

 their duty, by the great and just veneration they 

 had for him." Instruments and other memorials, 

 valued because they belonged to him, are still pre- 

 served in his college, along with the tradition of 

 the chambers which he occupied. 



* I infer this from the fact that his name is nowhere found 

 on the college-books, as appointed to any of the offices which 

 usually pass down the list of resident fellows in rotation. The 

 constancy of his residence in college appears from the exit and 

 rcdil book of that time, which is still preserved. 



3 A pamphlet by Styan Thurlby. 



